The Multitasking Myth

How focusing on one thing at a time helps me not just write books, but find small wins in my everyday life.

The vast majority of the time, when people find out that I wrote a novel (actually, two, so far!) while also working a full-time job, doing mom stuff, and dealing with all of the usual chaos of life, they typically respond with some version of, “You must be great at multitasking.” This always makes me chuckle.

I want to let y’all in on a little secret: I’m terrible at multitasking.

My brain gets overwhelmed if I’m driving while also listening to the radio and then my passenger tries to talk to me (or read me pages from the latest Dogman book). The modern workplace routinely overloads my mind when I’m in a Zoom meeting, trying to pay attention, and then a Teams notification pops up or an Outlook noise dings with a high-priority email. I’m simply not good at doing multiple things at once.

Do you know what I am good at? Time management.

If an hour of free time presents itself, I quickly go over my mental (or literal) to-do list and find the thing that can be done. Completed. Accomplished. I do the thing. I focus on it. I cross it off, and then I move on. If I only have five minutes? It’s the same philosophy. This applies at home, with my writing, and in my day job. I prioritize forward motion and completion of tasks over having multiple balls in the air at once. I rarely have a wasted minute in my day, because all of my time is in service to getting things done that are important to me.

In our nightly routine with our kids, both of them recite one of our family mantras: I do one thing, I do it well, and then I move on. Some people describe this as a Zen approach, others ascribe it to a similar quote from Steve Jobs, and still, for others (in my nerdy work life), it aligns well with the Unix philosophy.

All I know is that for most people — kids and adults alike — focusing on a single task is the best way to complete anything. This, of course, directly opposes so much of how the modern world works. Social media, in particular, tries to drive our brains in many directions at once and to strain our attention spans. It’s a terrible way to train your brain.

Over the course of my career, I’ve directly managed about thirty people and overseen groups of upwards of one hundred employees at a time. I can think of maybe two people who have been legitimately good at multitasking. Many people are good at churning out streams of mediocre work at once, but truly excellent work? It rarely happens. People who think they are good at multitasking are usually just good at being chaos engines who rarely get anything done, but give the illusion of looking busy. Or, they drop balls without even realizing it. The most effective people are the ones good at time management — which is all too easy to confuse with multitasking.

Not a week goes by these days on Instagram without someone asking me for my best advice for getting started on writing a novel. Should they take a class? Outline? Pay for a program? Join a writing group? Research the industry? I can hear people overwhelming themselves as they type out the message.

My advice is always the same: pick one thing. If you think you need a class, take it. Focus on it. If you think you’re ready to start writing, do that. Don’t let yourself get distracted. Don’t let a podcast convince you there’s a “better way” and pivot. Have three ideas? Choose one. Work with it, try it out for a bit. Give it a chance.

Do one thing, do it well, and then move on.