In a previous post, I compared the way our brain works to a bingo ball tumbler. Here’s a recap…
- Our thoughts are like the bingo balls.
- Our minds are like the tumbler.
- Inside the tumbler, unconscious thoughts bounce around doing all kinds of things like running body functions, solving problems, staying alert for danger and opportunity, and so on. Lots of things happening at once.
- But only one bingo ball runs down the slot of conscious thought at a time.
We don’t normally think about unconscious thought. When we think about thinking, we’re thinking about conscious thinking. And it’s vital to remember that conscious thoughts can only happen one at a time.
This is why we can’t listen to two conversations at once, or text a friend without missing some of the television show. In the split-second moment we’re focused on one thing, we’re blocking out all other things.
Which means there’s no such thing as multitasking at the conscious level. What looks like multitasking is really fast switching between one conscious thought and another as the balls run down the slot over time.
