My understandings of multitasking and meditation is that they are complete opposites. They can both be focused on the immediate moment, but multitasking is casting your attention like a net to catch as many stimuli as possible, while meditation is letting stimuli come and go as it pleases but keeping them from sticking for too long. So when do you do both? Can you do both? I think so, and this is how:
When To Multitask
I choose to multitask while working on big-picture tasks. For example, I use my bullet journal every morning to fill in a daily spread, and I keep it updated throughout the day. While I plan my day, I also listen to music and drink my first cup of chai tea, and my planning is all about color coding and task organization. It’s a very busy mindset and I prefer it that way because I’m considering so many moving parts. In this case, muktitasking is natural for my task.
When To Meditate
Unlike planning, there are tasks throughout my day where I need as little outside stimulation as possible, like my blocks of writing time. All of my focus zeroes in on what I’m writing, and I keep my environment quiet and contained to keep myself on track. If I ever listen to music while writing, it either has no lyrics or lyrics in a language I don’t understand, so that I’m not fighting outside words while trying to create and order words of my own. For writing, a meditative mindset is the only one that will do for me. The exception is research for writing, in which case I need more stimuli for the increased net of casted thought.
In Conclusion
I approach my work tasks with either muktitasking or meditation on a case by case basis. I evaluate each task according to it’s scope of attention, from very wide (planning) to very narrow (writing). Most of my tasks fall in between those two extremes, and sometimes my mindset needs to be different on different days. In my experience, the mindset must match the task in order for it to be completed successfully.
What do you think? How do you approach your work tasks? Do you have a preferred approach or do you mix it up like I do? Let me know in a comment!
– Katy
Author Rescue 
Multi-tasking….works best for me when each of the parallel tasks is moved to a clean stop spot before switching, so it is easy to pick up again when it is time for the next push. For complex tasks, I sometimes also leave a ‘to do’ list of crib notes to help keep the big picture intact. Sometimes the breaks from multi-tasking are constructive, new ideas or tweaks manage to surface after letting go / coming back to it.
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