Multi-tasking is the shining symbol of good intentions.
Representing our desire to commit to the never-ending list of priorities that barrage our everyday, we make the obvious yet fateful decision to enthusiastically say “yes” now and let our future selves figure it out.
But, when the bill eventually does comes due and the impending overwhelm sends us into overdrive, we jump from one task to another while burning our already short candle from both ends.
Weeks blur into days. Hours blur into minutes. And before we know it the candle slips from our hands, igniting the floor beneath us and burning us out, while those who mean so much to us look on in disappointment.
Multi-tasking is possible, but not when it looks like this.
To master multi-tasking you need to realise that you can’t give your full focus to two tasks at once, let alone three, four or five.
But, the good news? You don’t actually have to.
Instead, you have the following options:
Complete complimentary activities (one active, one passive).
Learn how to shift your focus between tasks quickly & effectively.
In the former, you dedicate 100% of your brain power to one activity while you run the other one on autopilot.
Not sure what I mean? Here are some examples:
Listening to a podcast (active), while cycling a bike (passive).
Calling a friend (active), while travelling to work (passive).
Brainstorming new ideas (active), while listening to music (passive).
It’s possible because one activity occupies your body, while another occupies your mind. They’re easy wins. And ones you should look into implementing.
But, the harder challenge is learning how to shift your focus and to multi-task not on a moment-to-moment basis, but across several days or weeks.
Which is exactly what we’ll be focusing on in this guide.
From a guy who trains at least 15 hours per week, writes this newsletter, coaches agency owners, consults on future of work projects and still makes time for life, here’s everything I’ve learnt about multi-tasking.
#1: Control the Controllables 🔐
“These were her rituals, the routines that made her feel alive and connected. Without them, where would she be? Lost.” - Ben Sherwood
Life is a dance that never stops moving.
It pirouettes challenges, turns surprises and moonwalks the unexpected into the beating heart of every single day. And it sure can be beautiful.
But, if you’re not prepared for it, the flexibility that the rhythm demands will short-circuit your intentions faster than you can dream up new ones.
Growing in several directions at once means building a strong core that gives you an ease with the changes in-front of you.
Here’s how you control the controllables…
1) Set Your Operating System
Just like your iPhone has IOS or your Google Pixel has Android, so does your life have an operating system always working away in the background.
Whether you like it or not, it exists in the routines you follow everyday and the commitments you make to yourself to do regardless of everything else.
So, rather than giving yourself up to the mercy of old habits, learn what enables you to perform your best and build it into your diary.
It will look something like this:
These habits then become the basis of a “good week”, which if nothing else goes your way, you can look back on proud of what you’ve achieved.
You don’t need complete ownership of your time to get started. Start by focusing on the mornings, evenings and weekends that you do own.
Build your operating system first, then install the apps on top.
2) Understand Your Capacity
Now you know what a “standard week” looks like, you can accurately estimate how many projects you can realistically take on at once.
To do this, total up the time spent on all your operating system commitments to learn your available capacity.
Here’s what I commit to every single week:
Sleeping, Eating, Meditating, Life Admin - 79.5 hours.
Mastery In Your 20s Writing - 6 hours.
Ironman Training - 19.5 hours.
Communications - 6 hours.
Reflections - 1 hour.
This adds up to 112 out of the 168 hours in a week.
If I decide to commit two afternoons (5hrs each) and two evenings (3hrs each) at least to time off to do nothing, it leaves me with 40 hours left.
Now I wouldn’t recommend filling every moment of the remaining time. As you’ll always need spare capacity for the unexpected.
But, you’ll at least have a rough idea of what you can say “yes” to.
3) Embrace Small Changes
Growing in every aspect of our life at once seems like a great idea. One that we constantly tell ourselves we can definitely achieve.
But, the reality is far from it. We can only deal with so much change at once.
Too much and every activity will take longer than expected, tearing apart the routines we’ve come to rely on. Too little and we’ll get bored.
So, get focused on a maximum of two life areas that you intend to improve at one time and work on them until they become routine, shifting them from active to passive activities.
Start with building a routine out of the long-term activities like exercise, meditation and reading. Then build on-top the shorter term goals.
That way you’ll embrace a healthy amount of change with open arms.
#2: Learn How to Prioritise 🧭
“When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these” - Victoria Moran
Given that you can only focus on a single active task at once and have a limited number of hours in the day, prioritisation is inevitable.
You know that. I know that. It’s obvious.
But, the harder part is knowing what to ruthlessly cut and what persevere with regardless of the setbacks you face.
Here’s how you get clear on exactly that…
1) Define Your North Star
Simply put: “What change in others gives you the most energy?”.
It could anything from “helping strangers to appreciate new languages” to “empowering individuals to create organisations of the future”.
Here a few example sentences for you:
Teaching [ type of person ] to truly understand [ important cause ].
Sharing [ type of person ]’s stories to inspire [ beneficiary ].
Enabling [ type of person ] to become [ skill developed ].
Define it clearly and you’ll discover a North Star that can guide you through the darkness of decision making.
If nothing rings true right now, try following a few stars you’ve been curious about for while. Then reflect on the common themes of what you enjoy.
Soon enough you’ll find what truly matters.
2) Make Tough Decisions
There will be moments when life gets busy.
You’ll have to make tough choices, like deciding between attending a friend’s wedding or finishing an important project.
In those moments, zoom out and ask yourself:
“Which of these commitments will matter more to me in 12 months time?”
Then commit to your choice, knowing you made the best decision available to you at the time. For that’s all you ever can do.
3) Use A Decision Framework
Once you’re clear on what the word “important” means, use it alongside urgency and turn it into a decision matrix like this one:
Do - Deal with crisis management issues.
Decide - Plan for the future with strategic thinking.
Delegate - Give the task away to someone else to complete.
Delete - Remove the tasks that don’t align with your north star.
Maximise your time in Decide by staying weeks ahead of the Do and removing Delegate and Delete from your schedule.
Implement with pen and paper or in a simple task tracker like Trello.
Before you know it, you’ll making clear decisions with your time.
#3: Sprint, Rest, Repeat
“There is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” - Alain de Botton
Take each day like a high intensity interval session.
Bust your guts for a dedicated amount of time. Recover between intervals. Repeat until you can’t go any longer. Then take time off to rest.
Keep turning up each day and you’ll see your fitness increase.
Maximise your sessions by doing the following…
1) Get In The Zone
Whenever you change into a task, you must fully commit to it at the expense of every distraction around you. You must be absorbed by it.
Otherwise your mind will wander, endlessly searching for the easiest task available as an excuse to avoid the deep work in-front of you.
To shift contexts quickly and effectively:
Time-box your calendar and set one clear goal per session.
Create a new user login on Chrome for each area of your life.
Use the Boomerang extension to block emails throughout the day.
Implement little breaks between contexts to clear your head.
Move to another workplace or seat when you change tasks.
Treat your ability to get into the zone as a muscle that must be worked on regularly. Keep practising or else you’ll lose your gains.
2) Make a Prototype First
But, when the procrastination monster does come knocking, you’ll need to find a sure-fire way to discover your mojo again.
Anything that reminds you that the hardest part of completing any meaningful work is the first 5 minutes of starting.
To get over this first hurdle, I recommend typing “Purpose:” under the header of your blank page and watching the words starting to flow.
They’ll be a bit sh*t on the first draft, but that’s exactly the point.
By an means, discover your way to get to your first working prototype.
Going back and perfecting it later will be 10x easier.
3) Think in Weeks, Not Days
Juggling competing priorities will require an ebb and flow of effort that demands your evenings & weekends at one moment and gives you more time than you know what to do with at others.
Learn to dance to it’s music by zooming out, seeing the bigger picture and focusing on the 52 weeks in a year, not the 7 days in a week.
Set yourself 3 clear priorities each week and hold yourself accountable to them by reflecting every Sunday night.
For some weeks will be chaotic messes where you get the bare minimum done and others will be full of pure excitement and focus.
And that’s okay. You’re allowed bad weeks.
Just focus on finding your way back from them by building your operating system, reconnecting with your North Star and finding your flow again.
The Summary
Let’s recap: To master multi-tasking you need to control the controllables, learn how to prioritise and sprint, rest, repeat.
There’s your 5 minutes, now take action:
📚 Recommended Book: Essentialism by Greg McKeown - McKeown shows you how to go on a journey on the disciplined pursuit of less. Essential if you always feel overwhelmed by too many projects at once.
🎤 Recommended Talk: The Eisenhower Matrix - A short two minute video on the extra details you might need to implement the matrix into your daily life. Well worth a watch.
💎 Recommended Resource: My Discover Weekly Playlist - I solely listen to electronic chill music which I play throughout the entire working day in my headphones. It changes every week, but great for some inspiration.