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Do you have time? Do you have time to sit in a comfortable and peaceful space to read this? Or, only have time to skim now and get back to it later? I pretty much fall into the “skim now, read carefully later” scenario. And when the stacks of “reading more thoroughly later” get impossibly high, get frustrated because more just keeps coming in.
Some words we use to explain how we feel when we don’t have time to do all we expect of ourselves include: stressed; anxious; pressured; overwhelmed, etc. These words seem to have a very slight but very real tinge of failure, on my part. It’s almost as if I am unable or failed to do or say or behave in an expected manner.
In 1965 IBM published a paper on a new computer and used, for the first time, the word “multitasking” to describe its capabilities. Computer multitasking soon made its way into models for humans to follow to achieve “success.” Most of us bought into it. It wasn’t until the early part of the 21st century that it was debunked. Not only can’t humans multitask, but when they do, their overall productivity is lower. But most of us still have not gotten that message…
Consider another model, one that gives us the space to acknowledge we are human in the Buddhist sense of the word: Task Saturation. In January 2019, US Airways Flight 1549 out of NYC hit a flock of birds. Capt. “Sully" Sullenberger landed the plane on the Hudson River. He wasn’t multitasking. Instead he was trained and continued to train himself on a procedure to follow in emergencies. That procedure required only one task to be done successfully before a second was added. Only when the second task was accomplished would the final task be added.
Very simply put, aviation pilots use the word task saturation. When an emergency occurs in flight, the mantra followed is first aviate, then navigate, finally, communicate - in that exact order. Captain Sully had only one job, land the plane safely. All other tasks were eliminated. He first had to gain control of the airplane. Only then did he determine where to head and land the plane. Finally, and only if there was time, he had to communicate to Air Traffic Control. This sequential series of tasks, to the exclusion of all others, coupled with his many hours of training has come to be known as the Miracle on the Hudson.
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