The Art of Single-Tasking

Being a woman, I sometimes feel like, in order to occupy this space called 'female', I need to have mastered the art of multi-tasking. This traditional way of thinking has led many women to believe that they should practice doing ten different things at once, and do them well. Men, you're probably thinking right now, "how come I feel this same expectation?". I totally get that, and I believe in today's world, which is now predominantly online, everyone feels like they need to multitask just to stay afloat, or to stay 'on top of things', as people like to say.

For example, on a day last week I was sitting on my bed, working. While working, I found myself replaying past events in my head and at the same time envisioning a potential meetup with friends. While my mind was being stretched in two directions, I was trying to focus on being in the present. Ya'll, side note, but who's with me in that 'living in the now' feels like a task all in its own, and an often unachievable one at that? Anyway, the 'present' I was trying to focus on was the email I was reading, while I was participating in a work meeting over zoom. As chickpeas bubbled away on the stove, I quickly switched to my blog post that I was halfway through, being careful not to smudge my wet nails. In all this busyness that was going on, I thought to myself, you're doing great! This is what we were designed to do right? Like, this is totally going to be okay! Well, it wasn't okay, and that, Friend, is okay!

I have one brain. Even though I may perform many activities simultaneously, research shows that these activities, especially when they are similar, compete to have the focus of my one brain. What feels like multitasking is actually just switching between activities while my brain can and does focus on only one activity at a time.

Question: have you ever smelt burnt chickpeas? It stinks! And it literally takes days for the smell to leave your little apartment, leaving the awful stench on your carpets and curtains. And, that email I was reading? I couldn't tell you what it said, nor what my colleague was talking about over zoom. I may have attended the meeting, replied to the email, and started this blog post, but there was nail polish everywhere, and my roommates had closed their doors from the smell, and I was feeling stressed, and anxious. My heart rate was high, and I was being 'busy'. That's good, right? If anyone were to ask me what I did that day, I could spill out the million-and-one things I had done like a proud, accomplished, 'I-made-it' female who knows how to multitask like a boss. I'm getting stressed just reading this. It's what we strive for, but today, Friend, I'd like to put forward to you an alternative option: the possibly more productive and less stressful art of single-tasking.

Over the last few days, I have experimented with focusing on one thing at a time rather than many things at once. What I have discovered has been refreshing and surprising. It surprised me how difficult it was for me to focus on only what was in front of me in the moment. I hadn't noticed before how easy it was for me to get distracted from what I was doing until I consciously focused on paying attention to the task in hand. I was also surprised at the rate at which I could get things done when giving each task my full attention. I would come home from the grocery store with my bags full of everything I would need for the week, and my friend would say, whoa that was quick! And it was. I left the house with the job of buying groceries solely on my mind. I used the walk to the store to make my list. I was honest with myself and didn't turn on the podcast station, but allowed myself to listen to music that calmed me in the moment but didn't take my attention from the task at hand. By focusing for a half-hour only on the single task of buying groceries for the week, I was able to make good buying decisions and get it done in record time.

I also found it refreshing to focus on one task at a time. I found I was less exhausted and less anxious in general. By centering myself on what was before me at the moment, I had more headspace. This is a hot word right now because so many of us are struggling with it. Because we are doing too many things at once, we feel restless, and we feel like we don't have enough capacity to "deal with everything right now." Am I right?

Think about it: how can you be mindful when your mind is being stretched thin between so many thinking-and-doing tasks? I believe that we are designed and equipped for work: good-work, and hard-work. Am I the only one who feels like a fish out of water in this culture of busy-work? What if work could be beautiful again, and the mundane, everyday tasks could be enjoyable? Wouldn't it be just divine if we had the headspace to welcome the unexpected? I have found that by working on a single task at a time, I have been able to respond to unanticipated events with a clear mind and ready spirit. Whether its a sudden information dump during a meeting, or an unplanned bump-into-a-friend at the mall, if I have had only one task on my mind and that same task in my hand at one time, I can handle, and even enjoy, these 'distractions', without getting stressed or anxious. Another beautiful outcome of single-tasking you might find is that you notice more - the particular blue of the sky today, the sadness in a friend's eyes. It will be easier to listen and not just hear, and you may really see instead of just looking.

How can you do this?

Experiment. Be honest with yourself. Ask yourself, how am I feeling? Make a list. Give each task your full attention for a set time. Take breaks. Breathe. Turn off distractions. Say no. Set aside time for thinking. Most of all, go easy on yourself. Habits take time to form and longer to break. Let's encourage each other in this, and, as best we can, let's focus on living life one moment at a time.

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