6

Action ≠ Results

MYTH

I’m too busy to singletask.

REALITY

I’m too busy not to singletask.

Never confuse action with activity.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

“I am so busy.”

“Yeah? Well, I am soo busy.”

“You wish. I am sooo much busier than that.”

There’s a busyness epidemic spreading like crabgrass taking over a lawn. Yet the hustle and bustle of activity and the presumed reward are not linked. Keeping busy does not necessarily mean you are working effectively. Leslie Williams, president of LeaderShift Consulting, astutely observed, “Our culture is in a trance about how we define productivity. We seem to measure our effectiveness by how many tasks we’re doing at once.”¹

Too many people fill their lives with action disproportionate to tangible results; relatively few activities are valuable enough to deserve the allocated time. As a result, we are distracted and discontented, living lives of increasing professional pressure.

Our reigning cultural script links doing more with mattering more. Our sense of importance seems bizarrely tied to wearing ourselves out. As Laura Vanderkam pointed out, there is a strong correlation between being busy and feeling important: “By lamenting our overwork and sleep deprivation … we show that we are dedicated.”²

We seem to have forgotten a few basics. For example, managing our time differently can greatly enhance our lifestyle. Joseph Juran captured this concept in Juran’s Quality Handbook, with the Law of the Vital Few. He and coauthor Joseph De Feo explain that a key to high-quality work is to distinguish between the “trivial many” and the “vital few.” He recommends scanning your tasks for what is essential and putting aside the rest.³ Once your primary work is complete you can assess whether the rest qualifies for your attention or never did in the first place.

What deserves status as the “vital few”? Priorities are not always immediately apparent. What matters most may initially appear superfluous. Take, for instance, how little U.S. senators value spending a bit of downtime with their colleagues across the aisle.

The Most Important Meal of the Day?

The present-day Congress may be the least productive in history. Ashley Parker points out that a generation ago Republican and Democratic senators regularly dined together in the Senate dining room, “a scene almost unimaginable in today’s polarized climate.” The Senate dining room is now largely vacant, and the “reasons for the dining-room decline are reflective of the causes of the general polarization of Congress.” Parker quotes Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “Considering how pressed we are for time, locking in a whole lunch is a lot.”⁴

Today’s senators are too busy to chat over a meal with colleagues. Getting to know each other seems to be a dismally low priority. Meanwhile, rapport is low, contention runs high, and little gets accomplished. Sharing a bite across partisan lines may turn out to be the best use of a half hour in a senator’s week. This is another example of how singletasking can pay off. Dedicating a brief period of time to focus on each other as real people could quite possibly prevent stalemates on the Senate floor.

Where’s Your Attention?

Attempting to multitask is linked to the obsession with being busy, and correspondingly, being overwhelmed. While waiting in line to board a flight near a loudly intrusive closed-circuit airport television, I overheard one traveler say to another, “We are constantly being bombarded with useless information.” I agree. One lesson I learned at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication was that the media can’t tell you what to think, but it can tell you what to think about. Unfortunately, the media often tells us to think about pure dreck.

The news used to be an hour evening report on a few stations. Now we are offered news 24/7, from virtually endless media sources. Our attention spans are decreasing at the speed of light. Television commercials and music videos frequently splice together thirty images or more in a single minute. Multitasking is reflected in the media around us as segments are presented in ever-diminishing fragments. We are bombarded by distraction, as our brains become trained to avoid reflection.

Apparently, people will do nearly anything to sidestep introspection, as was shown in a University of Virginia experiment that created a stir in the worlds of psychology and neuroscience. Subjects were left alone in a room with nothing to do except push a button that delivered an electric shock to them. After six minutes, the majority of participants found it so unpleasant to be alone with their thoughts that they elected to self-administer electric shocks. The same participants previously said they would pay money to avoid receiving shocks.⁵

This shocking study (I couldn’t resist) echoes some of our discussion in chapter 3. If you avoid time alone, consider what you are missing out on. Reflection has many benefits. According to researchers in Italy, self-awareness increases our ability to empathize: “The more in touch [I am] with my own feelings and experiences, the richer and more accurate are my guesses of what passes through another person’s mind.”⁶

The modern world has evolved to greatly favor doing over thinking, but we can make meaningful improvements in our lives by creating time to reflect. Convert some of that time when you’re “busy” surfing the Web into a few minutes of personal reflection each day.

Dr. Ethan Kross at the University of Michigan surmises that people seek distractions to escape thinking about their lives. Contemplation is a learned skill. “If a friend comes to you with a problem it’s easy to coach them through it, but if the problem is happening to us we have real difficulty, in part because we have all these egocentric biases making it hard to reason rationally. The data clearly shows that you can use language to almost trick yourself into thinking your problems are happening to someone else.”⁷

One technique that may help you to integrate Dr. Kross’s advice is to use third-person pronouns or your own name when writing, thinking, or speaking about challenges you face. Practicing self-reflection to work through life’s challenges is one of the most beneficial applications of singletasking.

Workaholic: A Relative Term

“Make time for your personal life” is a common adage. Yet, rather than follow this sound counsel, we seem to be getting collectively worse.

Check out this 1982 description of workaholic behaviors: “You can examine your workaholic tendencies by answering the following questions: Do you take work home with you regularly? Do you accept phone calls even when trying to complete an important job or when you are taking a break? Are you reluctant to take vacations?”⁸

Consider the evolution of work expectations in the intervening three and a half decades. What was previously labeled as evidence of perilous workaholism is now the bare minimum of what most professionals practice regularly. Attending to work after hours, allowing interruptions of all sorts while addressing a pressing task, and responding to electronic messages is pervasive and expected in many professional circles. That doesn’t make it right.

Some people perceive the “always available” professional as valuable and powerful. Technology makes us potentially accessible 24/7, accentuating the expectation of being continually on call, intensely busy, and eminently important. Despite advancements that presumably save time, we have somehow become busier than ever.

In 1928, John Maynard Keynes wrote “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” an essay predicting life in 2028. He predicted that the standard of living in Europe and North America would be so high by 2028 that people would work about three hours a day—and even that would be more than necessary. Keynes surmised that a major challenge facing us today would be what to do with all of our spare time.⁹

Little did he know.

Why are we so busy? What are we busy doing? As Henry David Thoreau put it, “It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?”

Technology designed to do things faster has largely backfired; we are perpetually short of time. Rather than freeing us from the tethers of ceaseless demands, multimedia devices at home and work fuel our overextended lifestyle. Put another way:

If timesaving devices really saved time, there would be more time available to us now than ever before in history. But, strangely enough, we seem to have less time than even a few years ago. It’s really great fun to go someplace where there are no timesaving devices because, when you do, you find you have lots of time. Elsewhere, you’re too busy working to pay for machines to save you time so you won’t have to work so hard. The main problem with this great obsession for Saving Time is very simple: you can’t save time. You can only spend it. But you can spend it wisely or foolishly.¹⁰

What does it mean to save time? What is the upshot of having all these time-saving devices? It seems that even as we work so hard and purchase so much, we are still too busy to enjoy ourselves. Desperate for a solution, we try to multitask, resulting in errors, miscalculations, and dismal communication. Self-proclaimed multitaskers often have virtually no time at all. Ultimately, it is singletasking that creates breathing room.

Time-Shifting

One component of immersing yourself in a task is to build in regular breaks. Singletasking thrives when coupled with scheduled time away from the primary activity. If your work is sedentary, use your break time to move around. If you’re inside, take a brisk walk outside. If your role is physically demanding, use the time to rest. Five to ten minutes is generally plenty to replenish your energy. Your own heart is a role model: “Most people have the idea that the heart is working all the time. As a matter of fact, there is a definite rest period after each contraction … In the aggregate, its rest periods total a full fifteen hours per day.”¹¹

Time-shifting means alternating periods of high productivity with time to decompress. When working on a project, take frequent breaks to keep up your energy. Scientists have proven over and over that we are much more efficient when we recharge ourselves.

In a coordinated response to digital excess, a group of organizations sponsors the National Day of Unplugging, a twenty-four-hour period without technology. That means no use of telephones, tablets, computers, radios, or televisions. This generally requires a concerted effort; many people are rarely without at least one handheld device. Even as we sleep, a screen is inches from reach. I can hardly remember the last time I saw someone out walking a dog or pushing a baby stroller without a smartphone in hand.

Participants in the 2014 National Day of Unplugging were asked why they participated. Reponses varied from the poetic to the principled and included a desire to:

Recharge and reboot my life

Spend quality time with the family

Restore the beauty of daily life

Live in the moment

Reconnect with the real world

You can do it.

What prevents you? Guilt for taking time off? A sense you need to be productive? A vague obligation to be reachable at all times?

Reverse those. If you must indulge in guilt, feel it when you’re not mentally present. If you need to be productive, realize you’ll be more productive by time-shifting. You needn’t be constantly available. If it puts your mind at ease, you can let people know your intentions in advance, provide detailed outgoing messages, and perhaps, over time, change the expectation that you will be all things at all times to all people. Being always available is unrealistic. Let go of this impossible notion and free up a revived, relaxed, more present version of yourself—so when you are with someone, you are really all there. Envision the difference between a dim, fuzzed-out flashlight and a laser.

Reboot Your Life

How can you identify ways to reboot your own life? What opportunities do you have to practice unplugging for an hour or two in a typical week? Start small and think creatively.

I recommend initial steps that require little time, expense, or planning. Some examples collected from my clients include:

Unplugged outings with friends or family

Conversations uninterrupted by smartphones

Hiking, walking, and enjoying nature off-line

Writing with all electronic tones and visual pokes turned off

Dining out with the rule that whoever plugs in pays for the meal

How about you? What would make a difference in your life? Try listing five ideas on the next page.

From here you can get more ambitious—such as taking twenty-four-hour, off-the-grid ventures.

Leisure Time Singletasked

I take a weekly step aerobics class at my neighborhood gym. It has quite the cult following; devotees will do virtually anything to attend. Why? One could cite the loveable instructor, upbeat music, or the indulgence of focusing solely on oneself for a solid hour.

Beyond this, it is impossible to participate without complete mind and body engagement. For at least one beautiful hour of the week, we participants are singletasking. The only way to keep up with the class is to immerse oneself one hundred percent—learning a new, complex routine each week that integrates movement and rhythm. The mind and body are equally engaged. We are forced to singletask, and we love it.

As a bonus, practicing flow experiences outside of the workplace enhances the ability to streamline attention on the job. It’s a transferable skill.

Slowin’ Down

“Slow Reading Clubs” have cropped up around the world.¹² These clubs espouse the belief that slow is good, and science supports their claims. Reading slowly correlates with pleasure, empathy, concentration, high comprehension, and stress reduction. Clubs meet in homes, libraries, and coffee shops and follow protocol such as sitting in a quiet place, reading for at least thirty minutes without interruption, switching off phones, and disconnecting from the Internet. Reading on a tablet is allowed. Offshoots include slow cooking and slow knitting clubs. This is a fad with benefits. Intent focus on mind-stimulating activities slows the rate of memory loss.¹³

Slowing down also can be imposed on you unannounced. One caretaker of a relative with an illness that slowed his functioning observed, “My dad has slowly progressing ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease). He can still walk, but slowly. He can still talk, but slowly. He can still cook, but very, very slowly. When I am with him I just have to find a different pace. It’s hard at first, but then there is such relief that I’m not having to move so fast.”

The Arts

Zentangle is the art of making patterns out of basic, deliberate strokes that build upon each other. The structured images on compact squares of paper are created in single sittings of fifteen to twenty minutes, and the art form is touted as relaxing, meditative, and enriching. Practitioners describe a pleasurable sensation as a result of their Zentangle practice. They say the increase in creativity extends to other aspects of their lives, too. As one Zentangle artist explained to me, “Zentangle is mindful, not mindless. It is relaxing, therapeutic, and puts all my other thoughts on hold.” Zentangle is said to open the minds of practicing artists to unexpected thoughts and insights.

This is just one example of how artistic endeavors can relax and regenerate you during a busy day. Another lovely way to singletask in your leisure time is by heading off to the movies. Viewing a film in a real cinema, rather than at home, has many added benefits. Whereas a home is rife with distractions, watching a stellar movie in the theater is a great way to practice singletasking.

Besides being a relatively inexpensive, accessible means of entertainment, watching a great movie occupies your mind to the exclusion of whatever else is going on in your life. The storyline captures your imagination, and sitting in a comfy chair engulfed by soft darkness separates you from physical stimuli outside the sights and sounds of the movie (except, perhaps, the crunch of popcorn).

The brain processes films similarly to actual experiences. One reason some folks are drawn to adventure films is the vicarious thrill they receive. And watching a foreign or period film is a bit like taking your mind on a mini-vacation across space or time. When you are engrossed in a movie—or for that matter a book, art exhibit, or other artistic diversion—your brain is locked into the matter at hand. You are singletasking. And you emerge refreshed. It’s like a deluxe shower for the brain.

The sky is the limit when identifying singletasking outlets to revive your body, mind, and spirit. Creativity extends well beyond what we traditionally call the arts. For example, many people find inspiration through volunteer activities. Stepping away from obligations and goal-driven activities to engage your whole self is the key. Creativity takes many forms; these are just a few examples.

We, as a society, are progressively busier, with ever more diffuse focus. A successful attorney wryly observed, “I don’t think I know how to pay close attention anymore.” Our frenetic minds result in losing touch with much of the nuance and beauty of being here, now. Take the reins; amp up your productivity by living more fully in the present.