Lately, I have come to the conclusion that life is all about taking decisions and making choices. At each crossroad, we have to evaluate plus/minus, advantages/disadvantages, pros/cons, etc. and decide from the choices infront of us.

Being in a pseudo-creative profession, I have faced such situation quite a few times and every time I get perplexed by myriad of choices to start with. For example, when trying to solve a new problem, I tend to choose unfamiliar, complex, and fancy methods, as I like to learn new things. However, this has always proved to be detrimental to my productivity. It takes time, lot of time, to fully comprehend the output of the new fancy method for my specific problem. In the end, I have to revert back to the methods that I already know and improvise to meet the timeline.

So, one thing that I have learned through this process is that you have to start with something that you know already. Being in a familiar territory, you have more control on the output. Secondly, it forces you to be creative with what you already know, and to incrementally improve your skill set to solve the problem.

Why do we believe that we can perform multiple tasks at the same time without any hindrance to learning? Does multitasking really exist? Is it really beneficial for students? Here is where most of the students go wrong. They don’t understand how exactly multitasking works in their brain, when to do it, when to avoid it and how to make the best use of it.

The illusion of simultaneousness in multitasking

Multitasking refers to simultaneous/concurrent processing of two or more tasks. Please take note of the word ‘simultaneous’ as it plays important role in our understanding of multitasking. Technically, ‘simultaneous’ means at the same instant of time. But now in context of multitasking, it is also used in short for ‘perceived simultaneousness’ or ‘illusion of simultaneousness’. Now you would ask, why? Because most of the time multitasking involves context switching, which means that only one task is performed at an instant of time but the tasks are constantly juggled/switched giving the illusion of simultaneousness.

So, how does it affect us?

Your brain cannot process two relatively different thoughts simultaneously. It makes heavy use of context switching between different thought processes. Surprised? But it’s true. Whenever your brain switches from one task to another, it saves the current state of the task so you can come back to it later (somewhat similar to ‘hibernation’ in Windows machines). So, in essence your brain is processing information in serial order and not in parallel fashion. These context switches are not free. They cost time and perhaps more. The time costs are directly related to your familiarity with the task. Thus, when you are doing complex unfamiliar tasks, you are actually taking more time to finish them by constantly switching between them than if you had done them sequentially.

Multitasking and learning

As we learned just now that the time costs for context switching increases with the complexity and unfamiliarity of the tasks, we can easily conclude that multitasking hinders learning. Why? Because learning involves delving into unfamiliar territories which is not favorable for context switching. So, it takes more time to finish the learning task. Secondly, the available ‘attention’ resource is limited at any instant of time. A learning task requires more attention and you might compromise its requirement if you are multitasking it with other tasks that compete for your attention. Even my computer hangs when I switch between different windows too fast. It needs some time in between not only to switch the context but also to come to a ready state. Similarly, your brain takes time to come to a ready state after context switching and if you switch too fast, you might not be able to concentrate on learning. Same goes for tasks that require creative thinking and imagination.

In my personal experience, multitasking leaves me unsatisfied with my work except when I am doing trivial or repetitive tasks and the goal is just to finish the tasks rather than learning something new. When the goal of a task includes learning, e.g., reviewing research papers for publications, I find it efficient to do the tasks one at a time. Serial execution also gives me satisfaction as I get enough time to absorb what I learned and to think about new ideas.

Multitasking and students

Two main aspects of multitasking are context-switching and attention resource. From what I have read, my conclusion is that multitasking, in general, should be avoided, especially by students. The goal of a student is not just to get things done but to learn new concepts and develop the thinking process. But while multitasking, different tasks compete for the limited resources in your brain and thus, there is no room for learning and thinking. Agreed that brains of younger people are better capable of switching contexts efficiently than those of grown-ups but too much of context switching is going to decrease your attention span and your ability to concentrate, in long terms. In habitual multitasking, your brain gets into a habit of being in hyperactive state whenever you take up a task to finish and it diminishes your ability to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

If multitasking is inevitable, then it should be planned in a way that requires less context switching and makes best use of your available attention at the moment. Don’t ask me how. I am still trying to figure it out. Also, it is said that if the tasks are drawing resources from different parts of the brain then it doesn’t affect our performance. For example, I have experienced a few times that music helps me concentrate better. It might be because that particular music doesn’t require much of my conscious attention and that’s why context switching might not be happening, or it might be that I focussed my attention completely on the task at hand that I didn’t notice any phonetic distractions. I don’t know the answer but I am eager to find out.

Now, I have become more conscious of how I perform a task or multiple tasks. I first try to recognize the type of tasks I want to do. Do they require my full attention? Do they require me to concentrate and think? Are they trivial tasks? Are they familiar tasks? Are they repetitive tasks? Based on these questions, I decide whether I should perform more than one tasks at the same time or do them sequentially. Being a graduate student and having most of the ‘to-do’ tasks related to my research, the option that comes more often is sequential processing instead of multitasking.

Even if you are not a student, I would suggest you to check your multitasking habits and see if it helps or hinders your growth. As I have said earlier too, we are always learning and my experience says that multitasking hinders learning. In the end, it is upto you to decide if multitasking is for you or not.

Also read

1. Is multitasking more efficient?
2. The multitasking generation – Claudia Wallis
3. Multitasking wastes time and money – Megan Santosus
4. Multitasking makes us stupid – Kathy Sierra
5. How not to multitask – Leo Babauta

Promises may fit the friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies. – Benjamin Franklin

A promise gives other person a basis to expect something humanly tangible from you. He is then less worried about the uncertainties and this makes him at ease to some extent. But if you want to rise beyond expectations, over deliver.

Why to deliver more than promised?

1. For personal satisfaction: I try to keep promises I make. That makes me a responsible person. But there is nothing unpredictable in it. Fun is when I over-deliver and exceed the expectations. Whenever I deliver more than promised, I feel good for doing a quality job, and my confidence gets a boost. Moreover, my ‘extra’ efforts are recognized and appreciated by others.

2. To gain trust: Once people around you know that you put in extra efforts to deliver beyond expectations, they start trusting you. They will stick with you as long as possible since they know that at the least they are going to get what is promised. I am a vegetarian and I face problems when I go out to dine because of limited choices. But in a few restaurants, they understand my plight and offer me more options than stated on the menu. So, I visit those restaurants more often.

3. To take relationships to the next level: Delivering more than promised makes you extraordinary. You not only gain trust but also win a following. You create evangelists for your brand. Why people love Google, Firefox and Apple so much? Why their users become their marketers too? It is because they deliver more than what other search engines, internet browsers, and personal computers offer. The relationship between them and their users has advanced to the next level. Please find me a user who is not happy with them.

Have you ever under-promised and over-delivered? Do you put extra efforts to rise above expectations?

However, sometimes we are not able to keep our promises, even if we want to. After all we are humans. Things do go wrong and mistakes happen. It is important to remember that mistakes are allowed provided we accept and don’t repeat the same.

What to do if we could not keep our promise?

Instead of hiding, ignoring or lying about it, if we just communicate and accept it openly, we can still maintain the relationship and not lose the trust.

- Accept it. Tell the truth. Move on.

- Learn from your mistake or keep your mouth shut next time.

[Update]

Also Read:

• The brand formula – Seth Godin
• Ego – Seth Godin
• Who says we need our logo on every slide? – Garr Reynolds
• Overdeliver – Yuri Filimonov

Promise less, deliver more. That should be the mantra of life. I promised a lot in my Ph.D. proposal but I think I will not be able to deliver the same given that I have only couple of more months left to graduate.

So why don’t we promise less and deliver more? After all, people remember what you deliver (especially, if it is more than they expect) rather than what you promised (unless you don’t fulfill them).

What is a promise?

“an express[ed] assurance on which expectation is to be based” – Dictionary.com.

- A mission statement of a company is a promise they have made to their customers, e.g., Walt Disney – “To make people happy.”
- A thesis proposal is a promise you make to your area of research and your committee members.
- A job announcement is a promise to the future employee about work opportunities.
- A banknote is a promise to pay the bearer that amount of money.
- A political agenda is a promise by a politician or a political company to the people.

Promises are the keys to start and maintain a relationship.

How much you care about a relationship is measured by how much you deliver to fulfill your promises. Promises need not be big. You have started a relationship, even when you make a small promise. To maintain that relationship, all you have to do is to keep your small promise.

But still we see people making big promises and not delivering. It jeopardizes the relationship. Credibility and trust is put on stake.

Why do we promise more than can be delivered?

1. Short term gains

- Promises are made to gain approval, to impress, or to please (to win election, to get a grant, to close a deal).

2. Wrong notion of available resources (or capabilities)

- Promises are made without estimating how much and when they can be delivered (product release, project/thesis proposals).

3. Can’t say no

- Promises are made because we don’t know how to say ‘no’ in a ‘non-hurting’ way.

If promises are not fulfilled, employees move to other companies, new employees are hired and old ones are fired, new collaborations are made breaking the old ones, new friends are found replacing the old ones, new relationship is sought replacing the old one.

Promises are responsibilities you take upon yourself setting an expectation bar. If we are not careful with them, they can lead to a lot of stress and disappointments. Remember,

For every promise, there is price to pay – Jim Rohn

Have you promised more than you could deliver? What price did you pay for it?

So the key is to identify different kinds of barriers. Based on my experiences and readings, I consider mainly two kinds of barriers.

1. Primary barriers

First type of barriers are those which hamper your progress. These barriers interfere with your strengths and that’s why you are not able to reach your full potential. These are the primary barriers.

2. Secondary barriers

Second type of barriers are those which do not block your progress. These barriers do not prevent you from exercising your strengths to full extent. These are the secondary barriers.

For example, in cricket fastest bowlers are not the best bowlers. So, lack of speed in my bowling is not the real cause of my average performance. Speed is the secondary barrier. My primary barrier is the lack of good length and tight line. So, instead of practicing for fastest delivery, I should be practicing for good line and length.

What to do?

The trick is to distinguish between these types of barriers and work only on the primary barriers. Working on secondary barriers is a waste of time unless you have already overcome your primary barriers and overcoming the secondary barriers will help you perform better. Overcoming primary barriers will allow you to play to your strengths with full potential. Do understand that this will improve your effectiveness but not necessarily your efficiency. In essence, to become a great performer what you have to answer is – how to be more effective (in practice sessions).

To be able to distinguish between these two types of barriers requires clear understanding of what you want to achieve. If your goals are not clear to you, you will never be able to identify and focus on your primary barriers. Another important thing to remember is to keep your mind open to suggestions. Sometimes, when you can’t see the primary barriers, external sources, like your teachers, parents, siblings, or friends, might help.

For example

When I was in 7th standard, we were learning how to balance chemical equations in our chemistry class. Every one was practicing hard on it because that was the only topic that was supposed to be in our midterms. Like everyone, I was also practicing a lot to solve the equations using mathematical concepts. But maths alone was not enough to make it work. I was not getting the right answers, no matter how much I practiced.

Thanks to my mother, she saw me in frustration and came to help.

The first thing she made me to do was to memorize the periodic table and learn the atomicity of all the elements in the table. Knowing whether the element is diatomic, triatomic, etc. helped me deciding what multiplication factors can be used to balance the equations. Then we set up some rules, e.g., tackle the complex molecules first and the independent elements last.

So, this time I practiced with the knowledge of atomicity of the elements keeping the rules in my mind. The result – I was the only student in my batch to get all the answers correct in the midterms. That definitely made me popular in the school but the important thing was the lesson I learned.

Finale

Lesson learned was: know what is obstructing your progress and work only on it.

What really matters is your ability to recognize what really matters. You cannot run blindly for one thing today and for another tomorrow. Identify the limiting factors, differentiate them into primary and secondary barriers, and focus completely on the primary barriers.

Practice with a plan and the knowledge of the primary barriers. Some people are able to do it subconsciously, while others, including me, need to be explicit about it.

Read also: Bend it like Beckham. But how? Part 1

Money serves a purpose, it is a means to a goal. What if somehow 10 million dollars appeared in my account? It doesn’t matter how – I inherited it, someone just gave it to me, I earned it, or I won a lottery. But what matters is that what would I do with it? I thought a lot about it but it seemed like my mind had gone just blank. There are many things a person can do – buy house, cars, travel, and blah blah. I couldn’t comeup with a to-do list that would make some sense to me. Finally, I narrowed down to the following options to discuss with you:

Use it for upliftment of poor children – Every once in a while I browse through the websites of the non-profit organizations working towards betterment of poor children and providing them education. Although many non-profit organizations (not all) are working hard towards upliftment of poor children, their efforts alone are not enough. They need more hands to share the load, more minds with right attitude, and more financial sources for the cause. As Annie puts it (35 million, 12 paise),

That’s right. Thirty-five million. These millions are, what the government of India collectively calls, ‘children in need of protection‘. Defined by the ministry of social justice and empowerment as children in ‘extremely difficult circumstances’, they include children in conflict with the law, victims of crime or natural disasters, orphaned, abandoned or runaway children, rescued child labourers, trafficked children, amongst others.

I do donate in small amounts whenever I can but I am not able to contribute significantly since even a small amount is infact a large percentage of my student stipend. However, what I really want to do is to sponsor complete education of atleast one child if possible. But that’s not possible yet on my student stipend.

If I had 10 million dollars, I could sponsor education for many more children. For that I need to find the right people and the question that arises is which organization I can donate to? Which one to trust with such a huge amount of money? How would I know that the money is being used for the right purpose and reaching the deserving ones? Or instead of just donating the money, can I use it for the same purpose in some other way? I have never thought about it. This means I am not ready to have so much money yet for this purpose. I am not prepared for it. Forget 10 million dollars, I have no idea how I am going to help towards the betterment of poor children once I graduate and start earning.

Start a company – Couple of times I had discussions with friends about starting my own company. I want my ‘company’ to have a good purpose, something useful to society, and not just profit-making. Paul Graham suggests to have right people, right products and right spending plan to start a company. With 10 million dollars in my pocket, I won’t have to worry for the funds (atleast for a while). But the problem is that I don’t know what I will produce and which customers I will target. I don’t know yet. I am not ready to have so much money for this purpose. I am an introvert person so networking, for me, is a nightmare. Rob listed excellent suggestions on how to network for introvert people like me. But I have not started working on it. It requires lot of efforts on my part. But If I won’t then how am I suppose to find right people when I’ll need them. Seems like I am just not prepared yet. When will I start preparing for it?

Make investments – Among other options, this seems to be a wise call. But I don’t know the ABC of how and where to invest. I read Ramit’s blog regularly but have never given enough time to research on his suggestions on how to start investing wisely and act on them. What stops me is the thinking barrier that I don’t earn ‘enough’ money right now. But that’s not the problem. I can start taking small steps like open a savings account (ING, HSBC, EMIGRANT). But I am too lazy to do it. The problem is my attitude and overthinking. I need to change my thinking to prepare myself to handle such a huge sum of money.

Spend it lavishly – Well, I won’t be able to do it without feeling guilty so this option doesn’t count for me. Been a student for so long, that I have learned to live within my means.

In summary, I have not prepared myself to do any of the above even to my capacity as of now. I can tell you that it is not the lack of money that is stopping me but my laziness and overthinking. People who are serious about doing something, just do it. Money matters don’t stop them. What’s needed is the DOer attitude, which makes every difficult-to-do and/or seem-to-be-impossible thing possible, be it starting Room to Read by John Wood or SUBWAY by Fred and Peter.

What would you do if you had 10 million dollars? What are you doing right now? Do you really think that lack of money is stopping you?

We all do make mistakes and we do regret making them. Based on my short-lived experience (life is short), I would say that the mistakes that I make can be broadly classified into two types – mistakes due to carelessness and mistakes due to wrong decisions. There are simple and very severe consequences of both types of mistakes. But it is not the consequences that make our life miserable, but our response to those consequences.

According to the common cultural assumptions, mistakes are sign of failure and we should try to completely avoid them. Since childhood you are condemned for your mistakes and are pressured to avoid them in future by not ‘repeating them again’. This mentality hampers your decision making ability. You think more about not making a mistake than trying to come up with a solution to the problem at hand. Even I am victim of this thinking. Many times I think more about what if this fails or that fails rather than try to really solve the problem.

In my previous post analysis paralysis and just do it attitude, I mentioned how I am learning to avoid this overthinking, this fear of making mistakes. But decisions do go wrong and I do have to face the consequences. There is no escape. But what differentiates my mistakes from being failures is my attitude towards them. It benefits me a lot to accept the mistake, find what went wrong, and then move on. There is no point in lamenting on it and making your own life miserable. Imagine that you go for a dance show and one of the dancers loses her balance and falls on her butt. If she panicks, feel embarrassed and leaves the stage, you would definitely call her a failure. But if she gets up and starts from where she left, you would appreciate for her courage and attitude. It is the same attitude you need to bring in your daily life.

A failure is a man who has blundered but is not capable of cashing in on the experience. – Elbert Hubbard

Consequences are not in your hands. You cannot control them. What you can do is to take actions and choose your attitude towards the consequences, good or bad. As Viktor Fankl said that the greatest of human freedoms is to be able to choose one’s own attitude. Your attitude determines your response to an event. And your response makes you feel good or bad about your situation.

It is characterized by lack of execution. It affects your decision making process from simple everyday decisions, like where to go for lunch, to important life/career changing decisions like should I switch jobs or should I do a Ph.D. You face lot of trouble making such decisions because you are conditioned by your thoughts. You are afraid to take action and face the consequences. You want to somehow look ahead in time and make sure that everything will be perfect as you want. You are afraid of failure. You want to avoid embarassment. You are just lost.

But you are not alone. There are many like you and I, who find it difficult to decide on one thing and then go for it. Stop overthinking.

Recently, another graduate student, Ady (name changed) joined our group to work with me on one of our projects. Earlier, I was the only person working on the project, so I had to do all the work of designing, implementation and testing. But now, I handle mostly the research aspects, prototype design issues and some basic coding for the application and Ady handles the development, implementation and testing part.

Since Ady joined us, our progress has taken a steep upward curve. The main factor for this increased producitivity can be attributed to Ady’s ‘Just Do It’ attitude. Generally, I do a lot of analysis and planning before actually doing any task. This saves me from going in tangent directions but sometimes this analysis/planning phase doesn’t seem to end. So, the task gets delayed more and more. Now, with Ady I am learning to put closure on analysis phase and start doing things. Everything doesn’t need to and cannot be perfect. At some point you need to stop thinking and take action.

However analysis is important too. Time spent on thinking, researching and planning is not wasted if it leads to action. Action without direction is harmful. So in our team we found a balance. I save Ady from going in tangent directions and he motivates me to take action. And that’s why our project is progressing pretty well.

There are mainly two things you have to cure about yourself to break this problem of analysis paralysis.

Avoid fear of failure:

Thomas Edison was successful because he knew the importance of failure. Had he given up after few failures, he would have not been able to find the right filament for the light bulb. According to him, failures tell you what won’t work. He used Ready-Fire-Aim approach rather than Ready-Aim-Fire approach. All you have to do is make an attempt and instead of being afraid of failures, embrace them, learn from them, and your aim will get better as you go along.

You should not get bogged down by what people say about you. Limitations are not in your abilities but in your thinking. You become your thoughts. So, if you are afraid of failures then your thoughts are more about failures than success. This way you are giving more importance to failure and attracting it. Change your thinking right now. Think yourself as a successful person and accept failure as necessary steps towards success.

Just do it:

Finally I have learned the importance of what my advisor always says, ‘Bite the bullet and just do it’. You’ll always regret the time wasted in over-analysis. One of my friends is contemplating on what career path he should choose. He discussed with me in lengths if he should do MBA or not. That led me to write a post on ‘Getting ahead without MBA‘, which he found very helpful. But still he has not made any concrete decision. He doesn’t want to choose a wrong path and then regret the time wasted on it. But my argument is if he doesn’t make a decision soon, he is going to waste his time analyzing the options and regret anyway.

We have a habit of trying to make everything perfect. We are always looking for a perfect solution not knowing what perfect means for us. What we don’t realize is that solution is a noun. It won’t work by itself. The key term is solve which is a verb and requires action. You have to attempt, make efforts in some direction even if you fail a couple of times.

It is a learning process. It is a shift of attitude. The only solution is to believe in yourself and ‘Just Do It’.

You might agree with what I say and do recognize the problem of analysis paralysis, but still many of you won’t take any action to do something about it. This attitude is quite common with blog readers and I must accept that I am also a victim of it. But instead of directly encouraging readers to apply ‘Just Do It’ approach, Darren listed 4 strategies for blog writers on ‘How to Move Readers to a Point of Desire‘ in his series on Persuasive Blogging. Now, instead of contemplating on whether the strategies would work or not, I’ll have to ‘Just Do It’ and test it myself.

If you want to be successful in life, start early. Make decisions sooner and take action without any fear of failure. Life is nothing but a series of experiences, the more you experience, the richer you become.

[Update]

Also Read:

• Breaking the perfection habit – Penelope Trunk