Age Quod Agis: Doing the One Thing You’re Actually Doing (and why multitasking is ruining homemaker sanity)

I read a line in a newsletter the other day that punched me in the gut, in a good way.

It said: “Most failure isn’t due to a lack of effort, but to a lack of focused effort.”

Excuse me while I go scream into a laundry basket.

The phrase that kicked it all off was an old Roman one:
Age quod agis.
Translation? Do what you are doing.

Simple, right? But if you’re anything like me: juggling house stuff, creative projects, emotional spirals, work calls, and existential dread – you know how not simple that actually is.

Because: I am doing things.
I’m trying.
I’m showing up.
I’m pouring energy into all the moving pieces.
But some days, it still feels like I’m running on a treadmill with a blindfold on.

Here’s what I’ve started to realize: It’s not that I’m not putting in the effort.
It’s that I’m putting in the effort everywhere at once.
Which means I’m nowhere fully.

There’s a name for this, apparently: attention residue. It’s what happens when you bounce from one task to another without fully clearing your mental slate. Your body moves on, but your brain’s still scrolling the last tab.

So you’re helping with homework, but you’re also mentally meal-planning.
You’re finally watching your show, but also doom-scrolling and checking the group chat at the same time.
You sit down for self-care, but your brain is arguing with a Facebook comment from 3 hours ago.

One foot in. One foot out. On everything.

And we might think that’s just how modern life works.

That we have to split ourselves across a million tabs to get anything done. But research says otherwise.

Apparently, only about 2% of people can truly multitask effectively. The rest of us? We’re just switching back and forth between tasks, and our brains pay the price. A 2016 study looked into this and found something wild: when people try to juggle tasks at once, their brain activity actually drops in the parts that handle critical thinking and awareness. In other words, multitasking doesn’t make us more productive, it makes us more mentally checked out.

Which explains why I can spend an hour “relaxing” with my phone and somehow come out more anxious than when I started.

And that’s where age quod agis hits different. It’s not a productivity hack. It’s a presence hack.

It’s choosing to be with what you’re doing, not just do it.
Whether it’s writing, cleaning, resting, parenting, scrolling, or crying quietly on the bathroom floor (no shame, life happens).

Yesterday became my clarity moment with the stairs. You know the ones, the stairs I’ve vacuumed hundreds of times while mentally somewhere else entirely. This time, I caught myself three steps in, already planning dinner, worrying about that email I hadn’t answered, and mentally redecorating the guest room.

I stopped. Turned off the vacuum. Took a breath.

Then I started again, but differently. Just me and these fifteen steps. I noticed how the vacuum pulled against my hand on the upstroke. Watched the subtle pattern in the carpet emerge as the vacuum cleaner did its job. Felt the stretch in my back as I reached the awkward corner. For once, I wasn’t trying to vacuum stairs while living in tomorrow.

It took exactly the same amount of time as usual. But instead of emerging frazzled and mentally scattered, I felt (dare I say it?) refreshed. Not because vacuuming stairs is suddenly my passion, but because for ten full minutes, I wasn’t splitting myself into fragments.

The dinner still got planned. The email still got answered. But they got my full attention when their turn came, not the mental leftovers of a person who was never fully anywhere.

So here’s what I’m practicing this week:
Not more effort. Not better multitasking.
Just presence.

Do what you are doing.
Then move on.
Fully.

And if what you’re doing is pausing, regrouping, or doing absolutely nothing, do that like you mean it. Hmmph!