My Infomagical Experience

This Project is a one that is assigned to me as a student which I found very interesting and fun to follow along.

The goal of the project is to get rid of Information Overload by doing different challenges each day. It is created by the Note to Self podcast team.

I found this project very helpful and I will definitely do it more often — maybe once a month.

Follow along my experience being Infomagical

Today’s Challenge: Go for a day without multi-tasking and Focus on one thing at a time. Today’s challenge was based on the idea that….

Listen to the podcast is here

I must admit: I found today’s challenge very, very difficult. On the surface, It is not a hard thing to do but I found it pretty hard because I am not used to doing only one thing at once. So being forced to do a single thing for a particular time was an interesting experiment.

How the Day Went

My attempt at focusing on a single thing at a time was quite a success. I did not open more than one tab at a time or switch between Instagram and Facebook as I usually do. I kept my phone out of sight when I was studying, doing assignments, or even in class. And guess what? I was actually able to focus on whatever it was I was doing at the moment. I was even able not to open more than one tab at a time because I realized didn’t need two tabs open. I got more work done in less time because I was committed to focus. On the bus I did not use my phone, instead I looked around at people; in my classes, I did not bother to check the time and when I sat down to get work done, I got work done.

Prior to this assignment, I did a Media-Use Diary where I tracked all the media I used every 30 minute for 5 days. I found that I was on social media way more than necessary and most of the time, It was a distraction or filler for some extra or free time I had. So today, In response to this challenge, I tried to not use social media just to take up time and when I was using Social media, not to switch between two different mediums because of some notification or another. This also applied when I was doing other work: Block out notifications. I didn’t stop them, I just cleared them as they came in.

It was a pretty surprising discovery for me to make about myself: that I can be focused when I want to and I get more things when I am focused. I also think part of why I succeeded for the most part on day one is that I was committed to being focused. It was something I wanted to do. Usually I have a hard time staying focused and committed to things. I keep changing activities constantly and one has to wonder: How do I ever get things done? I hate procrastinating, I do things by doing them all at the same time. But In a world that is filled with constant distractions and as a person that is easily distracted, I need to practice focusing on a single task at a time so I can be more productive and less stressed.

The Takeaway

I think the biggest thing I learned from this challenge is focus is possible at least for me. Our culture seems to celebrate/encourage multitasking but it does not lead to better results. Multitasking is necessary sometimes, but we should not lose the power of focus. I definitely ended today with a much clearer head and sense of achievement than previous days.

Related posts:

Behind every great cryptocurrency, there is a great community. If you are in crypto, chances are that you will be a part of at least one, or several communities. Those are the places where you can…

We explore the four major sports in the US (NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB) to study where the professional sports league ranked in popularity among people in the US. Then, we compared the popularity of the…

DEMOCRACY is said to be the government of the people by the people and for the people. It is the most accepted people centered initiative that forestall hope, harmony, economic advancement and…