It took me 10 days but I finally put a name to my New Year’s resolution – singletasking. I Googled it and realized that I didn’t make the term up, but you don’t hear a lot of people bragging about how it’s their specialty.

Basically, it’s the opposite of multitasking. I’ve been multitasking for a long time now, and I guess I got pretty good at it. Or so I thought. What I realized was that multitasking means you are doing a lot of things at once, but not necessarily doing any one of them too well.

So I’ve resolved the following:

• To stop driving with my thumbs and eyes on the phone. That will help add life to the rims of my tires and make my drives a little less stressful (oh yeah, it’s not legal either, is it?).
• To stop reviewing emails, signing checks, looking for my car keys and thinking about my upcoming deadlines when I’m talking to someone on the phone. I sometimes find myself wondering what the heck happened over the past few minutes, and now I think I know why.
• To stop thinking about what I have to do today (and tomorrow) and what I did and didn’t do yesterday when I leave my house in the morning. That’s a great way to lock oneself out of the house without car keys (which I’ve done…recently). Instead, I think I’ll concentrate on getting my keys and getting out of the house. There’ll be time for thinking about the other stuff.
• To stop thinking about all kinds of stuff right before I try to go to sleep. I’ve figured out that there isn’t much you can do about stuff from your bed around midnight, so perhaps I’ll wait until the next day to figure out all of life’s complexities.

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. What I resolve to do is to be more focused on one thing at a time and do my best on the task at hand. Then, I’ll go to the next task.

I know that sounds annoyingly simple, but I really think it will make me better at each of the single tasks I undertake. At least I’m going to give it a shot. So if you talk to me, know that I’m paying attention. And if I write you a strategy, know that it’s the only thing I’m thinking about at the time.

I’m sure my kids will appreciate it too. Maybe now I will stop calling them by each other’s name (or maybe that’s just a factor of aging).

Happy New Year!

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