Singletasker

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who concentrates on only one job or activity at a time rather than juggling several at once
2. Someone who prefers to focus fully on a single task until it is finished, instead of switching between many
3. An individual who handles one piece of work at a go and avoids dividing attention among multiple duties

Etymology: "Singletasker" is a transparent compound. "Single" comes through Old French from Latin "singulus," meaning one, and "tasker" is someone who takes on a task, from "task," which passed into English from Old French and ultimately from medieval Latin "tasca." The more revealing part is its partner. "Multitasking" began as a term in computing, where it described a machine running several programs at once, before people borrowed it for human work. The opposite term follows the same pattern: a person who works on one thing at a time is defined against the multitasker. It is a word coined to describe a contrast, not an ancient idea.