The first time Brother Stavros asked me to wash the dishes at the monastery, I wanted to know what the record time was for cleaning them all.
(For those who don't know: In 2017, I spent a few weeks at New Skete Monastery in upstate New York for a digital detox, which became the basis for my book "Living With the Monks.")
"Work with your hands and pray with your heart," he said.
Wait, what? I had no time for riddles. I had dishes to do and records to break.
The monks had served lunch to over a hundred people, so I started flying. I was washing, drying, and stacking like a one-man car wash assembly line. I would have washed a monk if he were standing next to me. Every time I thought I was making progress, another monk came with a handful of dirty dishes.
Then I got a cookie tray stuck between the sinks, messing with my record pace. My lower back was killing me. While washing, I was thinking about my afternoon chores, the time I had left, and how cold it was – I was doing it wrong. I wasn't doing it like a monk.
During my stay, I wondered how the monks maintain such great energy and efficiency in everything they do. The answer is simple: they monotask. And they do it with perfection.
The monks do their jobs with zest, but only one dish at a time. Each dish is done like the world depends on it. Maybe it does? They're completely, singularly focused. There are no distractions. They don't increase their effort, they increase their concentration. A task is never a race. And there's never a finish line. There is only now.
Me? I'm all over the map. We live in a world of to-do lists. We're overwhelmed, short-circuiting, and it becomes so intimidating we don't know where to start. The natural reaction is to do everything at once, leaving tasks half-finished with promises to return later.
When Brother Gregory brought in another load of dishes, I asked him how many more I'd have to do.
"You only have to do one," he said. "Just the one you're holding in your hand."
For most of my adult life, I've tried to be an excellent multitasker, but not anymore. Now I understand that monotasking brings better effort, better results, and better satisfaction. One task, one focus, one moment at a time.
