Everybody around has been talking about multi-tasking for a long time. How it is a superpower and a life saver. Lately, I have come across the term mono-tasking, which is relatively new and simply means doing only one thing at a time. I was like, Yeah, I know what’s the big deal about it. I couldn’t understand the importance of it unless I started facing some issues in my personal and professional life.

Multi-tasking has been there for a long time now. It was in demand in the corporate world in the late 80s and 90s, where people could get a lot more done in less time. People could prepare reports while simultaneously writing an email and munching sneakers on the side. New studies have revealed that humans really can’t multi-task. In fact, it is detrimental to the brain, and it cannot perform two cognitive activities at the same time. Some of the things that I have been experiencing myself have reduced my productivity overall.

Multitasking brain zone out quite often

How many times have you zoned out while talking to somebody, regardless of your interest in the topic? Lately, it has been happening to me a ton of times. I am talking to someone, and he is telling me an interesting story. I want to listen to it with my 100% senses, but my brain keeps zoning out to where I will go after this, what I will eat, and stupid things. You have missed all the important events in the story, and the other guy asks for validation.

It turns out that this is a muscle that we have developed; our brain realizes that the current talking activity is not as important and something more important could be handled simultaneously. This might be due to the decreasing attention span because of social media and too much content consumption. I just couldn't stand the fact that the most basic thing when somebody is talking I should be able to understand everything, is getting lost

Don't fill the gaps between the work.

This happens to almost everybody in every line of work, where they have just started to work, preparing all the things they are going to do and how they are going to do, and now you have warmed up that task in your mind. Suddenly, you got stuck because you might need some login credentials or some information from another co-worker and you pinged them. The co-worker will obviously not reply until a few minutes; the things that we do within that time would be checking up on Instagram quickly or taking a quick glance at Snapchat without realising what will happen.

Earlier, you had a context in your mind about the work that you were doing, and now, with Instagram and Snapchat, your context has changed to where some people were partying last night and where they were vacationing. We all do this kind of filler, where we are watching some podcast/movie and an unskippable ad comes along. We won't just wait. In that time, we will try to check our phones and take a quick glance at Instagram. If we closely notice, we are shifting our brains focus too many times and not giving it time to stay on the topic. People cannot watch a movie for two straight hours on a single topic; they keep texting in between or thinking about something else.

Pitfalls of multi-tasking

The biggest problem with multi-tasking is that it does not allow us to do complex tasks and keeps us busy with simple, stupid tasks. Whenever I face a bug in my code, my multi-tasking brain instantly tells me to reply to the email/chat, make some calls, or take a break. It stops me from doing actual work, which leads to procrastination, and at the end of the day, it satisfies us by checking off the simple stupid task on our to do list. A pro multi-tasker, his brain won't allow him to do any deep work as it holds attention for a long time.

How monotasking can help

If you are talking to somebody, deliberately and intentionally focus 100% on the topic. You will lose focus and zone out, but you have to keep getting yourself back from wandering.

Dont try to fill gaps with another content medium; let me explain if you are waiting for information or an ad. Just get up, stretch, look out into the window, or maybe take a piss (but don't take your phone along with you). The point is that if you are watching content in the gap, you should not consume another content so that your brain’s focus will not shift.

Write in bold everywhere (Just like I did on my office notice board)

I will focus only on one thing at a time

I will listen with my 100% attention if I am talking to somebody

I will not try to multi-task

I have been doing quite a bit of research on the topic of mono-tasking, I truly believe that with growing distractions and decreasing attention spans, there will be very few people in society who will be able to sit with the topic in the near future. Mono-tasking will be the most demanding skill in the future.

I would like to think mono-tasking is like Javascript. It is Single threaded, can do fast and complex operations, but is not beginner friendly at all. I have been actively implementing mono-tasking in my life since then, and I have seen compensable results. Many books and YouTube videos could be found for this topic. One of my favorites is Deep Work by Cal Newport. I would highly recommend this to anyone who has been struggling with productivity.