“Do less, live more”

They call it ‘media-meshing’ and I just can’t do it. No longer is just watching TV enough: we are now told that we should chat on Twitter and Facebook while the show is on.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one who finds it a challenge to type a running commentary about Deborah Meaden’s decision on Dragon’s Den.

And quite frankly, I don’t care to. I mean, who really gives two hoots about what Dave from Dorset thinks about Peter Jones’ tie?

Multi-tasking is now a way of life. We text while we walk; check emails while writing a report, and answer the phone while changing the baby’s nappy. We love to think that the only way to get everything done is to do lots of things at once.

But that’s simply not true.

Multi-tasking well is virtually impossible. It’s a commonly held belief that women are better at multi-tasking than men. They aren’t – we’re all pretty rubbish at it. (One study even found that people who think they are good at multi-tasking are actually the worst) The truth is that you and I have but one brain and that one brain can only focus its attention on one thing at once. Attempting to do more than that forces your attention to be divided – flicking between each. The end result is that none of the jobs are done particularly well. But worse than that, multi-tasking can be bad for your health.

A typical office worker checks their emails 36 times a day. An experiment in 2012 tried to find out what happens if emails are turned off.

The researchers rigged a group of office workers’ computers so that all email notifications were disabled during the working day.

Remarkably, they found that they actually got more done; they were happier, had better office relationships and even had a lower blood pressure. They also got more exercise – choosing to walk across the office to (shock) speak to colleagues rather than email them.

But it can be more important than productivity – trying to do two things at once can kill you.

Talking on a mobile phone while driving increases the risk of a crash by 30 per cent. Trying to text while behind the wheel will make you 26 times more likely to drive into something.

So the next time you find yourself multi-tasking when you want to get something important done, take a moment. Chances are that it’s better and easier to simplify things. It’s quite OK to do one thing at once – even if that’s admiring Peter Jones’ tie. Sometimes doing less can really mean living more. #Thankgoodnessforthat!