Sometimes It’s Nice To Do One Thing At A Time 😶🌫️
The fog was so thick we couldn’t even see the billboards on the side of the road.
It was one of those white-knuckling-behind-the-wheel-while-you-question-if-you're-still-alive scenarios that happen every so often when you absolutely have to get to a certain place by a certain time.
The place was back in Ohio and the time was Christmas Eve.
Late last year, my wife and I flew to Arizona to adopt a puppy and drive him home. (But that’s another story for another post.)
We landed in Phoenix. Our route took us north, to Flagstaff, where we picked up the pup, then east to Albuquerque, and on through the Texas panhandle, across Oklahoma, up to St. Louis, on to Detroit to drop off the rental and grab our car from the airport, then finally back down to Ohio.
All told, it was more than 32 hours of driving. We drove through Texas. The GPS confirmed that much. But we hardly saw it.
From entering via Glenrio, NM, until we popped out in Texola, OK, the Lonestar State made London seem sunny by comparison. I'd hoped to see the Cadillac Ranch as we drove through Amarillo—one of the few attractions on the whole journey—but I couldn't even spot the damn entrance yet alone an El Dorado or DeVille.
What I could see, squinting, with my chin hovering above the dashboard, was a handful of dashes dividing the two lanes headed eastward and the occasional set of timidly frantic and dangerously close brake lights.
In moments like that, you have no choice but to focus on what's directly in front of your face. All you can handle—all you’re really able to comprehend—is that next 200 feet.
Lately, I've been trying to apply that same level of focus to my everyday life.
Especially at work, distractions make it nearly impossible to accomplish much. And I don't know about you, but for me, the less time I spend working and the more time I spend not working, the happier I am. But it's fucking tough.
Meetings that could've been emails that could've been Slacks that could've been someone just reading the notes rather than asking a question in the chat box of the meeting that could've been an email—it’s all happening simultaneously in perpetuity and it’s all too much.
I’ve had enough.
So lately I've been making a conscious effort to do things differently. When I join a video call, I hit that little ☾/F6 key in the top row of my keyboard to turn off all notifications. If I'm writing an email, I wait until after I hit send before I take a look at what just hit my inbox so I don't end up rewriting the same damn sentence a half dozen times. And if I'm in Slack, I finish a complete thought and share it in one channel before I jump to the bright red numbered dot vying for my attention next to another channel.
It’s not easy to keep the ol’ noggin locked in, to stop the brain from wandering. But like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.
Even now, dear reader, as I'm typing this for you, I’m resisting the urge to open my browser and double check the name of the city on the western edge of the Texas panhandle. It's fine. I’ll figure it out later. To help keep me focused, I only have a single window open on my laptop and the wifi is turned off. My phone is in focus mode, broadcasting lyric-less music to my ears via Bluetooth headphones. I’m trying hard to take it easy.
Monotasking is bliss.
Because when you do one thing at a time, you're better at it. You're more thoughtful and intentional about that one thing. And you get that one thing done more quickly. Which means you can move on to the next thing—or, ideally, be done with all of the things, sooner.
It may seem counterintuitive, but doing one thing at a time is actually more efficient than trying to do multiple things at once.
The other day, I went to use the restroom after a movie and each of the three urinals was occupied by a man with his dick in one hand and his phone in the other. One of the guys was actually watching a clip from Shark Tank at full volume and, as far as I could tell, wasn't even pissing any more.
This is the world we live in.
Believe me, I understand the allure. I can't say I've ever streamed Judge Judy while taking a leak, but I have scrolled Instagram while carrying on a conversation with a friend. I’ve written a Slack while reading an email while also listening to a presentation. And yes, much as I hate to say it, I’ve texted while driving.
But I’ll tell you what: I sure as shit wasn’t on my phone while we were driving through north Texas. If I was, I reckon we would’ve ended up nose down in a cow pasture like those Caddies we couldn’t see.
For as foggy as it was, that drive provided a lot of clarity. Sometimes it’s nice to do one thing at a time.