Monotasking is hard

After a busy week as well as procrastination, I applied Cardini’s idea of “monotasking” to getting ready for bed the night before this blog post was due. For me, getting ready for bed tonight included changing into pajamas, taking out my contacts, brushing my teeth, washing my face, putting on my glasses, brushing my hair, and curling my hair (just so I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning). I was doing well monotasking until I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. As I was brushing my teeth, my friend Cory passed by the bathroom to say hello before she went up to her dorm room. Of course, I couldn’t just ignore her so I talked to her and told her about how she was interrupting my monotasking experience… I told her it was okay, because now she got to be in my blog post! After she left my dorm room, I pretty much stayed on task without much trouble. It took me about 10 minutes tonight, where as getting ready for bed usually takes me about 20 or 25 minutes, simply because of distractions and piddling around. It was difficult for me to eliminate distractions. Usually when I am getting ready, I listen to music from my computer, constantly have my phone with me, and am talking to my roommate all at the same time. Without music playing and my roommate out of the room, it was oddly quiet in my dorm room. That also made me clearly hear my phone vibrating on my futon whenever I would get a new text message, which made it tempting to check my cell phone. In the world we live in now, where we have access to practically anything in seconds, it is extremely difficult to monotask. One thing that my friend and I have started to do (that is sort of monotasking) is phone stacking. When we are out to eat or even eating in Schilletter, we will all stack our phones on top of each other face down. If someone picks up their phone before we are all ready to leave the table, they get to pay for everyone’s meal! It is a really good way to focus on and enjoy the time we have with each other whenever we are simply hanging out, instead of studying! Monotasking is definitely hard in today’s world, but when it can be done, it is definitely rewarding.