Why Mono-Tasking Is the Ultimate Productivity Hack

The modern solution to multi-tasking madness

The average person spends about 26 years of their life sleeping.

And if you also sleep every February 29, you’ll receive a maximum of seven additional days of rest.

Or, if you’re really unlucky, at least five.

It corresponds to 9,490 days or 227,760 hours.

That’s a third of our entire life spent asleep in bed!

Surprisingly, we also spend seven years trying to fall asleep.

That’s a total of 33 years or 12,045 days!

According to the research, almost all people aged 15 and over (95 percent) engage in some kind of leisure and sports activity, e.g., watching TV, socializing, or playing sports.

Seniors aged 75 and over spend an average of 7.5 hours on leisure and sports activities.

Adults between the ages of 25 and 54 spend an average of 4.2 hours per day on these activities.

Life can be hard.

I often feel like I have so much to do but little time to complete.

There have been quite a few instances where I have struggled to get through my daily tasks.

They became more and more tedious and stressful.

I asked myself,

Was the quality of my work and my life deteriorating?

Is it because I don’t have enough time or because I can not manage things?

Sometimes, I think I could achieve anything if I had more time.

Other times, I feel like I could not accomplish things even if I had enough time.

I often found myself with an incomplete list at the end of the day.

I often fail to plan our schedules.

It is even more difficult actually to keep up with them.

Everything falls apart, even if I miss just one important task.

The mindset shift

In the first week of the new year, I finished reading the book “Think Like a Monk.”

I still can not get over the lessons that Jay Shetty, the author of the book, imparted.

One of the key takeaways from the book was that,

We should focus on becoming mono-tasking (or single-tasking).

Jay discusses forming habits that can help us manage our tasks productively by efficiently getting more done in less time.

Time is like a thief in the night.

It passes so quickly and unnoticed that we don’t even realize how we spent it.

It’s not about the ticked boxes on your to-do list.

It’s about the quality of your life.

“How you use your time can be a regret, or it can be an investment.” — Jay Shetty

It can be something you waste or something you spend.

It can be something you grow with or something that holds you back.

So, how can you learn to do more in less time?

Mono-tasking

I have always believed that I am a master who can always do several tasks simultaneously.

I can do more than one thing at a time without batting an eyelid.

I have also paid a high price for this arrogance in the form of exhaustion, lack of sleep, or stress.

After reading the book, I realized that I was completely wrong.

A study by attention expert David Strayer found that only two percent of the population can multitask effectively and successfully.

We would all like to believe that we belong to that two percent.

The truth is that you and I are most likely part of the other 98 percent.

Why is multitasking so hard?

When we multitask, our energy is divided between more than one task.

We think we get more done when we work on more than one thing at a time.

But in reality, we don’t.

Multitasking creates stress and anxiety.

The quality of our work also suffers as a result.

For example, if you multitask, you’re reading a post on Medium and commenting in between while writing your next post.

At the end of the day, nothing is finished.

That’s because you get too bogged down with all the things you are trying to do at the same time.

We achieve more if we only complete one task, i.e., work on one thing at a time.

This way, we can concentrate fully on the task at hand.

According to Jay,

“When you mono-task, you feel like it slows you down, that you achieve less than everyone else is, but that is not true.

You will achieve more quality, more depth, and more connection by single-tasking.”

Create a routine to train your brain to think in one piece.

Be present for every task you work on from start to finish.

This will keep your attention and awareness on the task at hand.

Getting a good sleep

It sounds counterintuitive when you think about achieving more in less time.

Sleep well

You have heard it before.

But why do we need to sleep?

Because when you sleep well, you are more awake during the day.

People often think that sleep is just a “time out” for the tired brain to rest, says Dr. Maiken Nedergaard, who conducts sleep studies at the College of Rochester.

“But that’s wrong,” she says.

While you sleep, your brain is working.

For example, sleep helps prepare your brain for learning, remembering, and creating.

Nedergaard and her coworkers discovered that the brain has a drainage system that removes toxins during sleep.

She explains,

“When we sleep, the function of the brain changes completely.

It becomes almost like a kidney that removes waste from the system.”

Dr. Kenneth Wright, Jr., a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado, says,

“There are certain repair processes that occur in the body mostly, or most effectively, during sleep.

If you don’t get enough sleep, those processes are going to be disturbed.”

Even though good sleep habits take time, they make more time than they take.

Jay Shetty questions,

• What if you are able to do the same amount of work in less time because you were so focused through the meditation?”
• What if you are more energized from your workout and work faster and smarter?

Remember to underestimate the value of sleep, meditation, and exercise.

They help you be more productive and effective and make more of your time.

If you feel good after waking up, you can exercise, giving you more energy.

A good night’s sleep also lends itself to more concentrated meditation.

When instituted into your life, these habits will help you do more in less time.

They give you back the time you need to live your purpose.

Final thoughts

Here are my two cents:

Multitasking isn’t the hero we thought it was.

Who knew your brain had a cleanup crew that works while you go to sleep?

So, a good night’s sleep is also a detox for the brain.

Quality is more important than quantity.

Check fewer boxes, but make sure they count.

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