One thing at a time: Why Gen Z wants to stop multitasking

Khaleej Times

2 days ago

It was between 15 and 20 years ago that I first got comfortable on a computer. As a kid, I swung more Millennial with access to my parents' Macintosh personal computer and a pearl white iBook, but as a teenager I had my own phone, and later iPad, and then computer.
In between, I had computer classes (Information and Communications Technology at school in Al Ain) where I learned... well, everything we learned. How to use a glossary and index, how to organise folders digitally and navigate databases online and in-person, how to use the office suite, how to verify what I was seeing or reading online was real, and how to maintain the functionality of my devices.
These are forgotten skills in 2025. We forget that 15-20 years ago the ability to do the most basic sums in a spreadsheet was worth putting on your CV. Critical thinking and the garnering of soft skills are far more important in this day and age. I can teach you how to use a screwdriver — righty tighty, lefty loosey — but it needs to be obvious which end goes where.
There are a few things in my head as I write this column. Young people aren't paid enough to multitask, and we have no evidence that hard work, determination, or devotion to the craft will get us anywhere other than convincing our boss the job can be done by someone less qualified for less money, who they can mistreat more. We reach out seeking mentorship, guidance, or advice on everything from career to professional development, and we hear the same things.
This relates to multitasking because we know in 2025 what the enlightened and self-actualised around the world already knew — the result is important but so is the work.
One thing at a time
Multitasking is splitting focus. It's piling more on before you finish something or starting too many things at once because of a current energy level, feeling, or myth about your capacity. In journalism, you see this every day. The tail wags the dog with KPIs of traffic, reach, and reaction. There's lots to follow a lot of the time, and plenty of plates to keep spinning, and obligations one must keep in mind, but in the moment, what must take precedence is the rhythm of the task and the rhythm of the person doing the task.
In simpler terms, you are more likely to burn yourself out trying to do 10 things half as well as you can than doing one thing with all your focus and doing it well in half the time.
Take this column. I could ideate 10 things at once, do a little research here and there over a two-week period, and send my editor 10 columns that require a lot more work on her end. Or, I could do as I have done; have a backlog of ideas and topics, then devote a single block of time to a single column, and produce a few some weeks, and none some weeks. Not only am I one and done with the column faster, which can then be sent to my editor immediately, but then my mind is free to move on.
Ending our multitasking goes deeper than not listening to a podcast while you walk your dog; it's about respecting your own time. Folks love to say, 'this is the way things are done' and then share their many complaints with having to work inside such a system. But when a mundane laptop can do what an entire office suite used to do 15-20 years ago, the attitude must be of facing tasks one at a time and knowing when your batteries are empty.