Do I Need to Quit Multi-Tasking?

I’ve really been struggling lately with trying to figure out how to increase my happiness throughout the day. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not particularly unhappy. However, I have come to truly believe that the key to complete satisfaction in life is to maximize contentedness within every moment. It’s basically the idea of “being here now” and learning how to do that within the confines of a real (busy!) life.

One of the things that I’m wondering in relation to this is whether I need to stop multi-tasking. There are certainly pros and cons to multi-tasking. I’ve derived many benefits from multi-tasking in terms of being able to take on many jobs at once and to seamlessly integrate work life with my home life. I am a natural mutli-tasker and I feel more comfortable working this way than focusing on one task at a time.

However, I don’t think multi-tasking is conducive to my goal of trying to find true happiness in every moment. In order to “be here now”, you actually have to be present and fully focused on what you’re doing. You have to do things mindfully which means doing them with your full attention. Multi-tasking is the exact opposite of this.

I’m not really sure that I can give up multi-tasking all together. My brain tends to just keep trying to sort things out while I’m doing other things. And I don’t really know if quitting mutli-tasking is good for me in terms of productivity. But it’s something that I want to play around with more because I do think that true peace of mind only comes when you are focused on what is in front of you.