multitasking for example does

multitasking kill my productivity? is

multitasking good for me? am i a good

multitasker or should I just quit doing

it? and of course the one that's probably

asked most often does it actually work?

I see multitasking articles posted every

single day claiming to be able to teach

you how to be a better multitasker they

often talk about multitasking benefits

that are supposed to increase your

productivity while ignoring every

multitasking study that claims otherwise

and that's why I'm here today I'm going

to answer some of the most commonly

asked questions about multitasking as

well as give you some tips on how to

stop doing it

so first here are the answers to the

most commonly asked questions about

multitasking question one does multitasking

actually work

not exactly studies have shown that you

can't truly multitask but your brain is

capable of switching from one task to

another at an extremely fast rate a good

example would be when you're walking and

talking with somebody

your brain is actually switching between

those two tasks but it does it so

quickly that we don't actually notice it

however this doesn't work for more

complex tasks like trying to figure out

a complex math problem while

simultaneously organizing a group of

unrelated people for an unrelated

project question two does multitasking

kill my productivity absolutely and

unequivocally yes there are tons of

studies from Stanford University, MIT, and

many other places besides to back this

up the amount it kills your productivity

does vary from study to study but it

does slow you down to some degree

regardless however it may actually be a

little bit worse than most of us think

which leads us to the next question is

multitasking good for me

no no it is not in fact a study from the

university of london actually found that

multitasking can lower your IQ by as

many as 15 points and since the average

IQ scores tend to range between 90 and

110 points that 15-point hit is a pretty

big deal in my book and finally should i

quit multitasking

ideally yes because in addition to the

lower IQ i just mentioned researchers

from the United Kingdom have found that

multitasking increasing your body's

production of the stress hormone

cortisol and can lead to increased heart

rate and blood pressure which could

cause you some serious health problems

down the road

however while all this information is

great to know it doesn't actually help

us fix the problem

how can we stop or at least limit our

time spent multitasking in a world that

seems to demand it from us every day

I've tried many things but there were

three tricks that really stood out above

the rest

the first is the most obvious eliminate

the potential for distraction as much as

you possibly can turn off your

cellphone, close your office door if

you have one, and for the love of God

clean up your office space when i first

tried this in college I was actually

amazed at how big a difference cleaning

up my desk made i have a desk at work

that i shared with a few co-workers and

there was always some new piece of

sports memorabilia or stat sheet lying

around

I'd still do work there but my

productivity paled in comparison to what

I got done when I went to the library

which had a much cleaner workspace the

second trick is one that I've covered

before and it's called time blocking. time

blocking is when you set certain times

to complete certain tasks during the day

but for this to work best you need to

make sure you have your time block set

before the day begins

however this technique in my experience

is simple to understand but not always

simple to implement when i first tried

it I struggled to stick to my blocks and

the thing that helped me most was to

adopt the mindset that until I finished

whatever task i was supposed to be doing

at the time everything else should be

seen as a distraction and avoided like

the plague

when I have this mindset I find myself

not only sticking to my box more

consistently but actually finishing the

task well before the block was over the

third trick is to practice mindfulness

meditation is a great way to start doing

this and science is finding numerous

benefits to meditating regularly even if

it is just for 10 to 20 minutes a day

some of the benefits are increased gray

matter in your brain which can improve

your memory as well as yourself control

it can also decrease stress and even

improve your ability to focus. I'll leave

a link in the description below that

lists more of the benefits of meditation

because honestly there's just far too

many to list in this video.

So what questions do you have about

multitasking have you ever tried any of

the tips that I mentioned or are there

some others that you tried that work for

you let me know about them in the

comments section below and if you

enjoyed this video be sure to like share

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I upload every single friday so until

next time guys remember don't let

anything stop you from taking your life

to the next level get out there and

crush it!