Sometime in the 1960s, when computers were getting better at performing tasks, the concept of multitasking was introduced while this concept was intended to describe computers during multiple operations at the same time. Productivity experts quickly adopted it in an attempt to get us humans to get more done in less time. However, multitasking doesn't only make us less efficient. According to some studies, it also could potentially damage our brains.
In this episode, I'm going to discuss a simple but powerful alternative to multitasking. That actually works. I'm Amin Ahmed and welcome to be. Well do well. There's a popular video on YouTube that I recently watched that demonstrates this idea called inattention blindness. You can find it by searching selective attention test. I've also included the link in this show notes. Take a minute and watch the video and then come back here and will continue. all right.
If you watch the video, you'll see that the test was to count. The number of times a basketball was passed between players wearing a t-shirt. What you probably didn't notice was in the video. A gorilla actually walked across the screen and banged on its chest. This video is also referred to the invisible gorilla. It shows how our focus is limited.
It's hard for us to be zoomed into something specific, like counting the passes between players and at the same time, be zoomed out, noticing all the other things happening around like the Gor. Daniel Leviton, a neuroscientist and the author of the organized mind explains that when we multitask, we're actually depleting the neurochemicals that we need to focus. The result of this is fatigue, exhaustion, and in the long term burnout. So what exactly is this solution to multitasking?
How can we get more done in less time . If hopping back and forth between tasks doesn't actually work. What does? What actually works is batching your work? This is by far the best way to get things done. If you're asking me, can I listen to music while working out? Absolutely. What I'm actually talking about is highly focused tasks, where you've got tasks that you need to focus. Batching is actually, what's going to help you get things done more efficiently.
It sounds counterintuitive, but it works. The best example I can give on a power of batching is to show you what doesn't. Now, when it comes to email, we get lots of emails a day, sometimes even a hundred or more emails a day. Most people when they're working will keep their email program, whether it's Gmail or outlook open all day long on their screen. And when they get a ping ding or buzz, they'll jump into their email and check what came in and then read and respond to it right away.
This takes us away from the task that we're actually working on at the moment. And slows us down as we switch back and forth. Now it's obvious that it slows us down because we stop working on the task. But when you get back to the task that you were working on, there is a bit of a delay that takes you time to get back into what you were doing. Some estimates show that it takes 50% more time when you switch back and forth, because then you have to realign yourself to what you're working on.
As an example, if you're working on, let's say creating an email for your email newsletter or you're working on social media content and an email comes in and you leave, and then you go back to your task, well, then you have to get back to understanding what you were doing. And that takes a little bit of time.
The better way to do this is to pick a time during your day, maybe once in the morning and once in the afternoon for, let's say 30 minutes where you're going to open your email and go through a top to bottom and even better approach is to go through your email in layers when you have this 30 minute. in the first layer. You're going to decide whether you need to delete it, archive it, or skip the items that need more attention. You're not going to respond to it. You're not gonna address it.
You're just simply gonna skip it in the first layer. Then once you've deleted and archived all the emails that are in your way, you go through it again at the second time, and either respond to the emails that you skip the first time, or maybe delegate and forward it on. Batching can be used for various tasks. Like I mentioned, email is one of those, but we're all trying to get more attention on social media. And so batching can be used for social media planning and creating.
You don't wanna be doing those two things at the same time. Planning your social media content and recording or creating your social media content, use two different parts of your brain. If you're trying to plan and create and then go back to planning and then back to creating, you're just going to end up burning out and it's gonna feel like a drag instead. You can take some time to plan it. So let's say on a Tuesday, and then on Thursday you create your content for the.
So to recap, multitasking actually reduces productivity and could potentially cause long-term damage to our brains. Batching on the other end helps us get more done in less time and definitely reduces that feeling of exhaustion and eliminates that feeling of burnout. Now we've created a planner that works on these principles that we've discussed here. The be well do well. Planner has three main components. In the beginning, you start in your morning with your morning mindset.
You plan out what it is that your life is going to look like in six months. And then you work on that one project today. That's gonna get you closer to that. That's the be well component then in the middle, you're gonna work on your tasks for the day. You're gonna plan it out based on your chronotype. now, if you don't know what a chronotype is, it's essentially your energy pattern throughout the day. Some people have more energy in the morning and others have more energy in the evening.
I go through it more on the website and you can check the link in the show notes to learn more about that. At the end of your day, you wrap it up by writing down the three things that you're grateful for. It's a really cool planner and it's completely free. Visit the website@bewelldowell.fm slash daily planner. And I'd love to get your feedback on it. Let me know what you think.
I hope this discussion on multitasking was really helpful to you and that you enjoyed it as much as I did talking about it. Join us tomorrow, where we're gonna be talking about whether you're planting mental seeds or mental weeds. It's gonna be a great episode. Thanks and have an awesome day. And I'll see you tomorrow.