Single-Task Your Way to More Writing
June 10, 2011
9 Comments
Do you have a to-do list? Who doesn’t, right? I usually have several. It’s the only way I can remember to take a shower half the time. If it’s not on paper, it ain’t gonna happen.
As a rule, I’m a supporter of to-do lists. In the past (until being hit upside the head recently) I was also a supporter of trying to accomplish as many things on my to-do list as I could simultaneously.
Yes, you read that right. Shower AND make notes for future blog posts at the same time, check. (That’s why God created the AquaNotes Waterproof Notepad.) If I could have found a way to sort laundry at the same time, I would have, believe me.
Sometimes this worked for me. Other times…not so much.
Multitaskers’ Anonymous
In my quest to do as much as possible with every moment of my time, I frequently checked e-mail, Facebook, my Amazon stats, and did Google research for my book…while I was supposed to be doing my day job. If I had to pause for 30 seconds to a minute while waiting for the next report to load, I’d jump over to e-mail. Nothing there? How about Facebook?
One minute I’d be in the middle of transcribing a report about someone’s dermatologic condition and the next I’d be googling my way through eczema sites trying to find the magic cure for my son’s stubborn skin problems. By the time I’d remember that I was seated at the computer to work, 30 minutes would have passed.
Which meant tacking 30 minutes onto the end of my day to make it up. Multiply this by 3-4 times a day and you get a clear picture why I was constantly bemoaning my lack of writing time.
Like an addict, the first step to recovery is admission that you have a problem. As my friends will attest, I complained about this horrible habit of mine for years. Recognizing the problem wasn’t fixing the problem. I had to be willing to do something about it, which clearly I wasn’t.
What made me ready to fix it? Screwing up my checking account to the tune of $900 by double-entering my husband’s paycheck amount in our checkbook instead of entering mine. Which meant I felt richer than I was, which meant I paid a bunch of medical bills, bought my daughter new glasses, and didn’t hold back at the grocery store.
The result was U.G.L.Y. My poor savings account took the brunt of it, and I had frankly had enough. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that I’d probably been paying bills at the same time I was downloading music to my MP3 player and cooking dinner.
The only way to fix my money problem, was to earn more money, which I could do by quitting the multitasking cold turkey and focusing on one thing at a time. Which would also, hopefully, prevent similar mistakes in the future AND give me more writing time.
The Problem with Multitasking
Multitasking is practically a religion these days, but I would posit that it’s ruining your life. Doing too many things at once leaves you stressed (because you’re simultaneously thinking of all the other things that still need to be done), makes you accomplish less (because switching between tasks tends leads to having to take time to refocus yourself each time you do so), and opens you up to mistakes.
But, to think of it in terms of being a Happy Writer: you’re working on you latest chapter, answering the phone, frying up a batch of chicken for dinner, refereeing the kids fighting over video games in the living room, and that book is NOT getting the best you can give it. You may feel like you’re accomplishing a lot, but something is going to suffer. The dinner will burn, the person on the other end of the phone will feel neglected because you’re asking them to repeat themselves, and the book will be crap.
You’ll be stressed because, subconsciously, you’ll know one of those balls you’ve got up in the air is going to come crashing down any second now. Any bets it will likely be the writing?
There’s another way though. It’s called single-tasking.
Single-tasking for Dummies
Single-tasking is a kind of Zen thing that is exactly what it says: Doing one thing at a time.
It means when I’m doing my day job, I’m doing my day job. I’m not chatting on the phone when my dad calls to shoot the breeze (I can call him back later). I’m not researching small towns in the Pacific NW for my WIP (the internet will still be available when my shift is done). I’m not checking Facebook for status updates in between sentences because the doctor took a moment to breathe (because it really doesn’t matter what my friends are doing right this second).
Single-tasking is focusing on one thing at a time until it’s done and then moving on.
That single item become the most important thing for you do to at that moment.
It’s tough to get single-tasking when you are used to doing so much at once. But let me tell you, in my case, motivated by the need to make up for my money deficit, I needed to make single-tasking work. I needed to make more money without working hours of OT, so that I could still write.
Once I got going, I did better than I ever imagined. At the end of a 2-week experiment in single-tasking my day job, I had the most productive (read: most $$ made) pay period ever, I worked no more than 1 hour total over my scheduled hours over the entire pay period (instead of 1-2 hours a DAY extra that I had been doing), and I made my first 100% quality score in 6 years of employment with this company.
I accomplished every work goal I had to set for myself over the past few years in one pay period!
Through focusing on a single task at a time.
I accomplished more around my house, in my writing, and in every other area of my life, too, because my work wasn’t taking over my life.
How did I do it? Here are some tips:
1) Decide on one regular task you need to focus on. This can be work, your writing, another project with a deadline that’s taking longer than you want it to. Just pick one.
2) Devote your attention to that project for a chosen period of time. Don’t do anything else. Think of it as a kind of meditation.
3) Turn off distractions. No phones (that’s what voicemail is for), no television, no laundry. All of this can be done later.
4) Keep a notebook handy. When you think of something that you need to do or want to do instead of focusing on your task, write it down. Then it is safe from that sieve-like thing you call a memory. (Oh wait! That might just be me.) You can research small towns later because it’s on your list.
5) Find a focal point. When you feel yourself becoming distracted, find your focal point and take 3 deep breaths. I used this constantly during my experiment. When doctors paused in their dictation and I felt like running for my blog feed reader, I pulled myself back to the task and breathed through their pause. Good for mind and body simultaneously (the only kind of multitasking allowed)!
So, what do you think you might try this on? It can be anything in your life (because everything affects everything else, right?).
Image credit: GViciano
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Hi I’m Dani and I’m a compulsive multi-tasker…. My biggest challenge is focus and I think I just need permission to do ONE THING AT A TIME. I remember when we thought computers would one day make our lives easier — instead, we’re expected to do more than ever in every aspect of our lives. Thanks for another great blog.
Oh, yeah! Computers and the internet are a HUGE factor in my multitasking issues! No one in my family JUST watches TV or a movie…we all have our laptops and are doing other things. I wonder half the time why I don’t remember a movie or why I don’t get what’s happening. Could it be because I’m not paying attention to JUST the movie? I need to rethink that, too!
check out a site dedicated to single tasking
http://singletask.org
Thanks for the link, Laddy! That’s a good resource!
Amen to that! Wow I have never read a post that speaks to me moreso than this one. This is something that I have been trying to rectify in my own life. I’ve been using the technique in the book “Perform Like A Rock Star and Still Have Time for Lunch”, prioritizing my goals, where your day is a pickle jar, and in it are rocks, pebbles, sand, and water.
The rocks are your absolute proirities that set everything else in motion: in my case, my web design business, which pays my bills and helps to keep moving my life forward. The pebbles are the smaller tasks that help to support the rocks, such as maintainance of completed jobs, and marketing for new jobs. The sand, while not fully supporting your larger tasks, are the things that will eventually become a higher priority in setting up your future; here is where I place my blogging and writing, then there’s the water: the tasks that will always be there, such as e-mails, social networking, laundry, grocery shopping, telling your boyfriend to pick up his damn socks, and so forth.
I realized I had been focusing way too much on the water, and hardly enough on the rocks, the thought being that if I decluttered the little things I would have more time for the rocks. Not so, since the next day there would be a completely new flood of water to deal with.
Since using this technique to prioritize my time, I am finding that I am making slow improvements, weening myself off of multi-tasking so that my body doesn’t go into shock from quitting cold turkey.
Krissy Brady, Writer recently posted..Freelance Writing 101- Create Your Writing Space
“…the thought being that if I decluttered the little things I would have more time for the rocks. Not so, since the next day there would be a completely new flood of water to deal with.”
Oh, that is VERY much my way of dealing with things, Krissy! Great analogy. I need to get that book. Was it you who mentioned it here a while back? I’ve been thinking of it ever since. :)
I completely get that way of thinking about it. My day job (as much as I would like to leave it) is my rock. The thing that pays the bills, etc. It should definitely have priority. And, I’ve discovered, when I give it my priority, I work fewer hours and make more money. I will be really excited to see my first paycheck tomorrow since my single-tasking experiment. I think it will probably just boost my resolve to keep at it. :)
I think I did mention the book here before! It really is wonderful. There was quite a bit of the book that was more meant for those who work in a corporate environment, but a lot of the rules apply to yourself when you’re setting your own pace to transition into what you’re truly meant to do. I’m using my current business as my testing ground for when I’m ready to make the switch.
I completely agree with you–I’ve been attempting to turn everything around so I stop slowly going backwards–it’s going to be nice when I begin reaping the rewards. :)
Keep it up! I’ll be in your corner!
Krissy Brady, Writer recently posted..Freelance Writing 101- Create Your Writing Space