A couple of years ago, I was planning a workshop for Montrose School’s Sophomore Symposium. Specifically, I was searching for a powerful story could I use to remind students of one of the core lessons from the middle school’s signature “Habits of Mind” class: 

Multitasking is a myth.

I came across this riveting clip from Captain Sully Sullenberger –  a clip I drew on again for a recent feature in Deseret Magazine:

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is best known for the “miracle on the Hudson,” successfully landing a commercial airliner on the river after both engines were disabled by birds. In recounting how he approached this unthinkable task, he said he relied on more than his aviation training: He drew from his understanding of neuroscience.

“I know that multitasking is a myth. I knew that when we think we’re multitasking, what we’re really doing is switching rapidly between tasks and not doing any of them well.” Instead of trying to do everything in those pivotal minutes, he said he “chose to do only the most important things but do them very, very well.”

We are in a crisis of attention – and I’m not just talking about students. Adults are also struggling with focus and executive function skills. 

I’m raising my hand over here (me! me!). 

And you are probably raising your hand, too.

When my mind is scattered and my attention feels sapped, I draw on tools that I practiced and honed during the four years I spent teaching “Habits of Mind.” As I taught students more about how their brains work –  using Barbara Oakley’s Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying as a core text – it reminded me over and over again that our small choices add up. Choices like uni-tasking instead of multitasking, using the Pomodoro method to strengthen neural pathways and replenish attention and prioritizing sleep and exercise as study (and life) strategies.

Montrose was the first school in the country to use Oakley’s book –  in fact, that first year she wrote a wonderful letter to students, answering their lingering questions. I reached out to her again for this most recent article. 

As she reminded me:

“You can’t keep running at top speed for hours at a time, just as you can’t run at top speed mentally for hours at a time.” Most people can only devote their “top mental concentration” for an average of four hours a day. 

Luckily, learning also happens during downtime. In fact, purposefully building in brain breaks supports both attention and cognition. Oakley describes this as deliberately shifting between “focused mode and default mode.” 

Default mode can be described as wakeful rest: daydreaming or mind-wandering. Think of the sudden insights you have while taking a shower, walking the dog or driving a familiar route with the radio off. These are moments when you aren’t actively focusing on a task and yet your brain is still at work in the background. Research shows that default mode supports creativity, memory consolidation and cognitive connections. Even short mental breaks give the brain time to connect “new learning with other previous things you’ve learned,” says Oakley.

When we help students understand the habits of mind –  underpinned by neuroscience –  that help us flourish as learners, they are equipped to make better choices. While I’ve passed the baton for teaching the “Habits of Mind” class to other capable teachers, I am forever grateful for how this signature Montrose class changed me as a lifelong learner.