For subscribers
The case for doing one thing at a time
There will always be too much to do, no matter what you do.
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
At work, the way to get more tasks done is to learn to let most of them wait while you focus on one, the writer says.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS
Oliver Burkeman
A few months ago, I was teetering on the brink of feeling overwhelmed by life’s responsibilities, afflicted by the ambient anxiety that seems to be an intrinsic part of life in the 2020s. In an effort to maintain – or maybe restore – my sanity, I embarked on a personal endurance challenge.
Other people, at similar moments, begin competing in gruelling triathlons, or head off on intensive meditation retreats. Me? I decided to give up listening to podcasts or music while running, or driving, or loading the dishwasher, or doing almost anything else. To just focus, in other words, on what it was I was actually doing, one activity at a time.
