The Task in the Single

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion. Bewilderment brings intuitive knowledge. – Rumi

We are all familiar with multitasking, which seems mandatory these days in order to survive in the world. But what if it wasn’t? What if we could do one thing at a time? In this day and age of bigger is better, faster is optimal and more is best, is that possible? Yes, but we must be purposeful in our singling of tasks.

People seem to run around everyday, bragging about what all they can do all at once. The more you can multitask, the more prestige you have and the more important you are. Oh, you must be a true leader if you have do all of that at the same time. You must be smart and talented and in demand, as if being so busy is a badge of honor. It isn’t. It only means we have bitten off more than we can chew and now we are part of the rat race in trying desperately to keep up. But at what cost?

As I was rushing around, trying to get all things done before a trip, it occurred to me that I wasn’t enjoying anything really. Half watching my favorite TV show, almost paying attention to the cats, writing and listening to some of the radio…my mind was racing, but not going an anywhere. Is it possible that in our rush to have it all, have we end up with nothing? Have we forgotten how to truly be aware?

So for the next while I am consciously, intentionally single tasking. I am embracing the practice of doing one thing at a time. I can hear people gasping as they read that sentence. I can hear the thoughts of “You can’t do only one thing at a time!”

Actually yes, you can. Here is the thing – we write the rules to our lives. We get to decide how we want our lives to be, we get to decide the where and what and how and who. And it is amazing the clarity that happens when you do one thing at a time. The creativity flows, and the ideas come. I have noticed that I enjoy the day much more and actually get more done faster and a higher quality.

I am noticing many more smaller details, laughing more and simply enjoying moments on a granular level. we miss a lot when we are too busy doing everything else. This goes for just about anything in life. When we slow ourselves and our processes down, we truly absorb the world around us on such a deeper level. And that allows us to revel in those positive moments much more, and even longer.

Indeed, I think the secret to living smarter, not harder is actually taking the time to do one thing at a time. And time is the one thing in our lives that is finite. So how do you want to spend it? Do you want it to fly by, all th emoments blendign together in a blurr, or do you want quality memories?

Life is short. Make sure you don’t multitask it away. One is not the loneliest number and single tasks can make sure you have a multifaceted and joyous life.