Last Updated on July 4, 2025 by S Edwin
Single-tasking requires drive and focus. Multitasking requires discipline, and ability to break away and shift focus to something else.
Single-tasking is jobs done one at a time and to your detriment when you have multiple jobs that need to be done on a schedule. Multitasking is hard. It’s never come easy for me. I face it every day, but at work, multitasking is reinforced by hard deadlines. At home, and especially now that I’m alone in this house, there is no hard deadline. My free will becomes my enemy.
Now, currently: I’m rewiring my home for ethernet connectivity, a central server, and power over ethernet security cameras. The project’s been kicking my butt since the beginning. The hardest part has been the wiring in the attic. I live near Houston, Texas. The temperature in my attic often exceeds 120° even in the early part of the day. So summer was not the right time to try this job.
It’s a job that falls in that category of “things I haven’t done before.” And yes, I am extremely guilty of single tasking it. Because I can. As a result, the routine household tasks get ignored until they overwhelm. Seen through the lens of single-tasking versus multitasking, I see the challenge that’s followed me my entire life.
Think about it: You are young, motivated, and working on big plans. Figuring everything out, having fun, and everything seems to be going right for you. Maybe you got through college. Then you fell in love. In the beginning that love dominates everything and you give it 90% of your focus and time. Now your creative projects fall by the wayside. You try to pick them back up, but are constrained by time and the limits of your energy. Sometimes your job takes over, making you work crazy hours, to the detriment of your marriage and creative projects. Then you have a child. No choice other than to throw yourself entirely into loving and caring for him. Time with your partner gets compressed, work time is constrained, creative projects are abandoned, you get less sleep… Then a major project or life change comes along you have to face it, and everything else goes by the wayside.
Reflecting back, single-tasking on projects in this limited time is one of the factors that destroyed my marriage. It’s not the only factor, for sure.
But being unable to break away, for reasons that entirely make sense, let jealousy and anger to build in my wife. Over the years this turned into hatred.
Relationships need time, but the time I spent in my relationship always felt wasted. Bad chemistry is probably the biggest culprit of that. Getting the job done so I could be free of it always took priority. But I never was able to free up adequate time to repair the bad will that defined my marriage.
Back to the present: I couldn’t have anybody visit now. How embarrassed I am by the condition of my home. If I could multitask, I would be able to get my house a little bit more organized a lot more quickly.
Even right now on this 4th of July, I have the entire day in front of me. My son’s with my ex-wife until mid-month. Today, I will make progress on maybe one or two tasks.
The backyard landscaping has grown out of control. I have a pepper vine infestation which has been a problem for 20 years and only gotten worse. The garage needs to be totally cleaned out and reorganized. It gets hard and frustrating to find my tools or even to move around. And I need to sort through all the clutter which exists in almost every single corner of every room of the home.
Now, I have accomplished quite a bit since the divorce. I wrote a post on that, but I ‘ll publish this one first.
In gratitude to God, I am thankful to have these challenges and I humbly ask His help that they – whether in success or setbacks – do not dominate my spirit.
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