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Thatcher Wine Books

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“One of the great things about teaching is how difficult it is to multitask while doing it. Like reading, teaching requires your full focus — I consider that a feature, not a flaw. When things are hard to multitask, that means they require effort and attention, which is a good thing. We have to pay attention, bring our full focus to teaching, and then we can do it well.”

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“If your family has gotten used to having devices at the table, it can be difficult to break the cycle... Find a starting point that works for you and use it as an opportunity to reset the relationship between meals and devices.”

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“Just a short time ago, reading a book was a part of our natural rhythm, an inclination to find the quiet within the chaos. When we had a few minutes to spare, we often turned to a book. In fact, we yearn for this core sense of peace because we viscerally recognize it. And we have the freedom to claim it, to lean into the quiet and pick up a book. To claim this—to slow down and settle in with a story—this becomes a radical act of self-care. Reading is self-care. As human beings living in a digital age, time-starved and rushing around, printed books are reminders of the time we once had, the time we want to have, and the time we hope to have. Printed books quell the chaos. Printed books make us feel comfortable and make us feel like everything is going to be OK.”

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“When babies are born, they can typically only focus on objects eight to twelve inches in front of them. Their eye muscles strengthen and improve quickly so that they can see and take in more of the world through their eyes. I find it somewhat ironic that most of the human race now spends so much time staring at objects — phones and tablets — eight to twelve inches in front of our faces. Perhaps we all just want to return to our childhood?”

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“You may need to have difficult conversations with your partner about what you need to get a good night's sleep. This may include sleeping in different rooms if snoring or tossing and turning is waking you up. It may also include agreements not to argue or discuss difficult topics before bedtime. You should also talk about sex and try to agree on what time of day is best for both of you to get more sleep—this doesn’t sound that romantic but for a healthy, stable relationship, it’s incredibly important.”

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“In recent years, the lives we live seem to be getting busier and busier. Technology has increasingly made its way into every part of our existence — nearly everyone has powerful smartphones in their hands, pockets, or somewhere close. Economic and societal pressure has increased the need, or at least the perception, that we should always be doing and striving for more.”

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“Our devices don’t have feelings (yet!) — if they did, they would be equivalent to the needy narcissistic partner for whom no amount of attention is ever enough. They superficially appear to care about you, give you just enough positive feedback to keep you interested in them, but never genuinely ask how you feel about your relation- ship. You doubt that you should get more serious, but it’s too easy to stay.”

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“Perhaps counterintuitively, monotasking getting there can also help improve our social relationships. We think we should respond to messages from friends and family as quickly as possible—but strong friendships are generally based on qualities deeper than response time. Overall responsiveness is important, but good friends should be patient, appreciate your full attention when you have it to give, and value your safety and that of others around you.”

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“When we take a monotasking approach to our walks, including the preparation that happens before we put our shoes on or go outside, we can come up with creative solutions. Walking inside is one option—plan a route through your home, walk in the hallways or stairwells where you live or work, or use the space of a nearby mall or shopping center to walk. Safety concerns may be overcome by walking with friends, taking daytime walks on your day off, or taking a trip to a well-populated and brightly lit destination. Many of these approaches will create distractions of their own but that will encourage you to elevate your monotasking.”

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“The challenge of being a good listener is not a new problem, but technology makes it easier to cover it up. We can be on the phone or in a meeting, and keep up just enough, saying the right thing at the right time, while being engaged in something else on our devices.”

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“Time spent eating is time well spent. Besides improving digestion by eating more slowly and mindfully, we can pay attention to whether we are eating too much or too little, and what are the right foods for us. The more mindful we are of our meals, the healthier we can become.”

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“The primary goal of monotasking getting there is to arrive safely, pure and simple. It’s highly likely that the greatest risk in the average person’s day is concentrated around the times that they are in transit from one place to another.”

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“Learning new skills is one way we can rewrite the story of our lives. Whether it is to pursue a different career, for our own intellectual curiosity, or to strengthen our ability to focus, monotasking learning can be very rewarding.”

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“We’ve often been taught that if we truly want to get somewhere in our lives, we have to work hard and stay focused on our goals. But what if the best way to get from Point A to Point B is to detour to rest stops much more frequently?”

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“In the 1970s, the average American was exposed to about five hundred ads a day between billboards, television, radio, and print. Today, digital marketing experts estimate that the number is closer to ten thousand ads per day — and those ads are increasingly “micro- targeted” to us based on a huge amount of data that companies possess about our habits and interests. We can’t possibly see ten thousand ads a day and process them all. Advertisers have to get more creative about how to get our attention. Their goal is to create ads that we really do “see,” and ideally take action from. Once we get used to one type of ad, we might tune them out, so advertisers work to capture our eyeballs (and our wallets) in new and different ways.”

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“Your devices are very powerful in their ability to help you create, but they can also become sources of distraction and wasted time. During your creative time, turn off notifications and close apps and windows that are not essential to your creative work. Advertisers and other companies want you to pay attention to their creative ideas — instead, cultivate the ability to resist them and redirect your attention to monotasking your creative ideas.”

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“Sometimes we think too much when we should just be doing other monotasks. Other times we don’t think enough before we act. When we are thinking, it’s possible we’re not thinking clearly, which can happen for a lot of reasons. Is all of this too much to think about?”

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“There are currently 3.5 billion smartphone users in the world. Pretty much every one of those phones does something for its owner that they used to do for themselves. Before all the apps, algorithms, and websites we have today, we used our brains to do things like remembering and recalling (phone numbers, calendar events, and other facts). We also figured out how to get places without GPS and we made more of our own decisions about what to buy instead of clicking on ads and making impulse purchases. While there certainly are benefits to having tech- nology take care of many of our needs, we should be aware of what we might be losing. What types of thinking are we no longer doing on our own? Are there unintended consequences to letting computers (and the corporations behind them) do so much of our thinking?”

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“Now, more than ever, I believe that the antidote to our ever-expanding to-do lists, the distractions of modern life, and the fragmentation of our attention is to do one thing at a time. Once we realize that we are the ones who control our own attention, we can choose where to apply it.”

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“We think about going to the gym while we are at work. We think about work while exercising at the gym. We think about the errands we need to run while socializing with friends. We think about socializing with friends while running errands. There are many times where our body may be in one place, but our mind is elsewhere. These are internally driven multitasking distractions. Some are harmless, but when we choose to monotask, we can do everything better.”

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“Sometimes we make bad decisions when we are in a rush or not paying attention. If we can monotask thinking and really pay attention, we can think things through and arrive at better decisions most of the time. Well-thought-out decisions tend to be healthier, more considerate of others, and generally better for everyone in the long run.”

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“I like trains and the romance of traveling by train. When you travel by train, you can’t go wherever you want to go; you have to stay on the train tracks (aka rails) and follow where they run. When you don’t have a choice of things to do or places to go, the decision to monotask is much easier. Therefore, I like to remind myself to Sleep on rails. Riding the rails (in the comfort of my own bed of course) from one point to another keeps me focused on sleep and prevents me from taking any side trips during the night.”

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