Don't give in.
Turn off every non-human notification. Email dings? Off. News alerts? Off. Calendar reminders? Keep those. For 90 minutes in the morning, your phone goes into "Do Not Disturb." The world survived without instant access to you for 200,000 years. It can survive 90 minutes. Don't give in
When you eat, just eat. Don't watch Netflix. When you walk the dog, look at the trees. Don't take a call. When you listen to your partner talk about their day, put your phone face down on the table and look at their eyes. You will be amazed at how much more you hear. The Paradox: Less is More Here is the beautiful paradox. When you stop trying to do everything, you actually do more. Calendar reminders
That is the quiet rebellion. And it starts now. What is the hardest part of monotasking for you? Let me know in the comments below. I’ll be reading them—one at a time. You are in "the zone." Suddenly
This is the quiet rebellion: The Myth of the Modern Superhero We glorify the person who can juggle six projects. We put "ability to multitask" on résumés as if it were a virtue. But look closely at the data. Researchers at Stanford University found that heavy multitaskers are actually worse at filtering out irrelevant information than light multitaskers. They are more distractible. They are less efficient.
Close every tab that isn't essential to the task at hand. If you are writing, close your email tab. Close Slack. Close the news. If you are coding, close the documentation you aren't using. A clean digital desk is the foundation of a clean mind.
We aren't superheroes. We are addicts—addicted to the feeling of switching. Let’s get specific. Imagine you are a software developer writing a complex piece of code. You are in "the zone." Suddenly, a Slack notification pops up. It’s a quick question about a meeting time.