How Multitasking Articles Boosted My Creativity

Having trouble with imagination? Be a multitasker.

Does the brain follow your willpower to perform several tasks at the same time?

Is it healthy?

Is it fun?

Cause I found myself doing it in my day-to-day routine.

I always did read multiple books at the same time. I still have 5 books on my bedside table, and another 3 on the floor right next to the sofa.

Yet, at the present time, I get myself starting an article in my breakfast, continuing it at lunch, and finish it after putting my daughters to sleep at night.

Let me explain to you who it works.

I’m Multitasking. I Can Listen, Ignore and Forget at the Same Time

I know I’m fighting against an impossible opponent. Several studies prove that I’m not doing things as they should be.

Harvard Business School writes that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers.

I get it.

Yet, I always did read several books at the same time.

I love it.

Reading the same story from start to the end itches me.

I love to have different authors teaching me, at the same time, totally different things, sometimes opposite ideas.

One day I was reading Nobel Prime Winner José Saramago.

Hard reading.

I adore Saramago. One of the most iconic Portuguese writers. One of the most intelligent writers. But 9 out of 10 Portuguese run away from reading him.

He hardly respects the rules of grammar (more or less like me), ironing the whole society with unusual subtlety and observation capacity, but it’s tough to read it.

On the other hand, at the same time, I was reading one of my favorite books from Howard Marks about the stock market.

For me, those two themes were so unequal, that it was fun to shift from one to another.

Somehow this shifting stimulates my creativity. I can’t explain to you how. It just boosts my imagination.

The History of the Siege of Lisbon was a brilliant piece from Saramago. Not one of his bests, but it’s always so good to hear his voice. He died in June of 2010, but I can still hear him. Why?

I read 10 books from Saramago. He was the reason I started my writing journey. Also, one of the authors that really pushed my intelligence to the limit. Let me offer you one of my favorite quotes from him:

“Human nature is, by definition, a talkative one, imprudent, indiscreet, gossipy, incapable of closing its mouth, and keeping it closed.”

Yet, I couldn’t just read José. So I added Howard Marks to the letter soup, with his Mastering the Cycles.

A mix between a historical novel and a strategic long time investing theory.

How about that?

You think I’m crazy, right?

Have you ever tried?

Writing Is Mainly Perspiration, Not Inspiration

Sometimes, when you’re trying to write about something, and words don’t come easily, you have to see it from another perspective.

That’s why when we’re writing on Medium about something that really matters, we have to read pieces from different angles.

As you consume more and more articles, you start to find that some (a lot) of them talk about the same issues.

You can find awesome pieces from different writers, talking about the same thing, but you love them all. Brilliantly written. With lots of authority. With links to reviews from the most popular universities in the world.

Yet, everyone seems to be right, but nevertheless, only one can be right, right?

Probably not.

The best ideas emerge when very different perspectives meet.- Frans Johansson

If everyone suddenly stopped argue, that means there’s nothing left to fight for.

The beauty of being part of this project called Medium is to make part of thousands of perspectives.

Each brain is one world. One opinion. One argument. One thought.

All of them are important. Everyone matters.

Now imagine the beauty of it.

Navigate endlessly among words, letters, thoughts, arguments, and in the end, survive.

Feeding on pieces of ideas. Grabbing them all, mix it in a magic cup called creativity, and show it to the world.

The Power of Multitasking Within Articles

Working from 9 to 5 and writing during the breaks has been my latest radical adventure.

I don’t know why, but during my work, I still keep producing ideas and thoughts. I can’t stop it.

Last month, I start writing little pieces of ideas at breakfast on my phone. Then I found myself completing breakfast ideas, but at lunchtime. Always using my phone, I was alone at dinner, and guess what I was doing?

My writing ritual starts at 6:45 am every day without excuses.

I use my daily routines to multitask my articles.

When I wake up, I do my meditation and go to my computer. In the previous day, I wrote the structure of my most recent young article. When I sit down, I’m ready to edit it.

I take care of him (the article) with all the affection. I finish it and it’s ready to go.

Smile, the worst is yet to come.

Last month, I did a more complicated multitask challenge.

I was in the zone. My mind was full of new and refreshing ideas. I don’t know what happened to me.

However, I started to draft every piece of an idea, though, paragraph, everything.

At breakfast, lunch, dinner, bathroom. I never felt this way.

I hope you can have these crazy weeks one day. Where your brain is so full of new interactions, that you just want to put them on paper, notebook, phone, anywhere.

I have 10 new articles on draft, waiting for me to edit them in a proper way.

I hope you’ll learn something from them. Have fun reading them. Get new ideas from them.

Writing, with or without multitasking, is a gift.

I hope I can always bring something new for you to enjoy.

Because that’s more than enough for me.

Thank you,

Nuno

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