Multitasking is a staple of modern life, as technology has made it seamless to switch between tasks, or to do multiple things all at the same time.
Many see it as a skill that helps them survive in the world.
Yet, there remain advantages to doing only one thing at a time.
A saint against multitasking
St. Francis de Sales recognized some downsides to multitasking, which we can still do without the aid of technology.
He writes about it in his Introduction to the Devout Life, urging his readers to do one task at a time:
Accept the duties which come upon you quietly, and try to fulfill them methodically, one after another.
St. Francis de Sales then explains why he is against multitasking:
If you attempt to do everything at once, or with confusion, you will only cumber yourself with your own exertions, and by dint of perplexing your mind you will probably be overwhelmed and accomplish nothing.
The risk of multitasking is that you will be strung out and will end up not accomplishing anything that you wanted to accomplish.
Our focus is a limited resource and when it is stretched out over too many things, we may not be able to complete the task at hand.
St. Francis de Sales then gives an example using bees:
The bumble bee makes far more noise and is more bustling than the honey bee, but it makes nought save wax—no honey; just so those who are restless and eager, or full of noisy solicitude, never do much or well. Flies harass us less by what they do than by reason of their multitude, and so great matters give us less disturbance than a multitude of small affairs.
Multitasking is not in itself a sin, but we do have a responsibility to use the time we have on this earth wisely, recognizing our own human limits.
And today we celebrate...