Work Smart

Here's the thing, humans can't truly multitask. We can take in information about up to 4 things at once, but we can't do 2 things at once. You can be reading but still aware of the score of the game on TV, but your attention is devoted to one task at a time. It's just how we're wired. But there are ways to make it seem like you're multitasking everything, even if your brain isn't cool enough to do it on its own.

Generally, tasks have active time and passive time. The trick is to multitask the passive time.

Let's try an example:
Every morning, when I first wake up, I have 3 immediate tasks: make coffee, cook waffles for Jack, and change the date on the whiteboard on the fridge. Now, I could concentrate on one task at a time. But there's lots of passive time up for grabs here. The coffee takes time to brew. The waffles take time to cook. I choose not to do one task at a time. It goes something like this: Get the coffee working. While that's brewing, drop the waffles into the toaster. At some point in this, I need 3 things out of the fridge, 1 for my coffee and 2 for the waffles. WORK SMART says get all 3 at once, which sounds like it should be common sense, but if you're only focused on making one of those, you can very easily wind up making 2 trips into the fridge, which wastes your time and also energy. I pull all 3, and then change the date while the coffee finishes. The coffee is too hot to initially drink, so I add my flavorings and set it aside to cool slightly. Slather the waffles with butter and syrup and serve. Then my coffee is ready.

This is a basic example. Your time is valuable - you know this by now. But how many times have you impatiently sat there and watched something render or load? Does the water boil faster if you're watching? Nope.

WORK SMART with your motions as well. Say you have a box you wanna put in your attic. It's in your way now, so you have two choices: you can move it out of your way, perhaps closer to it's destination, or you can put it where you know eventually you will have to. Say it takes you a minute to cross your house to the garage with the box. Sure, you could set it down and come back later and put it the rest of the way into the attic. But then you just burned 2 minutes of your life for no reason walking back to do it later, rather than just doing it when you moved it in the first place.

If you've been paying attention, you should have a really awesome To Do list with the time allotted for each task. The update on your phone is gonna take 15 minutes, and you could passively stare at it willing it to finish updating, or you can pick a 15 minute task and maximize your passive time. If you're not accustomed to trying to WORK SMART, it can take a while to get used to. You'll have to remind yourself constantly. But it applies to every aspect of your day, in one way or another. And a minute saved is a minute earned. Time is the most valuable thing we have, try not to waste yours watching a timer tick down.