Forget multi-tasking (it’s B.S.)

There is something utterly compelling about a person who does one thing, and who does that one thing deeply.

Think about how transfixed we are by TV shows about bakers, tailors, photographers, make-up artists, chefs, glass-blowers, BBQ-ers, farmers, designers, surfers… its a very, very long list. But the common thread is that these are all people who do one thing, and who do that one thing deeply.

If you’re like me, when you’re learning about people like that, you experience a mixture of emotions that range from awe to envy.

But, mostly, it makes me ask questions:

  • How did they find their thing?
  • What is my thing?
  • How do we help young people find their thing?
  • Is it good to have “a thing“?
  • Does “school” help people find their thing?
  • How many disciplines can blend into one thing?
  • Do we find our thing by accident… through serendipity?
  • How do we create the conditions for serendipity in schools?
  • What is the relationship between having a thing and being happy… or fulfilled?
  • What is like to ‘be fulfilled’?

These are complex questions… each worthy of a long and detailed study. If doing so is our thing!

Personally, I’d love to work in a school that was designed to help students identify things they want to work on deeply, for extended periods of time. A school dedicated to the pursuit of the flow state. Sadly, I probably never will… it just doesn’t seem to be compatible with the school institution.

In the meantime, perhaps something I can take away is that multi-tasking is B.S. When we’re multi-tasking, we’re doing several things badly. Our concentration is fragmented and interrupted. People who have a thing are generally “mono-tasking”, their concentration is focused, their time is dedicated to doing that thing fully, deeply.

So, I suppose the actual thing is less important than the knowledge that we need to mono-task, to allow ourselves to focus fully on what we’re doing… knowing, without doubt, that we do things better that way because years and years of human history tells us that is the case – no matter how unfashionable that may be.

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