Master Single-tasking

Working on multiple tasks at a time sounds cool. You feel like super productive. But I don’t think so. People doing multitasking seem to be slow and less productive and seem to make mistakes frequently. Because they always look too busy and have too many things to do. They have no control on their tasks.

I would like to be good at single-tasking rather than at multitasking. Some people may think single-tasking is for those who are lack of skill. That’s wrong. It’s that you focus on one thing solely and carefully. And it’s way better and faster than multitasking if you could work on things one by one.

Doing Multiple Things Simultaneously is Not Efficient

It is not really efficient than you think that you focus on something while doing other things. For example, you can fully taste foods if you solely ate them but you can’t if eating them while watching TVs. Humans don’t have so much resource to pay attention to things, and you will get large overheads which you can’t ignore if you use the limited resource for multiple tasks. Overhead is an indirect costs of doing tasks. For instance, when you are driving a car, you always have to slow down before turning at a corner so that you won’t crash into it. That’s the overhead. Humans need such indirect costs to switch their brains. That’s why multitasking is not so good.

There is a well-established pile of evidence that multitasking is actually counterproductive:

…the power of multitasking is a myth. Human beings are, essentially, single-core processors. We can’t effectively check our email, listen to someone asking us for feedback on a project, and take notes simultaneously. We can do it, sure, but everything suffers. Juggling tasks divides your attention, increases the time spent refocusing on important tasks (making you less productive), often gives people the impression that you aren’t completely focused on them (because you’re not), and robs you of a powerful focus you could be directing towards a single important task. — Jason Fitzpatrick, lifehacker

I like work on tasks while listening to music. But to be honest, I think that also would affect my productivity. Yes, it makes me feel better and feel less stressed. However, I wonder if it improves productivity. That’s because brain needs to be supplied oxygen to work. It also consumes some oxygen for listening to music.

Single-tasking is to Focus Solely on One Task

I found myself that BGM is even distractive after having meditation. It lets me get rid of useless ideas and increase my concentration. In that state, music would be unnecessary stimulation. And then, I feel I’m doing completely single-tasking.

I found an interesting passage in a book written by Toshinao Sasaki. In a dialogue between two men, a martial artist who talked about how great about his martial arts asked a Zen master: “You are a famous Zen master, but what can you do?” Then he answered as follows:

“I can only do one thing. When I walk, I will walk. When I eat, I will eat. When I speak, I will speak.”

Ah, he is really single-task, ultimately. Of course, that would be an extreme case, but I get similar feelings when having a meditation. So when I listen to music, I will listen to music.

Don’t Waste Your Energy

The Internet is distractive. There are a lot of stimulations that make us hard to retain our concentrations. Tons of interesting videos are being uploaded on YouTube every second, SNS inflames our desire for recognition, and news thrusts us serious social problems. When I happen to touch my smartphone, I sometimes suspect that my action is driven not by my own intention but by other person’s. Without knowing, we are trained on the internet.

So, you can realize many things when you focus on things one by one. Take a breath, and exhale. Walk, and think. That lets you recognize you are here. I guess that’s called mindfulness which they say, but I don’t care because it’s just a buzzward.

In other words, single-tasking is a method that frees you from unnecessary stimulations, lets you avoid wasting your energy, and lets you focus on each one thing. I would even call it lifestyle. Your energy is limited. Let’s concentrate.