One Thing at a Time

I’ve largely given up multitasking. Why? Because people like Christopher Penn, Paul Atchley, and Peter Bregman convinced me to give it a try, and my own experience confirmed their conclusions. All I had to do was keep my to-do list out of my head and focus on whatever was my top priority at a time.

This is, of course, one of those things that’s simple and not easy, like running a marathon.¹ So I trained for it like I would a marathon — by building up mileage. When I started, thirty minutes of focus was a struggle. Soon, blocks of thirty minutes knit together into hours. Before I knew it, the temptation to multitask faded away. I haven’t looked back.

¹ Running a marathon is simple: Start running and stop 26.2 miles later. Simple, not easy.

Comments

[Fred Hicks]

This is something I've been contending with for a while. My general methodology for dealing with the multitask-rich environment is to narrow the focus to two questions: What now? and What next? I find it's just as useful as focusing on just one thing at a time (What now?) to keep in mind what I'm doing right afterwards (What next?). So if I'm on a roll and pounding through the Now chain, reaching for Next instinctively rather than losing some cycles to figuring out Next once Now is done.

Managing the multitasking temptation has also lead to me taking a week off from Twitter starting late last week, and I gotta say it's been nice for its results -- but like you said, it's a simple thing but not an easy thing. I had at least compartmentalized my twitter habit to my iPad, keeping it off my desktop generally, but I spend enough time away from my desktop that I had to delete the twitter app from my iPad in order to keep myself from using it every chance I got.

The work's still going on shedding the multitasking urge, but I seem to like where it's headed.

[Rob Donoghue]

I have a post-it on the bottom of my monitor which reads, in big, bold sharpie, "WHAT AM I DOING?"

Makes a useful reminder.

-Rob D.

[Paul]

Fred,

Yeah, the "What next?" step can be chasm that is easy to fall into. Minimizing the space between tasks is key (unless it's time to take a break, of course). One advantage I've found of taking on fewer projects is that the "what next" for each of them is easier to recall. To use a computer analogy: With fewer projects I can can keep the next step for each of them in local cache, rather than having to go to disk.

Rob,

YES!

[Christina]

I dunno. I'm not a fan of multitasking with media. But done right, multitasking can create a fullness of experience that draws you into being more present, rather than less. I think you haven't lived until you've started doing most of your kitchen prep on your car hood so that you can wave to your daughter through the windshield and throw kale stems at her (magically stopped by the windshield! zomg!) and then still have dinner later. Yes, sometimes multitasking chores is just stressful. But it's also true that some of my best memories with Rebecca involve doing things alongside other things. That's because needing to multitask introduces a space for creativity and the unexpected that sometimes goes missing when she and I are spending "quality time" together. Whether multitasking pays off is about creating poetic juxtapositions, about combinations whose timing complements each other (I can totally chop these mushrooms while the bacon fries and the pasta water heats! flow state!), and about balancing your quality standards versus whatever benefits you get from multitasking.

[Christina]

Also, I know this isn't exactly what you're talking about, but how well media / communications multitasking works for me in everyday life has a lot to do with the article we were talking about a while back, about how sensory input affects your perception of a situation (heavy clipboards = serious job applicants, etc.). So it was helpful to be in my garden planting broccoli when my mom called to tell me about her initial cancer diagnosis; I was sending myself a message that was life-affirming and grounding. On the other hand, it absolutely does not help to be having an emotional conversation with Ted while I'm chasing Rebecca down the hall trying to get her shirt on.