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Your Daily Good: Why Single-Tasking is Good for Your Soul (Say Yes to Rest)

By Bonnie Gray • September 22, 2014 • 18 Comments

the little girl in you and me… what she loves to do… jesus with her together
{shared by kindred @michelleviscuse on instagram
from our #spiritualwhitespace #yestorest community.}

It’s a new week and maybe you’re thinking like me.

I don’t know what to do.

There’s so many things I want to to do, but which one is the right thing to commit to?

Time is precious and there’s hardly not enough of it.

So, we often freeze up.

We always hear time is money, so we’re afraid to spend our time… on ourselves.

Soul care.

Soul care is allowing ourselves to be loved by God.

And one of the hardest things for me is taking the risk to choose — what’s good for my soul.

The nearness of God is my daily good.

So, how can I bring God into my world, to bring Him close to me?

I’ve found one movement in soul care that has been my daily good:  single-tasking.

Single-tasking is a source of water for my soul, to keep my soul fresh and hydrated.

I’ve found when I multi-task — I’m really afraid to choose.

Your Soul Quotient

I squander the time that God wanted me to enjoy — that He gave me as a gift to enjoy — by splitting my heart and my head in all different directions.

And I miss out on touching that spiritual whitespace where my soul can just be replenished and rest.

I read a very convicting article on called How and (Why) to Stop Multi-tasking by Peter Bergman in the Harvard Business Review:

 A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs. What’s the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep. More than twice the effect of smoking marijuana.

Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we’re getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don’t actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.

You might think you’re different, that you’ve done it so much you’ve become good at it. Practice makes perfect and all that.

But you’d be wrong. Research shows that heavy multitaskers are less competent at doing several things at once than light multitaskers. In other words, in contrast to almost everything else in your life, the more you multitask, the worse you are at it. Practice, in this case, works against you.

It made me think — forget about IQ — what about my SQ — Soul Quotient?

Our Soul Quotient — how much we experience the nearness of God — the presence of God — is what’s at stake when we are afraid to commit our time to what’s restful and soul-feeding.

When we single-task, we are choosing to make room to our souls and care for our emotional needs.

Our Soul Quotient allows us to feel, to love, to be present with ourselves, with God — and with those who need our Soul Quotient the most: our spouses, children, friends and those we want to be fully present and love with kindness, patience, joy and gentleness.

We can’t do that if our heart is split up with self-doubt and soul-neglect trying to be somebody, doing things that we feel others can point to and say, “Look, she did something.”

In contract, as people of faith, we want to be someone who others can say of, “I feel loved when I’m with you.  I feel accepted.  I feel heard and seen.”

And we can only become people like this, by choosing the life of the beloved.

A New Heart

When we single-task, we become single-hearted.

We experience God’s love by choosing God’s nearness — by resting in the discovery of who God made us.

Jesus told us  —

Love the Lord your God

with all your heart and

with all your soul

and with all your mind.” matt23:37

We often think about loving God with our mind — study, analyzing, understanding, thinking about God’s love and God’s will and God’s truths.

But, the soul is where we experience God’s love, God’s will and God’s truths.

Since I’ve had my panic attacks and am now recovered, I have a new heart.

It’s awakened, but I can’t do life like I did before.

My heart can’t multi-task.

My new heart does not allow me to be torn.

If I try to multi-task, I experience a lot of anxiety.

This is hard, because I’m used to knowing I’m accomplishing.

But, I like this new me more: awakened and alive.

Your Daily Good

I want to keep singing my new song.

So, I’m learning to choose my daily good. To be the beloved.

Don’t put yourself last on your list.

Do the opposite.

When you feel torn and undecided about how to spend your time, choose what is good for your soul.

Be bold. Choose your daily good.

Commit yourself fully to be present – enjoy pursuing the nearness of God – by spending time in ways that nurture who God made you —  even though you have no idea where any of it will lead.

Choose the joy of rest and don’t turn from it.

Make room for God by making room for you.

Say yes to rest.

Single-task.

~~~~~~

Do you find it hard to single-task?  

I hope you enjoy this week’s {Yes to Rest} #spiritualwhitespace prompts below. 

Pull up a chair. Click to comment. This is a restful place to sing our song.

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Pick up a copy of my book Finding Spiritual Whitespace: Awakening Your Soul to Rest for yourself.
(I’d love to meet with you between the pages!)

Or gift this book to help me bring rest and beauty
into the hands and hearts of friends in your life.  

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Buy a copy for a friend, mom, sister, small group kindred, mommy-friend, missionary,
or BFF in your life and see what soulful conversations sparkle!

Take the journey to make space to rest.

Let’s be kindreds. Let’s meet between the pages of Finding Spiritual Whitespace.

“Whitespace is soul grace. Bonnie Gray ushers weary women into the real possibility.”–Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts

“Women need this message. If you want to hear Jesus speak more tenderly to your soul than ever before, this is the book for you.”–Lysa TerKeurst, New York Times bestselling author of Unglued

“We live in a culture that brags and boasts about being busy. Into that reality steps Bonnie with a new idea.”–from the foreword by Jon Acuff, New York Times bestselling author of Start

 

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18 Comments

  • Reply Veronica September 22, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    Hi Bonnie,
    I have always been a multi-tasker, not because I particular enjoyed trying to balance many things at once, but because it was a way to accomplish more in a day. I could cross each item off my daily list, a red check next to the not-really-so-important items and feel a sense of relief. That. Done.

    But I am learning to let my Soul Breathe. To single task, for me has meant re-evaluating what really matters. To take an inventory of my Soul to discover who God created me to be, to discover what spiritual gifts He has given me, and to listen to His voice so that my life is lived with Grace. Rushing at full speed never really worked for me because I was missing out on what was important. SQ…Soul Quotient. How life was meant to be lived. Xox

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 22, 2014 at 1:49 pm

      it’s a soul-searching journey … i’m excited for the inventory you will discover, Veronica!… because you are His work of art.

  • Reply Connie Boyd September 22, 2014 at 3:28 pm

    I appreciate this post so much! I was always a multi-tasker, until I became a mom. I have since been ashamed/felt guilty for no longer being able to focus my attention on more than one thing at a time. I feel like people think I’m a little nutty for having to say, “Please stop” when multiple things/people are calling for my attention at once. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a praise or encouragement to single-task;0 I think that should be my new favorite term. As it should be, the Lord says that our hearts cannot be divided. BTW – you and I had the same idea about sharing wedding pics in my life group. I am going to be selecting a couple a week to bring in their wedding photo as well as a recent family photo to prompt a few things to chat about and rekindle any old memories that have been forgotten. 🙂

  • Reply Lisa Lewis September 23, 2014 at 11:13 am

    Oh Bonnie, I so agree! Single-tasking is soul focusing. I think that the idea of multi-tasking came alongside the lie that to be burdened with an over-filled calendar means success in this western culture. Slowing down, creating margin in the day, pushing back and taking things off the calendar all are hard adjustments at first. The fruit of the pruning will be evident in due season. A quieted soul at rest in the single-task of breathing in the Presence of God. *sigh*

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 24, 2014 at 2:22 pm

      it is hard, constantly needing to be renewed – this commitment to creating space to choose what’s most important. it’s easier to just let the flow take us where it will. 😉 looking forward to our coffee time, Lisa!

  • Reply Nancy Ruegg September 23, 2014 at 11:49 am

    Wow. So much restorative truth in this post, Bonnie! Thank you for elevating single-tasking which “allows us to feel, to love, to be present with ourselves, with God.” For way too long I pushed hard and fast through almost every day, trying to accomplish an impossibly long to-do list. No doubt your posts and book will help others to make the better choice: to be the beloved, to commit to being fully present – enjoying the nearness of God – spending time in ways that nurture who God made them to be. What a beautiful new song to sing!

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm

      yes, single-tasking. it’s what Jesus did! 🙂 let’s sing our new song… !

  • Reply sue donaldson September 23, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    So great! Of course, i’m multi-tasking so i’ll take it all in slower tomo on my road trip – my husband is driving…taking our youngest off to college U of O, first year.
    (:It spoke to me because today I prayed, “Lord, what do I do, I have so much I COULD do?” And of course He said to start with Him. thanks for this, and my friend did read your book and texted late last night that it was written for her. ..I”m sure you’ve heard that a lot. love, sue
    ps I’d like to feature this post in mine soon, with your permission –

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm

      i never get tiring of hearing how God is connecting my heart to other kindreds, sue! encourages my heart. may there be many memories created as you begin a new chapter with your youngest off to college… and choosing the one thing a moment at a time. please feel free to excerpt or link back to this post. so glad it spoke to you. #kindreds

  • Reply Debbie September 24, 2014 at 6:06 am

    Oh Bonnie, I just wrote an article for a website on this very topic. I had been told that I was such a great multi-tasker by one of the moms of a student. She wanted to clone me! And yet inside, I’ve been craving REST! Lately and especially after reading your book, I’ve been trying to focus on the moment. But it’s been challenging.

    I did have a wonderful soul rest weekend in Carmel and Pebble Beach last weekend. No cell, no computer …just ocean and walking and rest. I loved every minute of it and wish I could go back. 🙂

    I hope to write more on Heart Choices about how your book has impacted me soon. Your book and Emily Freeman’s “A Million Ways” has caused me to look at my life a bit differently. I’m back to writing the book I started two years ago. And I’m trying to spend time using the gifts the Lord has given me. Thank you for that my friend.

    Blessings and love,
    Debbie

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 24, 2014 at 2:16 pm

      yes, for all the encouragement you gave me, Debbie – i pray the Holy Spirit will bring just enough prompting.. one page at a time, friend. one page at a time. your voice in this world. with Jesus. 🙂 and those pages will lead to a book you journey with Jesus.

  • Reply Wendy September 24, 2014 at 9:08 am

    A life-long denial and suppression of feelings of intense fear, mean that I freeze at the thought of planning anything and get very little done, other than what is demanded externally. I would love to change and to be able to creatively visualise a future, instead of being always driven solely by the need to simply survive. Single-tasking may be a good way in. Bless you Bonnie.

    • Reply Bonnie Gray September 24, 2014 at 2:12 pm

      yes, it forces us to make choices. 😉 what choices will we choose? #kindreds

  • Reply Tasting Tuesdays: Multi-Tasking vs. Rest – Link Up | Welcome Heart September 29, 2014 at 10:33 pm

    […] Read more from the FaithBarista here. […]

  • Reply sue donaldson September 30, 2014 at 10:54 am

    Featured you today on welcomeheart.com – thanks, again – it’s hitting it’s stride on the central coast of CA —
    http://welcomeheart.com/journal/2014/09/29/tasting-tuesdays-multi-tasking-vs-rest-link-up.html

  • Reply sue donaldson September 30, 2014 at 10:59 am

    Featured you today as promised: http://welcomeheart.com/journal/2014/09/29/tasting-tuesdays-multi-tasking-vs-rest-link-up.html

    • Reply Bonnie Gray October 6, 2014 at 4:20 pm

      thanks, sue! it’s such an amazing feeling to know what’s speaking to me speaks to you. THANK YOU for sharing with your readers — in your world. #honored #kindreds

  • Reply sue donaldson September 30, 2014 at 11:02 am

    Oops – sorry for the double click (I wasn’t even double tasking.)
    photo of the last chick in her new nest (duck, i mean): file:///Users/suedonaldson/Desktop/IMG_0096.JPG

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