diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 2534c2bad..70ab8f6ad 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ default = [
   "std",
   "async-io",
   "async-task",
+  "blocking",
   "kv-log-macro",
   "log",
   "num_cpus",
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@ surf = { version = "1.0.3", optional = true }
 
 [target.'cfg(not(target_os = "unknown"))'.dependencies]
 async-io = { version = "0.1.2", optional = true }
+blocking = { version = "0.4.6", optional = true }
 smol = { version = "0.1.17", optional = true }
 
 [target.'cfg(target_arch = "wasm32")'.dependencies]
diff --git a/src/fs/file.rs b/src/fs/file.rs
index 2ff5643e7..eb73af794 100644
--- a/src/fs/file.rs
+++ b/src/fs/file.rs
@@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ impl Drop for File {
         // non-blocking fashion, but our only other option here is losing data remaining in the
         // write cache. Good task schedulers should be resilient to occasional blocking hiccups in
         // file destructors so we don't expect this to be a common problem in practice.
-        let _ = smol::block_on(self.flush());
+        let _ = blocking::block_on(self.flush());
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/task/builder.rs b/src/task/builder.rs
index 0024f8ab8..ab43d5587 100644
--- a/src/task/builder.rs
+++ b/src/task/builder.rs
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ impl Builder {
                         // The first call should use run.
                         smol::run(wrapped)
                     } else {
-                        smol::block_on(wrapped)
+                        blocking::block_on(wrapped)
                     };
                     num_nested_blocking.replace(num_nested_blocking.get() - 1);
                     res
diff --git a/src/task/spawn_blocking.rs b/src/task/spawn_blocking.rs
index e9ed0c5a0..9c836f24b 100644
--- a/src/task/spawn_blocking.rs
+++ b/src/task/spawn_blocking.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-use crate::task::{JoinHandle, Task};
+use crate::task::{self, JoinHandle};
 
 /// Spawns a blocking task.
 ///
@@ -35,8 +35,5 @@ where
     F: FnOnce() -> T + Send + 'static,
     T: Send + 'static,
 {
-    once_cell::sync::Lazy::force(&crate::rt::RUNTIME);
-
-    let handle = smol::Task::blocking(async move { f() }).into();
-    JoinHandle::new(handle, Task::new(None))
+    task::spawn(async move { blocking::unblock!(f()) })
 }