THE MYTH OF MULTI-TASKING

So as I was writing this episode, I was also answering emails, writing down some other ideas in my bullet journal, taking the occasional phone call, responding to texts, and letting  Zero outside to do his thing. I’m a multi-tasker and I think I’m pretty good at it. I can do all those things and I like to think I’m petty adept at doing them all, and I also like to think my results speak for themselves. That was until I started learning about the myth of multi-tasking and what’s really going on. You see, our brains cannot multi-task, its actually an impossible feat. They simply don’t have the capacity to do two different things at once consciously and, as you’ll learn in this episode, when we do try to do all of these different things, we actually are getting less done in more time. There have been a multitude of studies that have proven, without a doubt, that people who think they’re getting more done by splitting their attention between multiple tasks are possibly actually getting less done, taking more time to do it, and with lower quality than if they had simply focused on one thing until it was completed before moving on to the the next task. The potentially more important ancillary issue that goes along with this pervasive multi tasking myth is that those who think they’re really good at it are likely more stressed out than those who single task.

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There are several types of activities that people tend to call multi tasking that are really something else. The multi tasking that most people call multi tasking is attempting to do two or more tasks simultaneously, or almost simultaneously. The problem with this, and the reason for it being a myth, Is that almost all of this activity is occurring in the pre-frontal lobe of the brain and that portion of the brain does not have the capability to do two complicated tasks at once. At best, it can switch between tasks very rapidly, but even then, there is something called attention residue. Attention residue is the phenomenon that occurs when you leave one task to start on another one. Think answering a text while in the middle of doing some work on the computer, or answering an email while writing a podcast. When you shift from one task to the next you are leaving a little bit of thought residue behind with the initial task. Its like leaving one of your children home to watch the baby while you run to the store. You’re thinking about what you need to get at the store, but you’re also thinking about your kids and whether or not some kind of disaster will be awaiting your arrival back home. Your brain activity is being split between multiple things and not focused intently on one single activity.

The human brain needs to completely stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition its attention and power to perform well on the next task. Each time we make that activity switch, especially when the initial task isn’t finished, we leave a little bit of attention residue behind with the original task while we’re trying to perform well on the next task. If you have to switch from writing your next novel to answering a text, focusing on the text may be no big deal and have little consequence for getting it right or not, but the real consequence comes in how many little tugs at your creativity and attention and the overall cost to the big task, the writing of the novel, or the coding of the software, or the research for a work project. Every time theres a little attention shift between tasks, there is also a noted time delay before being able to get fully back into writing, researching, or focused mode. All of these little switches can add up to significant time and focus costs in your life, which, of course, adds to your stress levels throughout the day and week.

The other kind of activity pairing, or multi tasking as some like to call it, is when you are doing two different types of activities that don’t require use and focus from the same part of the brain. Think listening to a podcast while walking around the block, or talking on the phone while riding the stationary bike. This is not multi tasking, this is something called habit or task stacking. The reason this can work well is because we can all do a bunch of physical things unconsciously, while also doing something that may require more of the frontal lobes. We don’t have to consciously think about walking because we’ve been doing it for so long. Just like we don’t have to consciously think about breathing while we’re sleeping. Some of those things are unconscious activities and abilities and, with things like walking and talking, they’ve become simply habits now. We can easily walk or run and listen to something on our phones, or even talk on our phones while doing these activities because we don’t need the frontal lobe to think about each step. This is simply good use of our time. One of those tasks isn’t stealing mental or physical resources from the other. In fact, I think task and habit stacking is one of the best uses of our time if we want to actually accomplish more stuff during the day and be effective, instead of just constantly shifting our attention back and forth between a multitude of tasks that all demand little pieces of the same parts of our brain.

So what can we do about this multi tasking myth? Here are 5 things that have helped me in this regard and I think they might be able to help you too.

1. Use the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. I’ve found in my life and businesses that this rule is usually closer to the 90/10 or 95/5 rule, and it says that 80, 90, or 95% of our results come from 5, 10, or 20% of our efforts, activities, clients, tasks, effectiveness, etcetera.  The busier we get the more we try to multi task and end up simply splitting the already limited resources we have in our craniums. Instead, identify the 5, 10, or 20% of the tasks that produce the most and best outcomes for you and do those specific things one activity at a time. This means silencing your cell phone, turning off the tv, not answering emails or texts while working on those things specifically.

• The next suggestion is to identify all of the activities throughout your day where task stacking might come in handy. If getting a workout in is one of your daily tasks, and answering emails is also one of your daily tasks, see if you can answer emails while walking on the treadmill or walking around the block. If you’re a runner, try using the voice recorder on your phone to dictate ideas and responses while you’re running. Keep in mind that task stacking only works well when you are doing two things that do not steal resources from each other. Listening to an audio book does not steal resources from a physical activity like running so it works well. Trying to listen to an audio book while answering emails does not work well because you need to the same part of your brain for both activities.

• Next, batch processing of tasks. Batch processing works well for things like emails and text messages. Set aside certain times, or a set time, during the day where you will answer all emails, texts, voicemails. Instead of switching between these tasks constantly throughout the day, do them all during one hour of your day when you can give them all of your focus without stealing resources from another important task.

• The 4th suggestion is to use time blocking or focus time. These are scheduled times during your day where you will only do that one thing. You wont be answering emails, taking phone calls, responding to texts, listening to audiobooks, or even music. You will only be focused on that particular task for a specific period of time. I would suggest that you make it a limited period of time based on how well you work in blocks of time. For instance, if I’m writing, I can sit for 3-5 hours and write. If I’m working on an appraisal, however, I have 1 to 2 hours of good focus in me before I need to deliberately task switch for my sanity and well being. So, I schedule that time. I have two-2 hour blocks in my day where I am working on files and appraisal work and its typically broken up with an hour of batch processing where I am answering emails, texts, and voicemails. If you’ve ever been to a sushi restaurant, you always get a little pile of cooked ginger in little pink slices. This is there for a reason and the reason is to cleanse your palate between the different courses. When you make these blocks of time during your day and you have set times where you’ve told yourself its ok to switch tasks, you’re cleansing your brain palate and freeing yourself from the prison of too much focused time. This is actually good for your brain and allows a little bit more capacity and creativity to creep back in.

Along with blocking or focused time, I would highly suggest you start to plan out your next day on the previous day. Set aside a half hour or so at the end of your day to plan out your whole next day. Not only will you become much more productive, you’ll start to anticipate potential interruptions and events that may derail your best laid plans. However, if all goes well and to plan, a plan you created the day before, you may end up having the most productive day you’ve ever had and in less time.

• The 5th suggestion or tip on this topic, and it relates to the last suggestion I just gave you about planning your day on the previous day, is to leave blank spaces in your day and this has two parts to it. There is no such thing as perfect day and leaving a little white space, as I like to call it, is leaving a little cushion for unintended and unplanned for events. If you have a half hour or hour of blank space on your calendar you can throw these unanticipated and unplanned events into that space. Instead of switching tasks right in the middle of something important, you simply make a note that you will handle this particular thing during your white space time.

That’s part one of the blank spaces suggestion. The second part of the blank spaces suggestion is to truly have blank spaces in your calendar. These are times during the week that you are literally doing no pre-frontal cortex activities. You are doing no thinking tasks at all. This is time for you to get outside, exercise, paint, draw, record, make music, or whatever you choose to do to cleanse your brain palate. When we overuse our pre-frontal cortex, which most people do daily trying to get everything in, we over tax that portion of our brains and we get less and less productive while also getting less and less happy, which consequently makes us more and more stressed. One of the ways to cleanse the pre-frontal cortex is to have time where you simply aren’t using it. Don’t use this time to task stack, that’s something different. True blank or white space time is time where you are letting your brain rest and not using it for thinking activities. Go for a walk or run, exercise and listen to music, sit in meditation, go sit in a sensory deprivation tank, or gaze at the stars.

Now, before I end this episode, I want to address one of the first things I talked about at the outset of this episode and its that I said we don’t have a problem with waking and talking on the phone because we’re not stealing brain resources from the walking section of our brain while talking. We can easily do it without having to think about it. However, its not completely true. I have, and I’m quite sure you have been walking and talking on the phone only to trip over something or bump into something. This happens because, in actuality, the part of our brain that we have to steal resources from when we’re walking and talking is the awareness portion. When we’re talking, texting, emailing, or doing something like that, while also doing something else, we are in fact stealing resources from one of the most important parts of the brain I like to call our Executive Protection Detail. This is the portion of the brain that is constantly on the lookout for threats and helping us make thousands of little micro adjustments to avoid danger. It’s the part of our brains that, when driving especially, keeps us from crossing the center line or helps us feel when the tires lose traction for a second. There are several places and situations where I would suggest not taking advantage of the brain’s ability to task stack and task switch and those are when we are driving and when we are out in public. As one of my tactical mentors is fond of saying, you are the agent in charge of your own executive protection detail and that means when you are tasked with something important like driving, just drive! Things happen in micro seconds, especially at 50, 60, and 70 miles per hour and you need absolutely all of your mental resources to help you identify them in advance and then come up with a split second decision to escape and evasion of a potentially deadly scenario. The other scenario I mentioned is when you are out in public. Although you may know the area you are in and feel safe in that environment, we suffer today from 45 degree syndrome which is the throngs of people with their heads at a 45 degree angle looking at their personal devices and not aware of their surroundings. This means people like you and I have to provide security detail for them if something goes haywire and we’re called into action to save you. Don’t put that responsibility on anyone else when you’re out in public. If you have to text or answer your phone while you’re out and about in public, stop walking, put your back up against the wall of a building and talk or text while also looking around you. Once you’re done, put your phone away and carry on with your plans. Not only are our brains not capable of multi-tasking, it is not capable of carrying out one of its most valuable functions and that is to spark your intuition in the presence of danger or opportunity while your awareness is somewhere else. I’ll talk in another episode about just how much of our lives is lost to our devices, but for now just take my advice and put the damn thing away while you’re doing something else.

Alright my friends, 5 things to help you be a better you, be a less stressed you, and smash the myth of multi tasking. I’d like to thank you for investing your most valuable currency with me again this week and that is your time. Recapture some of your most valuable currency by stopping the madness of thinking you’re multi-tasking when you’re likely just task switching and leaving a little bit of your valuable brain resources with the last task. Focus on one thing at a time and do it right before moving on to the next thing. I learned this lesson while studying Zen with my teacher. He didn’t call it multi-tasking at the time and I didn’t think I was. I was simply whistling while I was cutting carrots for dinner. He gave me an education about mental focus though that would stay with me forever. He explained that when I pull my mental and spiritual focus away from the activity I’m engaged in, I am giving less of myself to that task and it will be apparent in the final product. In the case of cooking, he said if I whistle and cook, or engage in conversation and cook, then the food will ultimately taste different than if I had given each task my all and put all of my energy into the task. This was an eye opener for me and I’ve tried to apply it in all areas of my life. Hopefully, with this episode, I am encouraging you to try the same. Whatever you are doing, give it your all for that time period. This is especially true when it comes to relationships. I’ll be talking more about relationships and the relationship economy that we live in today in future episodes so I hope you’ll join me for those.

The last point before we bro hug and fist bump our goodbyes is that the teams are forming for the January coaching sessions so if you are ready to take your life and business to the next level, reach out to us and see if the Real Value Coaching Academy is for you. We don’t accept everybody and we’re not right for everybody, although the lessons we teach in the coaching academy are absolutely vital for every single one of you listening. You might be asking yourself, how can that be Blaine? How can you not be right for everybody and everybody is not right for you but the lessons are right for everybody? Its because not everybody is ready to put in the work. Its why I said if you’re ready to take your life and business to the next level, reach out to us. Some people are ready to take their business to the next level but not their lives and therefore, they wont do the work. Our Coaching Academy doesn’t just tell you to set some goals and see what happens. We teach you how to get stupid granular with your goals and, in many cases, coaching members end up tossing and revising many of their initial goals because they don’t make it through the 12 question test of whether a particular goal matches up with your values and your why’s in life. We teach and coach on relationships, both personal and professional, marketing and branding, health and wellness, communications, mindsets, and, of course, the all important tracking and measuring of the vital indicators in your company. We teach you how to do a profit and loss statement, how to create a budget, how to manage your numbers, how to get new and better business, and a bunch of stuff that is literally life changing. And again, not everybody is ready for that which is why I always caveat these messages with a warning that it’s not for everybody wherever they are in their journey. It might be right for you in a year or two when you get to that point. However, if the message resonates with you and you want to see if you are at the right point in our life and business, just reach out and I’ll help you figure that out.

Thanks again for granting me the great privilege of your time and I look forward to hanging with you all again next week. Until then my friends, I’m out…