Have you heard the buzz about monotasking yet? If you haven’t, you’re in for a pleasant surprise. We, the strivers for productivity, are no longer expected to multitask! That’s right, “multitasking” is so out, and “monotasking” is in. Smart people are telling us that if we really want to be more productive, the key isn’t trying to do more things at once. The key is giving one thing your full focus, doing it once, doing it right, and then moving on to the next thing. And this year, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to embrace monotasking.

I first heard the term “monotasking” in Mindful Magazine. Monotasking is basically a practical application of meditation. During mindfulness meditation, we sit quietly and return our focus to the breath every time the mind begins to wander. Similarly, when monotasking, the goal is to stay focused on the task at hand instead of flitting back and forth between chores. Result: a happier, more productive, and more satisfying experience.

I’m not planning to quit watching TV while I eat my English muffin every morning or quit listening to podcasts on 1.5 speed while I straighten my hair. That would be a frivolous use of my time. No. And I’m still going to scroll through Instagram while I’m waiting in line. However, when I’m doing any kind of work that requires attention and brain power, I want to be all there. I’m want to be present doing only that thing. In other words, I’m not listening to podcasts while I type this post. It would either take me longer to write the post, or I’d do a worse job and be less satisfied.

So I came up with a list of six ways that I’m trying to improve my monotasking skills this year. Let me know if you have tips or advice!

1. Embrace the to-do list.

As a life-long fan of to-do lists, I’ve got a lot of opinions, and I’m pretty sure that the key to winning with a to-do list is avoiding operator error. One of my favorite pieces of advice comes from Steven Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He explains the difference between tasks that are urgent and those that are important. Urgent tasks demand our attention right away (e.g. inbox notifications that go, “look at me!”), but they aren’t necessarily important. (Sometimes they are, but it’s important to know the difference.) It’s easy to get distracted with “urgent” business, but to really be productive, I need to focus on tasks that are important. If something is truly important, then it deserves an esteemed position on my to-do list. If something is not important to me and my long-term goals, then it positively does NOT deserve to be on my list.
So my to-do list rules for myself are as follows:

I may have as many lists as I want. I enjoy a variety of lists including my “day-to-day-I-must-get-this-shit-done” list as well as some fun lists like “Restaurants to Visit” and “Trips to Plan.”
I’m not allowed to put something on my to-do list if there’s no chance I’m going to skip it. (I’m looking at you, “take a shower”-writers. Yes, showering is important, but let’s be real.)
To-do list items should be specific and cross-offable. (“Write a novel” is not a to-do list item. It’s a goal. That’s different. “Spend one hour writing” is a to-do list item.)
A list should include only things that are practically and feasibly possible to achieve in any given day. If I just plain have too many tasks, then some of them need to be prioritized for today, and some of them get bumped to tomorrow’s list. Deal with it.
Just because I can fit more things into my day DOES NOT MEAN I should cram my list with unimportant things. I find that sometimes I look at my list, I notice that I don’t feel overwhelmed by it, and then I say to myself, “I bet I could find time to paint my nails tonight.” Having free time is not a good reason to add things that aren’t important to the list. Lovers of productivity are so offended by unused free time that we feel obligated to fill the nooks and crannies with unimportant stuff. Maybe don’t.

2. Keep a neat work space.

There are few things as distracting to me as a cluttered work space. (Not saying that I’m neat, I’m just saying that my messiness distracts me… ) Nothing cramps my writing style quite like a stack of unpaid bills or a pile of receipts vying to be entered into my expenses spreadsheet. And maybe there’s a half-read magazine article lying open. “Maybe if I just take a break to finish reading that article, then I can throw that magazine away, and then I can move on and start working on my real projects.” And it goes beyond just the desktop. There’s the pile of Christmas decorations stacked in the office corner. “You know what? I bet if I just spend today putting away the Christmas decorations, then I’ll really be able to focus on writing that novel.” And, in fact, that’s probably true. It doesn’t mean that I should stop what I’m doing every time something distracts me, but it does mean that keeping my space neat to reduce distractions from the very outset is worth my time. The fewer distractions, the greater my focus on what matters. So yeah, putting away those Christmas decorations deserves a spot on my to-do list. It’s important.

3. Delegate everything you can and develop systems for everything else.

I’m new to this. I’m a cheapskate. I have never wanted to pay anyone else for something I can do myself. I feel guilty about it. And lazy. But I think it’s time for me to take a hard look at my goals and figure out what’s going to make them possible. Being able to focus on a project like operating a business or writing a blog are important to me, and it’s time for me to do whatever I can do to reduce the number of distractions and other tasking vying for my attention. In other words, maybe I should go ahead and part with some of my hard-earned cash to get someone’s help cleaning my dusty baseboards. Or else, maybe I need to invest a small amount of time up front developing a system for keeping the house clean. It’s Monday? We fold the laundry. Tuesday? We’re vacuuming. When you don’t have to spend time thinking about what to do, you don’t waste precious brain energy. You can go on autopilot and get it done faster and with more energy to spare.

4. Be present.

I’ve learned that being present is a worthy goal for me. I’m so easily distracted by my long to-do list that rather than focus on the task at hand, I’m thinking about what to do next. Monotasking not only demands that we be present, but it also facilitates the process. By purposefully giving yourself permission to work on only one thing at a time, you get to enjoy refusing to allow yourself to indulge in other distractions. I’m thinking of this as a treat! Yay, I don’t have to think about all those other chores while I’m writing my blog!

5. Schedule the hardest task first.

It doesn’t mean that you have to do the hardest task first. It just means that the hardest or most daunting thing on your agenda is the easiest one to ignore. If it’s important and I’m dreading it, then I better schedule some time for it to be sure it gets done. Otherwise, I’ll end up avoiding it, and it will stay on my to-do list far longer than it should, continuing to stress me out for longer than it needs to.

6. Let downtime be downtime.

Finally, I’m pledging to enjoy my downtime. Remember how I said you didn’t need to keep adding things to your list just because you have time leftover? Isn’t enjoying ourselves pretty important? So if I’ve made it to the end of the day and achieved all of the important stuff that I set out to do, I get to make a choice. I can get ahead on something I would have put off until tomorrow, or I get to enjoy relaxing. With no guilt. No thinking about my to-do list or what I have to do tomorrow. One of the reasons I feel compelled to be productive in the first place is because I have this illusion that some day I’ll get to the end of this never-ending perpetual list, and then I imagine that I’ll really just start enjoying myself. Well, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is that day’s never going to arrive. No matter how many things you get done, there will always be something else. The good news though… The good news is SO good. The good news is that it’s ok to enjoy yourself RIGHT NOW. Every day. Whether you’re doing work or watching Netflix, do it like you effing mean it and enjoy the hell out of it.