“There is time enough for everything in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once, but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.” —Lord Chesterfield

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What a crazy day. I’ve been all over the place, not actually . . . it just feels that way because my brain is scattered. Full of stops and starts, redoes and backtracking, and trying to catch all the balls I dropped along the way. I have three things to put away in various spots in the house and to “save time” I take all three at one time. Two of them I drop on the way and the third one, a tall glass of tea, spills all over my dress and the floor when I bend over to pick up the other two things! Now I have four things to do, the new one being clean up the mess I made when trying to multitask! You have heard of “two steps forward, one step back”? Well, how about “one step sideways, two steps back”?

Why is it so hard for us to focus on one thing at a time? “Hurried, worried, buried.” Greg has said these are the three words that should be written over many American tombstones. Think about it: we are the only nation in the world with a mountain named Rush-more!

I recently read that we multitask because it makes us feel more productive. The key word in that sentence is “feel.” Studies reveal that people who multitask are actually not being more productive—often they just feel more emotionally satisfied from their work. We all admire people who seem to do a ton of things efficiently, so we want to be like them. We eat our dinners in front of our TVs with our laptops open and our phones buzzing every couple seconds with tweets and texts. Ahhh, I am just being productive . . . I think.

Multitaskers, on the outside, look productive! Researcher Clifford Nass from Stanford once believed that those who multitask heavily would develop outstanding skills: things like filtering information, switching from one task to another, and keeping a high working memory. But the results of his studies do not bear out the image of productivity. Instead, he found none of these points were true. “We were absolutely shocked. We lost all our bets. It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking.”

Wow . . . Once again the teaching of Scripture is proven reliable. We would be on the cutting edge of this latest research by simply applying the wisdom of Jesus, and the single focus of the apostle Paul. Two thousand years ago, the Bible taught us that multitasking could be not only ineffective, but bad for us! (Think driving and talking on cell phones.)

Let’s for a moment—just for a minute here—set the timer on our smart phones, and shut everything down for a few minutes . . . (Did you do it?) Now, take a deep breath and pray: What is the one thing, the needful thing in this precious moment that I should focus on?

Recall Jesus’ words to Martha as she was “cumbered about with much serving.” He said “Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful.” Jesus’ words to His disciples remind us to live one day at a time, each moment to its fullest. “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

It is interesting how the children of Israel were to go and gather a certain amount of the manna sufficient for just one day. As one translator put it, “the thing of the day in its day.” I know I would have thought, “Wouldn’t it be more efficient if I could gather a whole week’s worth of manna in one day? That way the other mornings I could just sleep in, or do something else.” And yet, the commands given to them from God specifically told them to gather one day’s ration, as anything extra kept overnight would spoil and be full of worms. The exception was the day before Sabbath. That day they could gather enough for two days. The priority of Sabbath was emphasized so that they could cease from their daily workload, rest, and worship the Lord.

Now, if I can’t be in two places at once, and I certainly can’t do two things as well as if I did them one at a time, maybe I should try slowing it down a bit and do the one right thing . . . and then the next . . .

Luke10:42

Matthew 6:28

Exodus 16:4