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Zen and the Art of Single-Tasking
Aug. 16th, 2010 07:40 pm
Everyone who knows me knows what a devil of a time I have focusing. Whenever I settle down to work on a project, I can only manage it for ten or fifteen minutes at a time before I get the urge to check something else. Maybe there’s something new on EW.com. Maybe someone’s sent me an email. Or maybe there’s a new person following me on Twitter that I’d better check out. The worst thing about Web 2.0, I think, is the boundless opportunity for distractions. It seems like every second of every day, there’s all kinds of new content to take in. There are Twitter messages, or blog posts, or Facebook updates, or comics...the list goes on. It’s getting increasingly more difficult to step outside of the information stream for any length of time. Once you get used to dozens of instant updates on a wide variety of topics every fifteen minutes, you really miss that information overload.
Of course, this does absolutely nothing for productivity, either in my personal or professional life. I find that it also makes me a much shallower person -- I rarely stop to really think about something for longer than five minutes before I’m off to the next thing. And the more I look around me, the more I think I’m not alone in this, that I’m the product of my time. Haven’t you noticed how loud and empty our public discourse has become? To be glib, I think the reason the far-right have hijacked the national conversation isn’t because they make the best arguments, or have facts on their side, or have managed to tap into some primal political mood and given a voice to it. The reason that Palin and Coulter and Beck are big is because they can mash things down into a meaningless -- but catchy -- phrase and repeat it over and over and over until it sticks. It sounds just good enough to repeat, and with the steady flow of information you can’t stop to think about it.
But what was I talking about again? See how free-flowing my mind has become? I sat down to write about my problems with focus and how to solve them, and then went into a broad rant about web 2.0, and how it’s affecting us as a society and how you can see that in political discourse. That’s some serious essayist ADD right there.
So, I have trouble with focus, mostly because there is limitless distraction out there and my willpower to disengage from it is very weak. This is nothing new. Neither is the fact that I’ve been struggling with the consequences of this lack of focus for some time now. I’ve been unable to write very well, or complete any of those personal projects I’ve set for myself (learning French, or Russian, or the clarinet, or Linux, or PostGreSQL), or really engage my spirituality in any sort of meaningful way. Needless to say, this continued state of affairs is very frustrating.
Thankfully, my plan to finally conquer this once and for all kind of kills two birds with one stone. The progress with it has been slow, but noticeable, but like anything else worthwhile will require constant effort and focus to maintain. One of my favorite Buddhist principles is that of mindfulness -- no matter where you are or what you’re doing, make sure you’re there and doing it completely. In fact, one of my favorite recent quotes defines wisdom this way: “Doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”
So...the best cure for this lack of attention also happens to be the most basic for me: returning to mindfulness. Just the practice of being aware of what I’m doing at all times is so simple, but the effects are huge. I’ve come around to the way of thinking that says multi-tasking is productivity’s worst enemy. You can’t truly be doing something if you’re thinking about three other things while you’re doing it. When I write, I’m writing. When I work, I’m working. Generally. I still slip, and it’s still easy to get distracted, but at this point I’m getting better at *choosing* to take a break rather than letting my brain carry me along with its whims.
Unfortunately, in this world multi-tasking has become the status quo, so it’s not something I can completely escape. But single-tasking is still something I try to do as much as possible. Even when I’m bouncing back and forth between a couple of different projects, I deal this way: I keep a queue of things I’m working on, so in the back of my mind I always know ‘what’s on deck’. While I’m dealing with something directly, however, I’m dealing with it fully until it’s done. When my mind wants to be distracted, I recognize the desire (“I see you Mara”) and use that as a call to come back to what’s in front of me. For the most part, it’s working.
There’s still the flag in energy and concentration in the afternoons that I struggle to deal with (Am I eating too much for lunch? Is it sugar or caffeine crash? Or is that just the end of my willpower’s capacity at the moment?), but I’m getting more productive all the time. Hopefully I’ll have the dedication to stick to it. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’m writing about this here; to be held publicly accountable for continued progress here. Mostly, though, I just really missed journalling.
Of course, this does absolutely nothing for productivity, either in my personal or professional life. I find that it also makes me a much shallower person -- I rarely stop to really think about something for longer than five minutes before I’m off to the next thing. And the more I look around me, the more I think I’m not alone in this, that I’m the product of my time. Haven’t you noticed how loud and empty our public discourse has become? To be glib, I think the reason the far-right have hijacked the national conversation isn’t because they make the best arguments, or have facts on their side, or have managed to tap into some primal political mood and given a voice to it. The reason that Palin and Coulter and Beck are big is because they can mash things down into a meaningless -- but catchy -- phrase and repeat it over and over and over until it sticks. It sounds just good enough to repeat, and with the steady flow of information you can’t stop to think about it.
But what was I talking about again? See how free-flowing my mind has become? I sat down to write about my problems with focus and how to solve them, and then went into a broad rant about web 2.0, and how it’s affecting us as a society and how you can see that in political discourse. That’s some serious essayist ADD right there.
So, I have trouble with focus, mostly because there is limitless distraction out there and my willpower to disengage from it is very weak. This is nothing new. Neither is the fact that I’ve been struggling with the consequences of this lack of focus for some time now. I’ve been unable to write very well, or complete any of those personal projects I’ve set for myself (learning French, or Russian, or the clarinet, or Linux, or PostGreSQL), or really engage my spirituality in any sort of meaningful way. Needless to say, this continued state of affairs is very frustrating.
Thankfully, my plan to finally conquer this once and for all kind of kills two birds with one stone. The progress with it has been slow, but noticeable, but like anything else worthwhile will require constant effort and focus to maintain. One of my favorite Buddhist principles is that of mindfulness -- no matter where you are or what you’re doing, make sure you’re there and doing it completely. In fact, one of my favorite recent quotes defines wisdom this way: “Doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”
So...the best cure for this lack of attention also happens to be the most basic for me: returning to mindfulness. Just the practice of being aware of what I’m doing at all times is so simple, but the effects are huge. I’ve come around to the way of thinking that says multi-tasking is productivity’s worst enemy. You can’t truly be doing something if you’re thinking about three other things while you’re doing it. When I write, I’m writing. When I work, I’m working. Generally. I still slip, and it’s still easy to get distracted, but at this point I’m getting better at *choosing* to take a break rather than letting my brain carry me along with its whims.
Unfortunately, in this world multi-tasking has become the status quo, so it’s not something I can completely escape. But single-tasking is still something I try to do as much as possible. Even when I’m bouncing back and forth between a couple of different projects, I deal this way: I keep a queue of things I’m working on, so in the back of my mind I always know ‘what’s on deck’. While I’m dealing with something directly, however, I’m dealing with it fully until it’s done. When my mind wants to be distracted, I recognize the desire (“I see you Mara”) and use that as a call to come back to what’s in front of me. For the most part, it’s working.
There’s still the flag in energy and concentration in the afternoons that I struggle to deal with (Am I eating too much for lunch? Is it sugar or caffeine crash? Or is that just the end of my willpower’s capacity at the moment?), but I’m getting more productive all the time. Hopefully I’ll have the dedication to stick to it. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I’m writing about this here; to be held publicly accountable for continued progress here. Mostly, though, I just really missed journalling.
