I Was Optimizing the Wrong Thing

I’m sitting in my home office, staring at what I thought was the perfect setup to get things done.

Three monitors in front of me. My personal laptop open. iPad off to the side. Work phone and personal phone sitting next to each other like they’re both waiting for their moment.

I was ready to tackle the day.

At any given moment, I had work emails coming in, IMs popping up, phone calls rolling through, group chats going off and random tasks fighting for my attention.

You probably know the feeling.

And honestly, I thought I was good at it.

I thought multitasking was one of those skills you just had to have if you wanted to be productive.

Then I read The ONE Thing, and it called me out a little bit.

One line stood out:

“Researchers estimate we lose 28 percent of an average workday to multitasking ineffectiveness.”

Twenty-eight percent?

That is more than a fourth of the day.

My first thought was, “No way. That can’t be right.”

Because how are you supposed to focus on one thing at a time when everything feels urgent? Wouldn’t I fall behind? Wouldn’t that be less efficient?

But after several days of nonstop multitasking and ending each day tired, foggy and mentally cooked, I decided to try something different.

I started removing one screen at a time.

I muted notifications. I moved my phone away from my desk. Sometimes I put devices across the room just so they were out of reach.

And guess what?

It worked.

I felt like I could actually focus. I was able to give more of myself to one task instead of constantly dragging my attention from one thing to the next.

The funny part is, I wasn’t doing more things at once, but I was getting more done. Faster. With less frustration.

The tools I thought were making me productive were actually pulling me away from the work that mattered.

Now, this takes time.

You have to reorganize your day. You have to break old work habits. Research from University College London found it takes an average of 66 days for a new habit to become automatic, and that timeline can vary depending on the person and behavior.

So no, this is not an overnight fix.

But it is worth trying.

For me, focus made things clearer. I felt less scattered. I was not constantly reacting to every ping, message or notification like it deserved my immediate attention.

And if you’re an achiever like me, always chasing inbox zero, here is the hard truth.

It is probably never going to happen.

There will always be more emails. More tasks. More people needing something. More work waiting.

At some point, productivity is not just about getting more done.

It is about deciding what actually deserves your focus.

Work hard. Care about your work. Take ownership.

But don’t work yourself into the ground trying to respond to everything at once.

Maybe the shift is not doing more.

Maybe the shift is doing one thing well, then moving to the next thing with a clearer mind.

And who knows?

You might end the day feeling better and actually working better too.