“One thing at a time!!!” is a common saying around our house as my daughter tries to alternate between watching her brother’s Pokémon show on TV and reading a book. Or as my son tries to play NBA Live on his phone while sneaking an occasional peek as his sister learns how to eat corn-on-the-cob with a power drill on YouTube.We know that letting our attention shift, willy-nilly, from one thing to another - i.e. “task-switching” - is not such a good thing. And that it can have quite a few negative consequences, like increased distractibility, mistakes, and anxiety - despite how common a phenomenon it is in our distraction-filled world today.But on the flip side, is the intense, laser-like focus where we put our blinders on, and beat our heads against the wall, trying to brute force our way to a solution, even though deep down, we know we’re totally stuck and probably ought to move on.So what is the most effective and efficient way to maximize our creative problem-solving abilities?The answer is a little surprising. Because it’s not something most people would think to do - and at first glance, sounds like it’d actually be kind of annoying.Source