Multi-tasking vs Uni-tasking (or Mighty-tasking)

While juggling three torches, I found myself carrying on a casual conversation with someone at the street fair.

I had to pause my flashy tricks — like the ones where I swipe down quickly to make a loud ‘WUFFF’ of noise, or spin a torch around the outside of my elbow — so I could chat about the quality of the street fair for a bit. I just held the 3-torch cascade, in a stable pattern. After our conversation, I stepped back, and refocused my attention onto my signature tricks.

I happen to be really good at multi-tasking — it’s one of the reasons I’m a talented juggler. But I think what makes me effective is that I’ve learned how to condense multi-tasking into uni-tasking.

When you drive a car, are you multi-tasking?

There are lots of tiny little movements and actions that combine to pull a car out of a driveway, enter a highway, and merge into traffic. Are you doing each and every one of those actions individually? Or is there a larger umbrella activity known as ‘driving’ that can be counted as a focused, singular task?

If you know how to drive a car, I’m sure you remember the first few times you drove. It was likely stressful, and you were overwhelmed by the number of things you had to do simultaneously. Some actions you had to…