Ashlie: (00:17)
Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Living by LEO Warriors. I'm your host, Ashlie Walton.
Clint:
And I'm your co-host Clint Walton.
Ashlie:
In today's episode, we're going to talk about the difference between multitasking and switch tasking and how not knowing the difference means that you're about to fry your engine, so just sit back, relax and enjoy today's content. I know that switch tasking is something that we've made mention of in the past, but I'm bringing it up again because without understanding how important it is to realize that there is no such thing as multitasking, it's difficult for us to fully disconnect from work.
Clint: (00:57)
Something that really hits me is the switch tasking and multitasking concept. For me personally, I love to come home after my all my first day off and clean the house. Something I've always just enjoyed to really do. Normally I do this if Ashley's not here, if she is, then we clean together, but she's more do one thing at a time and very direct in her approach to cleaning and I'm the complete opposite. I pull out everything and I just hop all over the house and kind of do things backwards in her mindset, but it makes sense to me. But I really started realizing how negatively that really impacts the whole process and my cleaning. I start in the kitchen and then something comes to me where, okay I'm one of vacuum now and then now I'm going to clean the bathrooms and I'm kind of going back and forth between all three of these instances and simultaneously I'm doing one thing after the other thinking, well I need to let the bleach sit in the toilet a little bit longer. I need to fold the blankets before I bleached the floors. And it's just, I got to a point to where I really started looking at, okay, I'm done cleaning now and then I look and half the house hasn't even been cleaned cause I thought I already did it because I went from area to area of the house and kinda hopped all over the place.
Ashlie: (02:49)
I love that you point that out and it's a proven fact that by focusing on one task at a time, you're significantly more efficient when it comes to time management and your proficiency and also the final outcome of whatever it is that you're working on and as cleanse. Talking about this, we're getting ready to do a huge renovation at our house. We're adding on 1500 square feet as you sit there. I know that is the size of a lot of people's homes as it is and we're very fortunate to be able to be in a situation to where we have the capability to do that. It goes a little bit further than just the vanity of expanding on our house. In looking towards the future, which is something that my mind constantly seeks, it's a great business investment when it comes to selling our house 15 years from now, which is what is on our plan. In addition to that, we're creating what will now be a workout room, but we're adding windows, a bathroom and a closet so that we can also have it labeled as another bedroom and eventually my dad will probably end up moving in with us and that will be his space.
Ashlie: (04:05)
And truth be told it's not 1500 feet or 1500 square feet of just space for my dad. We're also adding onto our bedroom and our closet and essentially making it the dream space for us because we spend so much time in there and also because we know that we want to enjoy our space in the way that we want to for the next 15 years. And the reason I'm explaining to you what this project is for us is because when it comes to switch tasking versus multitasking or essentially the the insignificance or the non-existence of what multitasking even is. My dad's a contractor and I couldn't imagine multitasking while building a house. Essentially it would be like framing up our bathroom and then going to frame up our new workout room and then framing up our closet. It shouldn't work that way. Instead you focus on one task at a time, you frame up the entire remodel and then you move on. If you're getting into the electricity, you don't just wire up one room if you take into account everything.
Ashlie: (05:23)
And on Friday we had the draftsman out here measuring our whole entire house inside and out, reviewing my rough drafts of our blueprints so that he can create them to give to the engineer. And I couldn't imagine if he had just done one bedroom inside it out and then gone outside and done the outside of it and said he had a partner with him and very meticulously. One was using an iPad to video record while the other one was measuring from wall to wall angle to angle and they were it one piece at a time. Starting from the outside, working their way in. And by noticing that and seeing how proficient they were, not only by measuring, but it was brilliant to have somebody walking through video recording as they announced different measurements throughout each room, wall by wall. And I would imagine in picturing them sitting at their desk or wherever they start to draft these prints that they will be watching the video and they will be going through starting one room at a time, making sure that every angle, every measurement is exactly perfect so that it matches our house exactly as it should and by recognizing that by not multitasking, we as human beings do not have the capacity to simultaneously run multiple programs.
Ashlie: (06:48)
Even a computer will get bogged down by trying to do that, but by doing one thing at a time, the proficiency, the accuracy, and essentially the perfection in what the final outcome is going to be and has been based on past experience. It doesn't make sense to try to pull yourself in multiple directions when you can get one task done in a much shorter amount of time with much more ease than trying to do several things at once. And we're not taught to do that. We're taught that if you can multitask, that's the number one asset that you should list on your resume. Just
Clint: (07:30)
Think of this as an example. People say I can drive and talk on my cell phone at the same time. How many accidents are actually caused from doing that?
Clint: (07:42)
Most of the time you can get by with doing that and it works out perfectly fine. But if you're focused on your phone conversation and you're not focused on your actual driving, it takes away from what you're doing at that moment.
Ashlie: (08:00)
Yeah. And if you're not sure, I would recommend asking somebody that is a passenger of your vehicle, what they think of your demonstration of being able to quote multitask. And I say that because my dad thinks he's a perfectionist when it comes to juggling a million things at once, primarily inside of the motor vehicle that he's operating. And it will be the first to vouch that essentially he could become one of the most dangerous drivers on the road by doing that. But he thinks he has it under control. And a lot of times we're not humble enough to be able to take a step back and to have that self actualization and the realization pointed out to us from somebody else. And sometimes that's all it takes. Maybe when you're at work, there's a project that you submitted and it took your boss pointing out to you.
Ashlie: (08:52)
Many mistakes that you made on that project. In retrospect, were you doing many other things at that time? Maybe checking emails, looking at your phone, having someone come into your office, and this goes into any job. I can't think of a single job where it would be of less importance to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Even if you're flipping burgers at McDonald's, they have certain people set up in certain stations for a reason. Some of the most brilliant business minds in the world know that this is what produces the most effectiveness. It's not by chance, but it takes trial and error. It wasn't always that way. I would imagine that the first McDonald's opened up with maybe one or two employees, if not just the business owner themselves doing everything at once until they let go of some of that authority and allowed themselves to not be spread so thin by delegating the tasks. And that's done in a very intentful way because business owners, owners especially know that you have to have very diligent focus and we can take our social media accounts, for example, Clinton, I no longer and haven't for some time managed our own social media accounts.
Ashlie: (10:09)
And we do that with intent because it allow us, allows us and afforded us the opportunity to be able to focus on more projects intentfully without spreading ourselves too thin and thinking that we need to have control and do everything ourselves all at once. It's impossible. And if you think that it's, it's possible, I would argue. What do you think the quality will look like on the back end?
Ashlie: (10:33)
And I think it takes a very diligent focus to be able to lay out what your plan should look like on a day to day basis and to understand what those tasks are. Write them out and then execute them one at a time. And in doing that, it's my recommendation that you go for the most challenging, most daunting pain stinking one that you don't want to do and tackle that first. Everything else becomes easy and essentially you're left with a little bit of extra time at the end
Ashlie: (11:06)
And when you're able to do that and you know that you have the ability to lay out what your focus points are and you execute them one by one without needing to take on several of them at all at once, then you're able to get things done in a more effective way. And by being effective, it allows you to get things done quicker. Am I doing things quicker? It allows for more of the perfection that you seek. And by doing that, it really enables you to focus more time on the things that are most important. The time with your family, with your friends, with your pets, the time to do the hobbies, more time on your health, your fitness, more time to read, to meditate, to go to church, to expand on whatever it is that's most important for you in your life. And when you understand that sometimes all it takes is creating a list and then executing that list by one item at a time, then you're really able to enjoy your Tactical Living.
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