#monotasking

[richardstockley]

The myth of multitasking is pervasive, but it’s time to challenge this outdated notion. As executives, embracing mindfulness and mono-tasking can lead to more meaningful work, greater productivity, and a healthier work-life balance. Let’s put the myth to rest and start achieving more by doing less.

[tcfkag]

I remember once absolutely BLOWING a Boomer's mind when he was ranting about how "no one wants to work anymore" and "employees have no loyalty to companies, they just up and leave" and I said "Millennials have lived through three-four 'once in a lifetime economic collapses and our companies haven't even *hesitated* before cutting jobs and firing us with no support and no severance. Not to mention that mentorship is a thing of the past and wages haven't gone up meaningfully in my lifetime. They've never shown us any loyalty, why should we show them loyalty?" His response was, "Well, that's just business." My response? "Well, leaving for another job is just business too." He was my SIL's father. I had to spend the rest of the weekend around him. I have never seen a human person (well, two human people bc his wife agreed) take a more instant disliking to me in.my.life. Apparently, a "young" woman disagreeing with him and standing her ground was just not a concept he was ready to accept. ETA: Forgot the original point to, ALWAYS BE NICER TO SERVICE WORKERS. And if you are going to give a review, always make it five-stars. Anything lower and you could completely f*ck up their average for the day. If you just don't feel like doing a survey/rating, just don't do it, but NEVER DOWNGRADE THEM because they ask you to rate them. That's not their fault. And when it comes to tips, don't cut your tip or not tip at all about things the waitstaff had no control over. If your food is too salty? The waitstaff didn't cook it. Long wait to get in? The waitstaff didn't decide how many people were going to come in or how much staffing they needed that day. I basically always tip 20-25% because you never know what's going on in the kitchen that day (or in the waitstaff's life for that matter) but they're making a couple bucks an hour from their employer; if you don't tip, they don't eat.

Things I have explained to my parents when they start getting mad over small things as customers.

- the cashier scanning your groceries is not being careless or bad at her job, this store times the cashiers so she is clearly trying to stay on time and not get in trouble. This blew their minds that someone would be timed at a "no skill" job (their words not mine)

- the drive thru employee is not trying to be rude or annoying by greeting you too soon: they are required to greet you within a few seconds of your car setting off the sensor.

- the employees at this retail store are not trying to be pushy: they are required to greet you within a few seconds of you entering the store

- the cashier is required to ask you every single question they ask. And they hate it more than you do.

- the cashier is not dumb or "doesn't know how to X" because they had to call a manager for it. Every place I've worked for the past 5 years has been rolling back what employees are authorized to do, and they HAVE to call a manager. They know exactly how to do the thing, they are not allowed to and the computer likely will require a managers code to unlock that function. This confused them.

- the cashier knows the line is long, you don't need to tell them that. If they could call up another cashier they would have already.

- and a more work/life balance related one: my dad scheduled a family thing and assumed i could get the time off. What shocked him was that 1. It wasn't paid time off, and 2. It was denied, so I couldn't come til after work and thus was late. He has worked a job with generous PTO and accrued vacation days that schedules 6 months ahead for the past nearly 30 years. He absolutely was horrified to find out that I have to ask permission for unpaid time off and still couldn't be approved.

- funny followup to my dad's shock: I had been at my most recent job nearly a year and he was asking why they haven't promoted me yet. I was thrown off because why would they. He apparently assumed that since i 1. Showed up on time/early to every shift. 2. Had received positive verbal feedback wrt my performance from managers. And 3. Hadn't quit. That they would automatically start to move me up the ladder. It hurt my heart to shatter his wholesome view of how workplaces work now.

I feel like much of this is common knowledge for all of us, and yet my parents and many customers who haven't worked in the service industry in the past 10-20 years have no idea how this stuff works now.

On the positive side, my parents have slowly been becoming more patient with service workers, and complain to managers or anecdotally much less often. Baby steps!

[gccexchange]

Pros and Cons of Monotasking

In today’s fast-paced world, people often take pride in their ability to do multiple things simultaneously, whether checking emails on a conference call or cooking dinner while helping their children with homework. However, research suggests multitasking can be counterproductive, leading to increased stress and decreased productivity. As an alternative, many people turn to monotasking, focusing…

[alexanderwales]

I've invented this new style of working I call "monotasking", where instead of having discord open and watching a movie on my other monitor while getting things done, I devote myself to just a single thing at a time.

Hard to say whether it's going to work out or not.

[recomvery]

You have probably heard about multitasking a lot, but have you ever heard about monotasking? Monotasking is intentionally doing only one thing at a time to help with being stressed & overwhelmed and give your brain a break. So when you are watching a show, don't text people at the same time. When you do the dishes, simply do only the dishes. It's very relaxing and untrains your brain from the constant flood of stimuli.

[taperwolf]

That MacOS quack beep keyboard reminds me of the time I got banned from my high school's Mac lab.

This would have been around 1993. Mrs Hinton taught English and oversaw the school newspaper and yearbook; for this desktop publishing work, the school had a handful of Macs crammed into a tiny lab at the back of her classroom. I don't remember why, exactly, but I was using one of those computers for something and had found, up on a shelf, the little plug-in microphone required to sample audio to replace the system beep. So I was playing with that instead of whatever actual schoolwork I was doing, and Mrs Hinton told me to stop messing around.

Annoyed, once her back was turned, I recorded the sentence, "Mrs Hinton is a nerd," and set it as the beep. (I may have also turned up the volume.)

A girl I knew was on that machine next period, working on the newspaper. Had everyone just heard the beep once, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal — I've called teachers worse to their faces — but two quirks in the old MacOS compounded the issue. First, when you scrolled past the text buffer in a program, say by holding page down, it'd beep each time you reached the end, and this girl was used to doing that and just hearing the bong-bong-bong-bong-bong.

Second, MacOS at the time was kind of aggressively monotasking — it used the whole machine to play audio. Beeping froze the machine until the beep was over.

So this poor girl was just trying to edit a newspaper story when the whole machine locked up and started shouting, "Mrs Hinton is a nerdMrs Hinton is a nerdMrs Hinton is a nerdMrs Hinton is a nerdMrs Hinton is a nerd" — and from reports she panicked and kept hitting page down and queuing more beeps. Apparently it took minutes to finally fall silent.

I wasn't anywhere near the area, so the first I found out about any of this was when the teaching assistant passed me in the hall between classes and, still giggling, muttered to me, "Disguise your voice better next time."

[youngadulthacks]

Monotasking can be very beneficial for completing tasks and getting through a long to-do list.

[killer-orca-cosplay]

On Pilots: Mono and Multitask

@wealmostaneckbeard (Sorry this took multiple months, but I finally got the insperation for this)

"So...how do you...itch?" Interceptor Razor-5B's eyes tracked to port, slowly, a movement they were unused to doing; normally their eyes did not need to move very much, or were closed if at all possible.

Their eyes were one of the few things remaining of their long-forgotten, long-since discarded and weak Ur-Form. The mechtechs had noted that it was far too complicated to remove the intricate and delicate nerves and muscles from the human skull to replace with something else, and so, they stayed.

Evolution DID do some things right, 5B had often noted. Monotasking was simply the removal of those parts that did not work and replacing them. Enhancement. Efficiency.

Having some more Ur-Parts did come into play occasionally, however. Such as now.

5b's eyes finally stopped, focusing blurry, then precisely, on the speaker on the port rail of their interface-case (what the mechtechs refused to refer to as anything other than a "tomb", no matter what Command and Integrated Combat Organism Control insisted).

Data spooled through their neural-line, as it always did. To unhook was to be unready. To be unready, was to be dead.

The IFF marker indicated the speaker as Pilot David-035, and filled out his (so he still had an ur-gender as well) accomplishments and position.

A multi-task pilot. One of the mid-pointers, closer to 5b and their sibcoh than the "iso-pilots" that were becoming more of the vogue among Annihilation Command.

"We do not itch." The vocalization emerged from the small communication unit attached over 5B's hardwired skull; their mouth had been one of the first things taken, for it was not useful for integration, and unconnected humans had an annoying tendency to break teeth or bite their tongue out of instinct during standard combat operations.

"Did they...remove that too?"

The question was not as abrasive as it might have been coming from someone not a member of Command, let alone a fellow pilot. David-035 was closer to 5B than to either of their ur-forms had been. The data spooling across 5Bs vision noted dozens of individual augmentations, mostly to the limbs, nervous system, and several major organs.

Instillation dates noted a downward transition; David-035 was one of the "volunteer" multitask pilots, then, willingly trading presumably broken and weak flesh of his ur-form for the purity of metal, and the comforting embrace of a Frame.

5B could understand that willingness.

"What little epidermus that still remains is constantly maintained at an efficient level of comfort." They answered, now slowly moving their skull as best they could to properly converse.

It was difficult; not just because of the hardwiring to the interface-case, but also because this was the first time that 5B had been required to interact directly with another sentient being in meatspace.

In truth, it was a nice change of pace. And David-035s list of combat accolades and accomplishments, which continued to spool along their vision even as they were talking (there were QUITE a few important operations there, including several very bloody purges of Phobian recalcitrants) showed that he was one worth conversing with.

Interaction with him could only increase the possibilities of proper cooperation during the upcoming combat drop. There was no downside to "idle chatter" as those not uplifted would call it.

"Any sensation that would cause distraction is filtered by the Lace." The wires and ports hardlinked into 5Bs skull seemed to glow slightly brighter as they spoke of them.

David-035 gave a slight nod, understanding present on what was left of his face. He still had most of his flesh and jaw, but his teeth were gone, replaced with titanium implants and mounting points for a survival system. The gentle "click" of a mechanical tongue was audible with every word he spoke.

"Couldn't scratch it even if it didn't, I figure?"

5B had, indeed, no ur-limbs left; most had been removed for integration, but their starboard arm had originally been retained, until combat damage forced its disposal.

They did not miss it. Its removal had merely made further operation of their own Frame's throttle more efficient, directly linked to their will.

"Neg." They replied, moving what remained of their shoulders to show. After a moment, they kept up their end of the obvious bargan that was a conversation, and asked;

"Does yours?" Indicating without movement the augmentations upon David-035s own iso-form.

"All the damn time." The curse indicated a sensation that was not dulled; a constant problem.

"The mechtech's gave me some cream and a couple of poppers to help, but that stuff's not easy to make, let alone ship. We ran out of it three months ago."

Almost a week into the campaign, then. 5B felt for the still flesh-bearing pilot.

Irritations, major or minor, were something to emphasize with, 5B calculated.

"We...get phantom sensations, occasionally." They admitted. "A need to do things we no longer need to." Like breathing, or eating. Sometimes it got so bad the hardwiring had to be turned on, to calm them down.

"I feel my toes at night." David-035 moved his leg (one of the first of his ur-limbs to have been disposed, 5B noted, and also some of the most detailed prosthetics) and made a slight metallic bang against the side of 5Bs interface-case.

The presence of limbs sparked the sensation of the need to get up and WALK within 5B, but it faded almost instantly as the hardwiring intercepted it.

"Supposedly Command has an answer. It is...merely difficult to implement." Though the voice emitter showed very little difference in tone, the annoyance in 5Bs words was still notable.

"Don't they always?" David-035 laughed, a sharp bark that 5B interpreted as darkly humorous.

"They are...only human." 5B said, finally. For truthfully that was the case; pilots were the only humans among Annihilation Command that received augmentations. The further up the chain of command you went, the fewer and fewer artificial inserts and upgrades.

Supposedly the High Commander herself was 100% flesh and bone; not even a cognitive enhancer or senescence slower.

Neither 5B nor David-035 had ever seen the High Commander of course. No one here had. She was off safe somewhere, well behind battle lines, doing paperwork and ordering pilots like them into the grinder.

"They should come swap out with us for a little bit. See how they like getting shot at for once. Might make em think a bit about what they prioritize sending us."

5B found themselves nodding; or, as much as they could, with the hardwiring.

"They...do not understand." They said finally. "No. No they don't." David-035s voice grew quiet, thoughtful.

The sensors in 5B's interface-case suddenly noted a second IFF nearing. They did not turn to look at this one, as doing so would be arduous and frustrating when they had already moved to look at David-035.

"Holy shit, Dave, is that a monotask?" A female (presumably, pronouns were of course self-determined alongside position within Annihilation Command, and disrespect of them was considered Super High Treason and bounds for various unpleasantness) voice called from below the interface-case, well outside of the natural eyesight of 5Bs remaining flesh.

The case's sensors and cameras worked just fine, however, and so they focused through those onto the figure standing before.

The third of the three types of pilots...how curious.

Second Generation Multitask, or as they were more commonly referred too, "Freeborn". Nowhere near as augmented as either 5B or David-035, but conversely, far less effective and efficent.

Expendable. That was what a Freeborn was, in truth. A baseline ur-human, given just enough augmentations (if any at all) and slammed into a low-quality Frame.

Still worthy of honor and respect, of course. All member of Annihilation Command were.

But they still bore too much of their flesh to truly be considered pilots by most. Some would loose their weakness to war, of course, and slowly evolve into what David-035 was. But that would come later.

Right now, she (her data rolled up as 5B focused upon her, indicating her name to be Hester Sharr, assigned to the 85th Orbital Drop Battalion, "Hell's Riders") was just a human with a neural lace.

"We are Interceptor Razor-5B." 5B directly addressed Sharr, acknowledging her presence. "We are a second wave Monotask Pilot designated for orbital interception and superiority."

"Woah." The sound of human awe was most...unnerving to 5B. They were not used to this level of combined interaction. Had not been, for quite some time.

"I've never seen one of you guys outside of your tombs." Sharr's curiosity showed, and before 5B could comment, she was climbing the interface-case's starboard side, looking in as David-035 did from the port side.

Oddly, 5B found they did not mind. The presence of others soothed an irritation they did not realize they had been feeling.

More human than human...but still, human somewhat. The Frame does not remove everything that makes you that. If it did, you would loose what makes you better than an AI. Thats the line you must stand upon; more human than machine, while being more machine than flesh. Its complicated. But you'll get the hang of it.

A mantra from their trainer, following the first of their surgeries. Still true to this day.

Above them, Sharr and David-035 were starting a conversation; the ease of banter between them was intriguing to 5B. First Generation Multitask Pilots always seemed to find it easier; perhaps the presence of most of their nervous system being intact lead to it.

Content to listen, 5B let them talk; the conversation flowing around them as they settled into their interface-case, similarities between pilots and experiences running through them as the data compiled and expanded.

They watched with pleasure as it went. They had started to close their eyes, when a sudden, brutal interrogative punched through into them.

They seized, the need to speak suddenly so powerful and potent that the strained against the interior of the cockpit.

"Status?" David-035's voice was professional, focused. "Woah, easy there mate! Don't pull that brace out!" More emotion to Sharr's voice, and a surprising amount of care. The vocal emitter crackled as 5B tried to speak, then, finally, spat out; "Acceptance for all, alliance to variation. Annhilation to the phobe and the bigot." The rallying cry of the Annihilation Command. The reason they were all here.

"Annihilation to the non-compliant." David-035 and Sharr said it, simultaneously, overlapping but unified.

No matter the form; no matter the wave, or the Generation...a pilot was a pilot.

Machine and nerve. A weapon.

All as one.

"Pilots." 5B spoke, suddenly...content. A sensation they were far from used too...but not against expereinced.

"Pilots." Sharr said, sofly.

"Pilots." Agreed David-035.

Silence reigned, for a long moment, as each pilot, monotask, First Generation Multitask, and Second Generation Multitask, thought of their purpose, and origin.

It lasted till their vessel dropped out of FTL...and the sound for battle came.

A/N: 5B is one of those mech pilots thats fully plugged into their machine, like a Dreadnought operator from Warhammer 40k or 621 from Armored Core.

David-035 is a cybernetic pilot, similar to Daryl Lorenz from Mobile Suit Gundam, Thunderbolt, or a Halo Spartan operating a Mantis

Hester Sharr is an augmented human, similar to a Titanfall Pilot.

[hellyeahheroes]

How to Get More Done (Feat. Monotasking) by How to ADHD

[blogghiamo]

Il multitasking ti sta rubando tempo ed energie? È ora di dire basta! Impara l'arte del monotasking per sbloccare la tua produttività vera. Trasforma il tuo ambiente in una casa organizzata e ritrova la serenità. 💪

[digitalnomadhub]

Can practice

Grayscale your phone (less dopamine from colors = less desire to scroll).

Use your phone only with clear intention: for communication, information, or creation.

Tip: Try the "Only Use Your Phone With a Purpose" rule. Before picking it up, ask: What am I doing this for?

Have phone-free mornings or evenings.

Set a 1–2 hour daily quiet block: no screens, no media, just being — reading, walking, journaling, cleaning, thinking.

Try “doing nothing” — sit, look out the window, listen to the silence. These slow hours become your sacred time. Protect them.

During breaks, read or walk without your phone.

Visit quiet places regularly: libraries, parks, chapels, remote cafes, or a simple walk.

Practice Keeping Moments Private

When something beautiful happens — a sunset, a deep thought, a joyful moment — don’t reach for the phone.

Say quietly: “This is mine. I don’t need to share it.” Let moments be whole just for you, without the need for validation.

Build Rituals of Stillness

Morning stillness: Wake up without a phone. Just sit, stretch, breathe.

Night wind-down: No screens 1 hour before bed. Use this time to journal, reflect, or just be.

Make meals screen-free. Eat in silence sometimes. Let your mind wander.

Replace the Scroll with Real Nourishment

Instead of digital noise, give your brain:

Books that calm or inspire.

Music (especially instrumental, ambient, or classical).

Journaling — process your thoughts instead of scrolling past others’.

Slow crafts or quiet hobbies: drawing, gardening, painting, cooking.

Final Reminder

You’re not escaping the world — you’re coming back to yourself. You don’t have to share everything to prove you're alive. Some of the best moments are the ones that no one else sees.

And over time, the desire to “check your phone” will fade. Stillness will become more natural than noise.

You Can Be Present and Connected

You’re allowed to say:

“I’m reachable — but not 24/7. I’m here, just not everywhere.”

You're building a life that values realness over reach, depth over updates, and presence over presence online.

You want stillness, intentional connection, freedom from digital noise, and the ability to monotask — to be fully present with whatever or whoever is in front of you.

This is how your life becomes not just quieter, but deeper.

Let’s bring this together into a life design based on presence — practical, human, and doable.

[wealmostaneckbeard]

What's Up SupraNet! It's ya boy Gunboat Greg and I have a great show for you all: I bought a monotask mech pilot from a military surplus depot! Any guesses what I'm doing with it? If you said "teach it to drive a light recon vehicle and have it compete in the MegaWastes Grand Prix" then I'm proud of you cause you are right! I'll share the highlights of the training sessions and the Grand Prix, right after this sponsor segment!

[theankoletimes]

Museveni Urges Leaders to Focus on Monotasking for Effective Service Delivery

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has advised local leaders in the Rwenzori sub-region to avoid tackling multiple tasks simultaneously. He emphasized that multitasking could reduce efficiency and increase errors, while focusing on one task at a time can lead to improved concentration, productivity and quality of work. The President made this urgent call yesterday during a leaders’ meeting held at…

[youngadulthacks]

Monotasking can be very beneficial for completing tasks and getting through a long to-do list.