Writing an email while on a Zoom call. Talking on the phone while walking. Scrolling through social media while watching a movie.
In both our work and our play, we’re all doing more and more multitasking. Doing two things at once makes us feel as if we’re more efficient and getting more done.
But my guest would say that all this task juggling actually makes us less productive, while diminishing the quality of our work and stressing our minds, and that we’d be better off curbing our multitasking in favor of monotasking. His name is Thatcher Wine and he’s the author of The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better. Today on the show, Thatcher explains the illusions around multitasking and the benefits of monotasking — that is, bringing our full focus to a single task at a time. We discuss why reading is a foundational part of becoming a monotasker, and then get into some of the other activities Thatcher recommends monotasking, including walking, listening, traveling/commuting, and thinking. Thatcher argues that doing things like listening to a podcast while cleaning your house isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that you may want to try stripping everything away from your daily tasks except the primary tasks themselves to observe the resulting effect and to strengthen your “monotasking muscles” and rebuild your attention span. Once you’ve experimented with doing a task alone, you can then decide to layer back in the second activity, or, maybe decide you actually liked giving it your all.
Resources Related to the PodcastKit Carson's Epic Exploits
How to Win Friends and Influence People in the 21st Century
Advice on Achieving Any Long-Haul Dream
Key Insights From the Longest Study on Happiness
Heal the Body With Extended Fasting
7 Journaling Techniques That Can Change Your Life
Get Fit, Not Fried — The Benefits of Zone 2 Cardio
Why You Don’t Change (But How You Still Can) [ENCORE]
How Testosterone Makes Men, Men [Encore]
The Unexpected Origins of Our Christmas Traditions
The Affectionate, Ambiguous, and Surprisingly Ambivalent Relationship Between Siblings
Why Homer Matters
Befriending Winter
How Polio Made a President
The Existential in Red Dead Redemption 2
The Real Rules of Power
The Brain Energy Theory of Mental Illness
Overcome the Comfort Crisis
The Future Is Analog
The Infidelity Formula
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West