‘Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.’ ~Alexander Graham Bell
Many of us grew up in the age of multi-tasking, where you couldn’t call yourself productive if you weren’t a good multi-tasker. We learned to always have several balls in the air at once — while writing something on the computer, we had a phone call going, we were writing something on a notepad or paper form, we were reviewing documents, sometimes even holding a meeting at the same time. That’s the productive worker, the effective executive.
When email and Instant Messaging and blogs and the rest of the Internet came along, multi-tasking went haywire. Now we’re expected to do 10 things on the computer at once, still with the paper, phone, and meetings going, along with texting and Blackberry Messaging. Multi-tasking is no longer about being productive — it’s a way of living.
It’s not a sane way of living, however, and it’s not necessarily the most effective way of working either. A few notes on why:
* Multi-tasking is less efficient, due to the need to switch gears for each new task, and the switch back again.
* Multi-tasking is more complicated, and thus more prone to stress and errors.
* Multi-tasking can be crazy, and in this already chaotic world, we need to reign in the terror and find a little oasis of sanity and calm.
* Our brains can really only handle one thing at a time, and so we get so used to switching between one thing and another with our brains that we program them to have a short attention span. This is why it’s so hard to learn to focus on one thing at a time again.
A single-tasking life
Imagine instead, a single-tasking life. Imagine waking and going for a run, as if running were all you do. Nothing else is on your mind but the run, and you do it to the very best of your abilities. Then you eat, enjoying every flavorful bite of your fresh breakfast of whole, unprocessed foods. You read a novel, as if nothing else in the world existed. You do your work, one task at a time, each task done with full focus and dedication. You spend time with loved ones, as if nothing else existed.
This is summed up very well by something Charles Dickens once wrote, “He did each single thing as if he did nothing else.” This is a life lived fully in the moment, with a dedication to doing the best you can in anything you do — whether that’s a work project or making green tea.
If you live your life this way, by this single principle, it will have tremendous effects:
This article was printed with permission by Leo Babauta of the popular Zen Habits blog. You can also follow him on Twitter.
Thank you for an awesome summary! I have read multiple books out there to gather all the info above! I have been practicing for a year...and its great. It was refreshing to see this summary. For the nay sayers below...just go and try it, don't worry about references. I mean ..are you really going to go read a neuroscience book that states "the brain can focus on one thing at a time". You will have to read the whole book to get to that one conclusion! Much gratitude!
Mr. Leo Babauta,
Are you talking about some writer's life??Man, this can only happen if u r associated wid this profession & if r going to follow this.. Believe me u r dead!!
IF charles dickens would be in this era..he definitrly changes his statement..
I love this article and am going to make a copy to keep handy to remind myself to focus on the present moment. You have explained it in a way that makes it easier to understand and more concrete than I have seen before. Thank you!
Susan
This is my first Daily Good article after being recommended by a friend and I am disappointed. You make some very strong statements about the effectiveness of multitasking without any references to backup those statements.
Martin
What a gift your newsletter is to the world. There's so much negative energy out there, so I always look to see what you've published each day. I'm so glad that I found your site. Thanks for all that you do to increase the energy frequency of the planet.
On Sep 19, 2023 Ashley wrote:
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