The Secret to Effective Multitasking

The feeling that time is slipping away has a drastic impact on our cognitive bandwidth , and the mental room we have available for productive decision-making :

“This scarcity mindset consumes what Shafir calls ‘mental bandwidth’ — brainpower that would otherwise go to less pressing concerns, planning ahead and problem-solving. This deprivation can lead to a life absorbed by preoccupations that impose ongoing cognitive deficits and reinforce self-defeating actions…When you focus heavily on one thing, there is just less mind to devote to other things. We call it tunneling — as you devote more and more to dealing with scarcity you have less and less for other things in your life.” — American Psychological Association

It’s something I touched on in an old podcast episode about the viability of UBI .

When you have to devote precious mental resources to dealing with scarcity, you have little brainpower left to climb Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and achieve self-actualisation.