Thatcher Wine, author of "The Twelve Monotasks," advocates for the power of monotasking to enhance productivity and mental health. He reveals how multitasking harms focus and quality of work, urging listeners to try single-tasking. Wine emphasizes the crucial role of reading in building monotasking skills and discusses the mindful practice of walking for improved creativity. He encourages stripping distractions to strengthen attention spans, suggesting that more focus leads to greater fulfillment in both work and leisure activities.
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insights INSIGHT
Multitasking's Rise
Multitasking became popular alongside the rise of personal computers and the internet.
The always-connected nature of modern devices contributes to our attempts to do multiple things at once.
insights INSIGHT
Multitasking Downsides
Multitasking leads to more mistakes, reduced productivity, and increased stress.
Our brains are wired for single-tasking, not for juggling multiple cognitive tasks simultaneously.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Embrace Monotasking
Accept that you can't do everything at once; focus on the present moment.
Choose one task at a time to increase productivity and happiness.
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In 'The Twelve Monotasks', Thatcher Wine presents a straightforward approach to enhancing productivity and happiness by dedicating full attention to a single task at a time. Drawing from psychology, neuroscience, and mindfulness, the book outlines twelve everyday activities—such as reading, walking, and eating—that can be transformed into monotasks to reduce stress and increase fulfillment.
The Shallows
Nicholas Carr
4,000 Weeks
Time Management for Mortals
Oliver Burkeman
Deep Work
Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport
In 'Deep Work', Cal Newport argues that the ability to perform deep work—professional activities in a state of distraction-free concentration—is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. The book is divided into two parts: the first part explains why deep work is valuable, rare, and meaningful, while the second part presents four rules to transform your mind and habits to support this skill. These rules include 'Work Deeply', 'Embrace Boredom', 'Quit Social Media', and 'Drain the Shallows'. Newport provides actionable advice and examples from various successful individuals to help readers master the skill of deep work and achieve groundbreaking results.
Writing an email while on a Zoom call. Talking on the phone while walking. Scrolling through social media while watching a movie.
In both our work and our play, we’re all doing more and more multitasking. Doing two things at once makes us feel as if we’re more efficient and getting more done.
But my guest would say that all this task juggling actually makes us less productive, while diminishing the quality of our work and stressing our minds, and that we’d be better off curbing our multitasking in favor of monotasking. His name is Thatcher Wine and he’s the author of The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better. Today on the show, Thatcher explains the illusions around multitasking and the benefits of monotasking — that is, bringing our full focus to a single task at a time. We discuss why reading is a foundational part of becoming a monotasker, and then get into some of the other activities Thatcher recommends monotasking, including walking, listening, traveling/commuting, and thinking. Thatcher argues that doing things like listening to a podcast while cleaning your house isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that you may want to try stripping everything away from your daily tasks except the primary tasks themselves to observe the resulting effect and to strengthen your “monotasking muscles” and rebuild your attention span. Once you’ve experimented with doing a task alone, you can then decide to layer back in the second activity, or, maybe decide you actually liked giving it your all.
The Art of Manliness 
