Picking the same thing up twice takes at least four times the energy required to do it once.
Once you decide to pick something up, whatever that may be …
- a physical object that you might need to put in another place
- a digital task such as beginning to read an email which you need to respond to
- a creative endeavor such as writing
… don’t put it down until it’s done.
Every time you stop and interrupt yourself, and decide to come back to the first thing later, your costing yourself far more than just the time it takes to do the original task.
Particularly if this – stopping & restarting things – is a common practice. There’s no telling how much time you’re losing simply reorienting yourself to each task over & over again.
If you put it down, you’re just going to have to pick it up again.
Pick it up once.
Matt Fried 