Shirley MacLaine Quotes

Task switching is hard because we do not control what is on our mind. Despite our efforts, the original task continues to occupy our mental bandwidth. Although we can control where our time goes, we cannot fully control how our bandwidth is allocated.

Experts say you can't concentrate on more than one task at a time.

Multi-tasking arises out of distraction itself.

There's no such thing as multitasking.

If you try to multitask in the classic sense of doing two things at once, what you end up doing is quasi-tasking. It's like being with children. You have to give it your full attention for however much time you have, and then you have to give something else your full attention.

Most of us can easily do two things at once; what's all but impossible is to do one thing at once.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

I think people who multitask pay a huge price. They think they're being extra productive, and I think when you multitask so much you don't have time to think about anything deeply, you are giving the world an advantage you shouldn't do, and practically everybody is drifting into that mistake.

Focus. It's powerful to do just one thing and pour all your energy into it.

Even though we think we're getting a lot done, ironically, multitasking makes us demonstrably less efficient.

If I dabble in too many things and don't focus on channelizing my energy into one thing, I might mess it up.

I think that we get so distracted with our smartphones... It takes your body and your brain time to switch between tasks. If we can focus on what we're doing, we'll be more productive at that task.

You wouldn't read 'Anna Karenina' and try to work on the computer at the same time, would you?

The challenging thing from a work perspective is just the range of things on any given day that you're dealing with and making sure you have the head space to really be giving them the thought and consideration you'd like, too.

A lot of people don't feel like doing very much. Or one project is really all they can do at one time. I can have five or six things going at the same time. It doesn't bother me or tire me, but sometimes it does rattle me.

I can multitask very well. But I know exactly when to block off anything coming in from the outside and just stay focused on the film.

You can do only one thing at a time. I simply tackle one problem and concentrate all efforts on what I am doing at the moment.

Where attention goes, energy flows and results show.

If people would reflect that one can only do one thing at a time and therefore there is never more than one thing to do at a time, there would be less fatigue in the world.

It's a skill that people are born with. Either you're a focuser or you're a multitasky person. I am a full-focus person.

Where we focus our energy is where we will get the results.

The irony of multitasking is that it's exhausting: when you're doing two or three things simultaneously, you use more energy than the sum of energy required to do each task independently. You're also cheating yourself because your're not doing anything excellently. You're compromising your virtuosity. In the words of T. S. Elliot, you're 'distracted from distractions by distractions'.

To succeed, you must be able to concentrate, and to know what to concentrate on.

Good performance is about the capacity to focus and concentrate.

Research shows you get multiple tasks done faster if you do them one at a time. It also decreases stress and raises happiness.