Multi-tasking is out, single-tasking is in. Ever since I started teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, I encouraged people to slow down, focus and do one thing at a time. In these days of multiple electronic communication devices doing tasks serially is sacrilegious.
Recently a major productivity blog, Web Worker Daily did a post on the switch to single-tasking. To master single tasking “means ignoring any urge to procrastinate, and making sure that you prioritize very carefully in advance, lest you realize too late that what you thought was most urgent actually could’ve taken a back seat to something else.”
There is a plethora of programs to facilitate multi-tasking. They help you manage a huge amount of information simultaneously. Don’t get me wrong, you often need to juggle several data balls in the air at the same time. Having a system or program that helps will decrease your stress, yet having these systems used all the time will prevent you from single-tasking.
Traditional task management and GTD apps like Remember the Milk and Things for the Mac are great for handling multiple tasks, but they aren’t so great for when you want to drill down and focus on only one at a time. Inevitably, the specter of everything else you have to get done remains present, so it’s hard to devote yourself to any one thing wholeheartedly.
I remember in one of our first classes back in the mid ‘90’s we had a VP for a local bank. He was proud that he had two phones, never took a lunch, worked 60 hours a week, and never was done. Before the class ended, he only had one phone, took lunches and worked 40 per week. Not only was he less stressed, he got more done using mindfulness to focus on the present moment and the present task.
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Great post Owen. Maybe one of the reasons I am stressed a lot is because I don’t slow down. I feel like I have to be doing something all the time or else I feel lazy, unproductive, a time-waster. It is so hard for me to remember to breathe and with all of the GTD apps linking to other apps I feel an obligation to get even more done. I am drowning in this “I-have-to-do-everything-by-myself” mindset but trying to work on “I-should-do-this-now-and-that-later” one. Thanks for the reminder to take it one task at a time.
The cure for ADD!