Now that the science is out, the days of virtuous multi-tasking are over. 

As we enter a new normal of working in our homes across various devices and productivity stacks, the necessity for concentrative uni-tasking is paramount to getting anything done. By honing in our ability to concentrate, we reduce the constant dopamine hits, errors, time and false sense of busyness that multitasking used to give us, while doing more in less time. 

The evidence is staggering for the need to build this capability: from the number of times an average knowledge worker is interrupted in a day (56 times) to how many times they check our email (36 times) to the extremely sad amount of time spent in focused work (11 minutes). In fact, it takes about 15 minutes to regain focus once you’re train of thought has been disrupted. 

Therefore, not only do we need to get better at eliminating distractions and uni-tasking, we need to exercise our capacity to concentrate for longer periods despite distractions. The best practice I’ve come across is an ancient one (boiled down to a highly effective application in a mind-body peak performance program I spent years training in called Weightlessness). This is the very simple (yet challenging) practice of counting backwards.