Need More Time? How to Multiply Your Time With Strategic Multitasking

“Hey Siri, create an event for 10:30 am on Wednesday.”

“You already have 2 events at that time, should I schedule it anyway?”

“Yes.”

Multi-tasking was a hot item in the early 2000’s. It was on everyone’s resume and a highly sought-after skill.

Around 2010, multi-tasking became a dirty word and a recipe for exhaustion, distraction, confusion and scattered performance.

Studies confirmed that switching between tasks resulting in having to take time to ramp-up time between them, causing lost time and more expended mental energy when “switching gears” between tasks.

The Desire for Focus

In a world full of pings, notifications and google on the go, focus has become the go-to aspiration and skillset.

The ability to hone in on the one thing, what matters most, simplification, cutting the noise and getting to the point.

The problem is, there are just too many things. Too many to-do’s, avenues, networks and frankly speaking – too much cool shit out there.

So how can we do it all?

How can we have it all?

Enter a whole new approach to muli-tasking. How to create time out of nowhere.

Strategic Multitasking

Your brain is not designed to write an email and hold a phone conversation at the same time.

But, your brain can do several things at once and, drumroll please, EVEN BETTER when you become strategic in your multitasking.

The idea behind strategic multi-tasking is to multiply your time by doing more than 1 thing at the same time, thus multiplying your time 2X or even 3X.

And It Gets Better

In addition to multiplying your time with multiple tasks, with strategic multi-tasking, you will be able to reduce the time it takes to perform each task – AND enhance the effectiveness of each task.

So, here’s the gameplan:

• Double or triple your time by doing more than 1 thing at once.
• Do the task better. Create better content, have better ideas, brainstorm better, etc.
• Reduce the output time of each by increasing the effectiveness, leading to saving even more time.

But first, you need to know which tasks to group, and which not to. Some tasks are more effective when grouped, some tasks require sole focus and concentration.

It comes down to 2 things.

1. Which tasks require the attention part of your brain and which tasks can be done with the automation part of your brain.
2. Separating tasks by sensory type based on the 5 senses. Sight, touch, hearing, taste, smell. 2 tasks of the same sensory type cannot be matched.

Tasks are categorized like this:

• Habit Tasks – Tasks that have been repeatedly performed and have transitioned from a focus part of your brain to an automated part of your brain. Ideal for combining.
• Focus Tasks – Require attention, and usually require analytical ability. Cannot be combined.
• Creative Tasks – Require attention and creativity. Can be combined.
• Learning Tasks – A.k.a, learning tasks. Require attention. Can be combined.

Habit Tasks

• Driving
• Making the usual foods (Following a new recipe is learning, and will once again require focused attention)
• General house cleaning, window cleaning, dusting, sweeping, tidying and organizing
• Walking
• Exercising
• Listening to music
• Showering

Creative Tasks

• Creating
• Designing
• Brainstorming
• Strategizing
• Problem-solving
• Writing

Focus Tasks

• Budgeting
• Data Analysis

Learning Tasks

• Listening to Audiobooks & Podcasts
• Reading

These are just samples. You can create and expand your own lists.

Here’s How You Do It / The Formula

TASK COMBINATIONS	HABIT TASK	CREATIVE TASK	FOCUS TASK	LEARNING TASK
HABIT TASK	YES	YES	NO	YES
CREATIVE TASK	YES	NO	NO	NO
FOCUS TASK	NO	NO	NO	NO
LEARNING TASK	YES	NO	NO	NO

Basically, you can ONLY combine Habit tasks with your choice of

1. habit tasks
2. creative tasks
3. learning tasks

Remember, you can only combine tasks if they involve different senses. Reading and cleaning the house both require vision in order to perform the task, but cleaning the house and listening to an audiobook is doable.

How Can Combining Tasks Help Me Do Them Better & Faster?

Boosts Creativity

Creative tasks are better done in combination for a variety of reasons. Starting with the fact that our society is predominantly left-brained centric, getting into our creative mode can be challenging and time-consuming.

Combining creative tasks with habit tasks:

• Distracts your brain just enough to let your subconscious mind go to work and brilliant ideas “spark into your mind”
• Relaxes your dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to let creativity flow
• Gets your body moving to provide more oxygen and blood flow to let ideas flow.
• Activities such as listening to music, showering and exercise release dopamine into the brain, which has been linked to creativity.

In a study done by Stanford University, walking boosts creative thinking by an average of 60 percent.

Science shows that some of our most creative ideas happen in the shower due to a relaxed, distracted state and dopamine release.

Creates Awareness

Strategic multi-tasking requires you to do some planning ahead, categorizing and grouping of tasks. In effect, you create a holistic picture of your tasks and awareness around them, and after them.

According to Parkinson’s Law, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

So, the more work you’re aware of, the more efficient you are.

Bonus points for time-blocking.

Sample tasks that are good to do together

• Clean the house + listen to podcasts
• Drive + listen to podcasts
• Workout + listen to music
• Read a book + take notes
• Walk + brainstorm + listen to music
• Walk + brainstorm + have a conversation related to the topic
• Learn something new + dusting the house
• Shower + brainstorm
• Cook + clean & organize the kitchen + catch up with loved ones on the phone

Protip: Smart Stacking

Smart stacking is all about 2 things, timing and location.

Planning your tasks around the amount of time they will take and where you will be. For example, starting your laundry and doing dishes, then doing computer work, so that your laundry is ready to dry and your dishes are dry and can be put away before you need to leave the house.

Sure beats doing computer work first on impulse and realizing that you need to leave the house while your laundry is still in the wash and has 20 mins left.

For those of you who hire someone to do all your non-lucrative tasks, here’s another example.

Prep an email the night before to send automatically in the morning while you’re in a meeting, so that you can get a response by the time the meeting’s done. Then, maximize the bit of “dead time” between your meeting time and lunch-time by referring to your list of quick tasks to knock out. Plan your deep work for after lunch. Then walk to lunch while brainstorming. Upon returning from lunch, jump into “deep work” or focus tasks.

Old Favorite: Group Like Tasks

This classic technique involves grouping like tasks that complement each other. Completed in succession or through strategic multitasking.

For example, while I’m writing for Consciousness Liberty I write and listen to music. And between writing sessions, I listen to content related to what I’m writing about to see if there is anything that can enhance the article. While listening to content, I like to do a habit task like cleaning, or organizing my computer desktop/workspace.

This is not an exact science, it’s an idea designed to give you a mindset shift around time and efficiency.

The world around us is evolving at a rapid pace, and so should we.

Take the ideas that work for you and design your conscious evolution. You will be pleasantly surprised by how much more you can accomplish.

References:

• https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/08/how-steve-jobs-odd-habit-can-help-you-brainstorm-ideas.html
• https://lifehacker.com/science-explains-why-our-best-ideas-come-in-the-shower-5987858
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law
• https://open.buffer.com/shower-thoughts-science-of-creativity/