The Art of Solo-tasking

I often hear people bragging that they are "great at multi-tasking." I think this is a skill we believe should be rewarded. We are more efficient because we can do more than one thing at a time. The problem is, we are all multi-taskers. In 2017, everyone is doing more than one thing at a time. People are alternating focus between three electronic devices at once. We have 12 tabs open on their computer. We can't even wait to get to our destination before answering an email on our phone while driving. You might think this is usually a good thing because are more productive people. You may be right. But what I have found is that I may be great at multi-tasking, but I am TERRIBLE at solo-tasking.

Let me give you an example. I first noticed this several months back when I started getting into audiobooks. I put my headphones in one evening and sat down on my couch to listen to a chapter. My phone lit up and I read the text message. I remembered I needed something at the grocery store so I made myself a note. I saw some trash across the room and went and cleaned it up. I decided I was hungry and wandered into the kitchen. 20 minutes had gone by and I couldn't remember anything that happened in the story.

You may think the story must have been bad if it didn't keep my attention, but I have listened to many different books, many very good and still struggle every time. I have to walk on my treadmill or doodle in my notebook just to maintain focus on the words coming out of my headphones. I just can't sit in one spot and listen. Isn't that terrible?

So I've been working on being better at this by creating spaces and activities that allow for only one task at a time. When I do homework, I do it in a room without a television and I leave my phone somewhere else. When I go hiking, I purposefully drain my phone battery to about 30% just so I'm not tempted to open up Facebook or Spotify as often and I just focus on the sounds of nature and the act of walking, one foot in front of the other. Today, I went for ice cream. I sat by myself outside in the sun and just ate ice cream for like 15 minutes while watching people walk by. For someone who usually plans lessons or does homework while cramming food down my mouth at lunch, a person who would be in and out of the dining hall in college in 10 minutes at times, this was a big deal. I go to movies at the theater by myself because I am forced to only watch the movie for a 2 hour block (Sidebar: People act like it is sad to go to the theater alone, but are you actually talking to someone while you watch a movie? Movies aren't social events, so I don't understand...but that's a subject for another blog). Last night I even made it through 30 minutes of my audiobook without losing focus. One step at a time.