In our last article, we touched on a product that can be added to your routine to practice self-care. This time we want to focus on a lifestyle change.
Let’s start off by talking about what lifestyle even is. (Seriously, does anyone have the exact answer to this?) For most of us, we’re just trying to get through every single day and be prepared for the next day to come. Is that a lifestyle? Barely scraping by with several responsibilities seems to be the most common answer to the college lifestyle question. If you’re a Real Housewives fan like I am, you may spend your time fantasizing about a lifestyle where you’re successful with multiple businesses and a loving family like the glamorous ladies you see on your tv screen. It doesn’t have to be this franchise specifically. It really could be anything we see in the media that we wish to imitate for our own. Wishing for something else and promising ourselves we will do anything to get it is how so many individuals fall victim to hustle culture.
You know it, you’ve lived it.
The hustler and girl boss lifestyle we are saturated with every day are super motivating. It’s absolutely true, but it also can have people awash in self-doubt if they’re not meeting expectations or accomplishing as much as they thought they would.
Let’s take multitasking as a specific example from this lifestyle.
Multitasking is a coveted skill, practically implemented in us from the moment we learn to walk or talk (Okay, maybe not back that far, but you get the idea). Long story short, it is deemed by society for a person to be successful they need to be able to multitask. It’s practically the one word to show up on any job application. This is not to say multitasking is necessarily bad, it’s to say that sometimes focusing on one thing can be good.
Checking a box on a to-do list is sometimes the best part of my day (wow, that was sad to write). However, it’s a lot harder to complete tasks when I am thinking about the to-do list as a whole, versus just thinking about each individual task I am on. Some of you may be falling victim to the focus stealer of multitasking right now when reading this by thinking of all the assignments and deadlines you may have or about what your plans are for the rest of the day.
Stop everything you are doing and focus.
Focusing on one thing at a time may seem so out of the ordinary in this multitasking world full of distractions. What people may not understand is focusing on one thing at a time may improve your efficiency in getting that thing done. Seeing something to its completion without wanting to move on to something else should be an Olympic sport (Who do I contact about this?)
It can be hard to focus. That word is used a lot when it comes to academics or future plans. Oftentimes, we are told to focus so we can make efforts towards our grand future plans. What about focusing here and now? What about that pile of laundry that has been there for days because your mind is cluttered with so many different things?
A lot of the time we tend to only focus on a task when we are forced to, like that midterm paper you waited until the night before to do. Taking things one at a time and trying to place more focus on mundane tasks that comprise your day just as much as those dream aspirations can help eliminate how overwhelmed we might get. Let’s face it, we all get overwhelmed, and focusing more on one task to its fruition can replace those overwhelmed feelings with accomplished feelings.
With Thanksgiving break coming up, the assignments are stacking up, when let’s face it, all we want to be stacking up is our Netflix watch list. This is your reminder to not get caught up in how overwhelmed you are. Instead, put that energy into focussing on the things that you have to get done. Write that to-do list mentioned before and then one by one complete it; With the keyword here being “one.” You are one person, so don’t shy away from only focusing on one thing at a time.