ColdShower #55🥶🚿 Hidden beauty, multitasking, and the best thing about not drinking
Skittles tells us to taste the rainbow but only gives us 5 of the 7 colors.
The countdown to Halloween candy begins! Shower thought via Reddit.
The ColdShower: Weekly thoughts for better health, habits, and happiness.
Creeping it Real
Beauty hiding in plain sight
Multitasking effects on productivity
The best thing about not drinking
Recharge
When you know where to look…
Beauty is everywhere to be found. Beauty is in art, in novelty, but also in the mundane. What is familiar we take for granted.
Just another run
Last week I ran the same 4-mile run route I’ve run many times over. I know it’s bends and stops. I’ve seen the streets and houses.
Most of the time I’m plugged into my headphones, searching for fresh new music to distract me from the task at hand.
On this particular morning, my headphones decided to malfunction.
Instead of tuning out, I started to tune into my surroundings. The simplicity of my run and peacefulness all around.
- The sound of the world waking up around me
- Sunlight shimmering, painting a new picture on a landscape I’m deeply familiar with
- The symmetrical alignment of trees beside a lake
Beauty is all around us when we know where to look.
Refine
It’s everywhere
It’s unavoidable. We live in the absolute best environment for multitasking. Digital apps rule, we’re plugged into multiple devices, and media sources everywhere.
The multitasking paradox
The perception of multitasking is typically positive. I felt this way too. Studies show an inverted “U” relationship between multitasking and performance efficiency and a decreasing line for performance effectiveness. That tells us there’s a “golden zone” at the top of the inverted “U” where we reach peak productivity, but we sacrifice accuracy to get there. And past the peak productivity zone, more multitasking causes a sharp decrease in our productivity.
Hidden costs
Multitasking comes with a number of hidden costs.
Accuracy: Multitasking ramps up our chances of making mistakes. We can handle relatively easy tasks like walking and chewing gum, but what about multitasking in an emergency room?
Energy Expenditure: Multitasking is an inefficient use of our brain’s energy. When working on multiple tasks, our brain must dedicate processing power to keep track of everything.
Switching Costs: Time and energy are wasted each time we switch between tasks. Research shows as much as 40% of our productive time is wasted by even brief mental blocks created by task switching.
Rethink
ZzzzZzzzZzz
Rethink: What’s the greatest benefit of not drinking?
That sweet feeling of your head hitting the pillow. We all want it, yet so many of us fail to sleep effectively.
I get a sleep score every night from my Garmin watch. When comparing 3 months of data before I stopped drinking to after, my “sleep score” (0 to 100 Garmin rating) improved from an average of 70 to 77.
Part of that could be just getting a bit more sleep as Miles gets older, but the effects of alcohol on my sleep data are undeniable. On drinking nights (even just a single drink), Garmin tracks more stress, restlessness, and less Deep & REM sleep.
And sleep goes hand in hand with recovery. I stopped drinking to focus on running, training for a race this November. The bounce-back from long, hard runs has become easier. I’m finding myself less sore, and less tired the next day, and able to train harder.
I’m not sure how I’ll re-introduce alcohol again after November, but now that I’ve witnessed the improvements in recovery it’s made me consider dropping alcohol for future serious training blocks.
Still On The Toilet?
Juggling on a high wire: Multitasking effects on performance
The multi‐tasking paradox: perceptions, problems and strategies
Does Multitasking Improve Performance? Evidence from the Emergency Department
THANK YOU for making it to the end!