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I fixed for joining us for another edition of ask for CPA. Today we’re talking about multitasking is a myth. So I have Laura here with me again. So Laura, how are, how are you holding up and making these videos? All right. Okay, I’ll try to, I’m trying to get these accounts open up and doing my best here saw that the quote that we have here today is Gary Clark Geller called is multitasking is merely the opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time. Uh, and the statistic is it takes an average of 23 minutes to reach peach productivity once we’re interrupted, once we get that text message, once we get a phone call of 23 minutes before we’re at peak productivity again. So, and the stories we get, people, they’ve been led to believe that multitasking is a skill that should be celebrated and put on resumes.
And it’s, it’s the, the holy grail or productivity is multitasking. But all the science suggests that multitasking is the reason why we are not productive in the first place. So Laura, what are the questions that you think these business owners that are, you know, thinking about the subject of multitasking should be asking, when people think of an entrepreneur, do they think about it? Yeah, they think that entrepreneur is there on the phone and then they’re making a deal. The other time they’re talking to an employee at the same time and they got a coffee in one hand. Uh, and um, like clipboard and the other hand they’re doing this thing and that thing all at the same time. Um, and they, they, they think that the entrepreneur, the entrepreneur is the multitasker, the successful entrepreneurs, not the multitask and successful entrepreneurs. That one who’s, you know, dedicated to focus, uh, work on subjects over time.
How would you feel if you knew your doctor or credit was multitasking? So, yeah, we know the answer of why this is bad. So you just imagine if you went in and you looked in the cockpit of the guy who’s flying the plane or the girl who’s flying the plane and you, you, you think that he’s just, you know, checking his snapchat on the day. And the, you know, the, the steering wheel is just sitting there and not quite mad. He’s checking a stat plat, snapchat. Or imagine the surgeon, Laura. Imagine if you had the surgeon, if you knew he was, uh, you know, uh, having a personal phone call while he was operating on you. Is that the guy that you want to offer you go on you. It’s not intrinsically, we know multitasking is bad. We know it makes us dumber, but yet we think it somehow makes us, makes us more productive.
You know, we’re hypocritical in that way. And the, so we know multitasking, you know, reduces our productivity intrinsically, you know, we knew what reduces our intelligence intrinsically it our execution rate. Um, but we need to face that fact and address it in regular business life. What happens in real life when you tried to interrupt, if you try to interrupt real successful entrepreneurs. So I mean, you know what happens if I call up a Warren Buffet right now, I’m going to run into a wall of gatekeepers and no one’s going to let me talk to the guy. That’s, that’s, you know, how it’s going to work. So in real life, when you try to, uh, interrupt successful entrepreneurs, you don’t get them, they have a, they hire people and put processes in place so you can’t get them. Uh, and you can’t interrupt them. Um, so when you look at, you know, it accessible people, there’s a reason why they’re not being interrupted all the time.
Um, so we should take that with a, you know, that’s how those people are doing it and that’s why they’re successful is because they’re putting processes in place so they can’t get interrupted all the time. What business did Gary Keller create and why is that so important to this time? Yeah, so the call that we have, the, the multitasking is merely opportunity to screw up more than one thing at a time is from Gary Keller. And I didn’t know this when I first, regularly, you know, at first read Gary Keller that he, you know, started the largest real estate firm. Um, and you know, when you think of real estate agents, you get that same, uh, myth is entrepreneurs. And these are the guys that are super distracted all the time. They’re on the phone. One minute taking a call from someone and someone else’s asking them a question.
They are the clipboard. They’re walking through a house. I’m doing a million things at a time, you know, but he’s the biggest proponent of focused, solitary, uninterrupted work. Edmonton Business Coach, and he drew the largest real estate firm, uh, which is the business that you would think that would, you know, uh, go against that rationale. So maybe if there was a business that it should be multitasking and it would be a real estate agent. Well guess what? The guy grew the largest real estate for says you shouldn’t get interrupted all the time, are people who think they are good multitaskers, generally good at it. Yeah. So here’s the other fallacy is some people just think, well, that’s not for me because I’m a really good multitasker. Well, they’ve actually done studies on people who think they’re a good multitasker. When people think they’re a bad multitasker. Um, I’ll save you the suspense.
We’re all bad at it. Some are slightly less bad than others, but it, it, it all makes us dramatically less intelligent when we’re multitasking. But here’s the real kicker is the people who think they’re good multitaskers are actually worse multitaskers than the people who just admit that I’m not a good multitasker. You should find a great Edmonton Business Coach for your business. So I hope the takeaway is no one is good at multitasking and the people who think they are good at it are worse than the average. So I think that’s the key. Take away their email box, inbox, email notifications on all day. No, do not work out of your inbox. I, I mean, uh, if you work out of your inbox, you’re going to spend all of your day, you know, dealing with other people’s priorities. You know, whether that’s customers or your suppliers, you’re going to deal with their priorities. You’re not going to deal with the priorities, the strategic priorities of the business.
And there’s no reason to have email notifications on all day. Do not have email notifications on all day. You know, if your job is the to check email, you know, maybe you have email notifications off. But I would suspect that most everybody watching this video, they’re just sole job is not to checking their sole job is to run a business or you know, deliver a product or service to the clients are going to be happy with, don’t have email notifications on all they have a set time that you’re actually going to go and check those emails. Um, that’s the way to handle it. So we’re not being, you know, taking those 23 minutes to get refocused. Again, said your phone be giving you social media or other notifications. Yeah. Um, these are the kiss of death. You do not want to be getting every little Facebook message, notification update, Instagram, tweed, your phone is going off and going off and going off.
Most people like it’s 23 minutes to reach peak productivity. Again, a lot of people never even get 23 minutes, so they’re just walking around in a constant reduced level of Iq because they’re being continually interrupted all day. Shut off all those notifications, like shut them off. They are specifically designed to keep you addicted, not to keep you connected. Uh, you know, the, the large social media, um, programs, they consult with the same people who, you know, build casino machines and they make the noises, the make the sound, the designed to keep you addicted. They’re not designed to keep you productive. You know, maybe you need a time in your business that you check what’s going on in that social media, but it’s not all day. You should not be doing it all day. You just will not accomplish as much. Is it okay to let calls go to voicemail?
Yeah, 100%. It’s okay to let a call go to voicemail. If you’re working on that strategic objective that’s really going to drive your business board, that’s going to double the amount of people that are, that are calling in, that are inquiring about your business or you’re working on that strategic objective that’s going to increase the level of performance. You’re doing checklists and templates that are going to make your people more productive and make fewer mistakes. That’s the one that you want to do. You, you, you, you can’t just be taking phone calls and emails at all hours and ignoring those real strategic initiatives. How do you interactions correlate to happiness? So this is, uh, a little bit of a tidbit and people think that, hey, I’m a, I’m getting Facebook updates and I’m getting, you know, uh, attention and my understanding what’s going on. I, I get that initial, uh, endorphin rush when when people actually click on messages and they see your response and they see an email.
Um, it, it does have a bit of a, an addictive, uh, component to it. And a lot of people get in an initial, uh, restaurant. But really it’s been proven that the number of times that were interrupted every day, the more rent or updated, the less happy we are. Edmonton Business Coach, and that’s one thing that business owners, she normally you’re running a business, this is tough work. You and you have to work long hours, deal with the, a lot of tough situations. But what we can do is set up our day in such a way that we’re limiting some of those interruptions. And although it might feel odd when you first started doing it because we’re probably, you’re probably a little addicted to it actually getting those interruptions. Uh, they do provide that, you know, a little bit of endorphin rush. But actually, you know, the, the, your, your overall level of happiness is negatively correlated with, uh, you know, getting too many interruptions.
How do you help minimize interruptions on your team? So on our team, it’s important that, you know, team members, they need to collaborate and the need to coordinate. So in order for that to happen, often you’d have to have people on the same schedule. We can help you find the best Edmonton Business Coach. So in our office, you know, we devote the morning times to that focus, solitary work and then the afternoon times we’re encouraging that collaboration because if some people want to, you know, collaborate in the morning and some people want to collaborate in the afternoon, well guess what? Everybody is getting interrupted in the times when they want to do that focus, solitary work. So it, if you can put everybody in that same schedule and even schedule specific times that people have, you know, time set aside to collaborate with the other individual so an employee can, can collaborate with their supervisor at this time or their teammate at that time.
You know, that’s really going to help minimize those interruptions is putting everybody on the same schedule and setting aside times that you can’t, you’re going to need to collaborate. And that would be the, the the challenge and the recommendation is if there’s a person that you need to coordinate with regularly rather than create an interruption, create a time that’s set aside, that person has the, you know, the, the confidence and the security knowing that that’s actually set aside to um, you know, to be there and provide that support and then you’re also going to minimize those interruptions. So that’s what we have here today on the subject of multitasking. You know, thanks for joining us again. As always, hit the like and subscribe button so we can continue to delivery you. Tips on how to beat the odds at business. And if you have any other items that you’d like to address, please leave them in the comments below and we’ll be happy to address that in future videos. Thanks very much.
