This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. It is possible that, doing this one thing you can both become more present and feel happier. The secret is… *drum roll*…when you are doing something, give 100 percent of your focus.

Sure, this does not sound new at all. We all knew that multitasking does not actually make us more effective but instead stretches us thin, adds stress and makes us perform worse. But it is not only the work that this applies to, the same laws apply at home.

Sure, I do not really multitask at home. Except when I cook dinner while putting on dishes and trying to follow a TV show or a Masterclass lecture on my tablet. But when I do, the dinner does not taste perfect. But hey, I did complete the task!

Or I do not really multitask when my baby crawls next to me on a mat, learning how to move. Except there might be something on TV and I might also be scrolling through Instagram. While my baby glances into my face, trying to catch my eyes and have her smile answered. Which I miss, because I might be multitasking…

We do not always multitask because we have to. It became a habit because we are having hard time to focus 100 percent of our energy and time on one single task. I could argue that I am using different senses when I multitask – my hands are doing some menial activity like cleaning while my mind also needs to be occupied with something substantial to listen to.

Sure, it may work sometimes but if I do it all the time I get tired faster. I get stressed and do so faster because I am operating at 100 percent all the time. In doing so, I leave no opportunity for my mind to wonder, for my attention to laser focus not just on a task but the environment around me. For example, to notice not just where my baby is crawling next but that her legs got longer and her face is changing. If I am cooking and I have 100 percent focus, I do not just perfect the pasta sauce made from scratch but I also notice how the dishes are stacked in inefficient manner or maybe that it is time to really clean my stove (splashing red sauce does not help). I also emerge from the task more calm than if I also had to clean 47 things while I was there (in the example above I just noticed, observed but did not clean).

In a sense, by committing 100 percent of my focus on really just one task, it does not only make me do the task better, it also makes me feel more present. I start noticing not just the task in front of me but the people, the environment, maybe even the weather behind the window. This is how meditation works – only when you slow down to just sit and focus on your breathing, you can start noticing the textures you feel under your hands, how the light falls in the living room. You actually slow down. Now, if I was trying to meditate in my mind while aggresively cleaning the counterspace, I do not think I would actually relax.

I recently read a post written from the point of view of a child. How they see the world differently – not because it seems friendlier but also because things are more focused, slower, brighter, more apparent. If the child is eating an ice cream, their whole being focuses on diving into the creamy godness; if the child is sitting on a sidewalk he sees how green the grass is, the pattern on the driveway, the army of ants marching, how happy the dog that is approaching looks. They can do that because they do not multitask yet so their attention and focus are undivided.

That is why the childhood memories are so vivid and specific. Also, since my 20s every day, every month and every year seems to be going faster and faster. I have vague memories from vacations (change of environment requires 100 percent of focus, maybe this is tied to our evolutionary attempt to survive and adjust anywhere we live as humans). However, every single day disappears in my memory, I even confuse the years when I look at the pictures because I was not focused enough then to be fully present. If I was celebrating a holiday on the picture, let’s say, New Year’s Eve, I did not sit down to be present and appreciate how old I am, what year it is, what and who surrounds me and in what condition. Instead, what probably was in my head is what to cook next day when we are hosting, what needs to be put in the fridge after the celebration, how fast this whole thing can be cleaned, maybe my to-do list for the next year. This is horrible, no wonder I feel stressed all the time!

Going forward, I commit to slow down. I commit to focus on one thing at the time. Life is not about efficiency, it is about living and being present. And going forward, I will be.