A single-speaker YouTube video arguing that multitasking is a myth and that switch-tasking greatly reduces efficiency (author's exercise shows ~4x slower). The speaker ties this to lost revenue/productivity in business, recommends intentional time-blocking and focused "deep work," and promotes a Time Freedom Challenge that promises to give participants back about 20% of their working hours.
Questions this video answers
About four times less efficient (ABCs + counting vs. interleaved A1 B2 pattern: ~9–10s vs. ~37–42s).
To give participants back 20% of their working hours.
Here's a question I get asked a lot. You know, is multitasking a good thing or a bad thing? You know, there's this pride that people have in, like, I'm a multitasker. It even ends up on people's resumes. We review resumes all the time looking for talent to join our world. And it's like, I'm a great multitasker. Multitasking is a complete myth. And I want to share with you today. You know, how doing too many things at the same time and not being crystal clear on the most impactful things will hurt your business. Stick around. I'm going to share with you an opportunity to just spend a little bit time with me in my Time Freedom Challenge. I'm going to push you, coach you, show you a different way to do business that allows you to make more money in less time. The big, bold claim in the Time Freedom Challenge is to give you 20% of your working hours back. And also, if you like these videos, give me the thumbs up and subscribe to the channel. And make sure you turn notifications on foreign. Let's dig into multitasking. So multitasking is this thought that if I could just maybe enter a listing into MLS and I can text with my spouse and I could, you know, maybe take a phone call from a client and maybe do a webinar and learn about this new shiny CRM or, you know, and then at the same time, I'm, you know, maybe, I don't know, think of the 10 things you could do at one time. The concept is that, hey, if I can do two or three things all at the same time, and it's really switch tasking. So you can't literally do two things. I think a very, very, very small percentage of the population can literally multitask, like, do two things at once. It's mostly switch tasking. So if I'm having a conversation with Brent, who's behind the camera, Brent, what's going on, brother? And all of a sudden I'm like, oh, yeah, let me just, like, I'm checking my text, and then there's a buzzer that goes off over here. And then all of a sudden, like, oh, crap, I just forgot, like, this human being in front of me who I just forgot is more important than the text. So switch tasking. If you've ever done this exercise, I'm going to run through it with you, and I want you to do it personally. I want you to do it with your spouse. I want you to do it with your Children, I want you to do it with your team members to dispel the myth that multitasking is a better way to get things done. So here's what I want you to do and I'm going to demonstrate this. I want you to do your ABCs and count one through 26. So ABCDEFG H, I, J, H I, J, K, L, M I, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z. How long did it take you to do that? Then? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 2, 3, 5, 26. The total time to say your ABCs and count 1 to 26. Typically for me it's about 9 to 10 seconds. I've done this exercise about five times now. Hopefully you know your ABCs like a pro. Hopefully you know how to count from one to 26 like a pro. Now I want you to do switch task. You've proven to yourself that you know your ABCs in 1 through 26. I want you to go A1, B2, C3, D4. I'm not going to do the whole thing, but I'll show you what it looks like. A1, B2, C3, D4, E5, F6, G7, H8, I9, J10, K11. So you can see. So when I go through that exercise, I'm generally in the 37 to 42nd range. As hard as I try, as many times as I've done it, as you could see me just painstakingly switch tasking. I know my ABCs, I know how to count from one to 26. Yet when I switch tasks, I'm four times less efficient. Right? So if you think you can multitask, studies have shown that when you go from working like deep work, like I'm working on a system in my business, I'm working on my database, I'm working on a seven figure potential oil well in my business and I'm drilling this oil well. And then Brent interrupts me and then I'm distracted by my text and then all of a sudden I'm in email and then someone sent me a link to a Evergreen webinar. I'm going to go in and all of a sudden I'm not working on this oil well. I'm completely off the oil rig. Right? This seven figure, this $5,000 an hour work has been completely obliterated by switch tasking. Just getting distracted. So my advice is this, know when it's happening. Time block in your time blocks, be intentional. Like this 15 minutes I'm going to check email. This 15 minutes I'm going to check my voicemail. This 30 minute time block, I'm going to follow up with agents maybe that I have cross sales with, right? This 90 minute time block I'm going to work on a system, a database marketing system or a lead gen lever that I'm installing in my business or a client care system to get, you know, five star reviews every time and to use that back in our, in our marketing. Right? There's all these things you can work on, yet you're being honest with yourself all day long. You're switch tasking. I have been there. I still fall prey to it. You know, we do it all the time when we're supposed to be in a conversation, you know, eyeball to eyeball with our spouse and we feel the vibration of our phone and all of a sudden we're like looking at our text or on social media when we're supposed to be talking to our spouse and we're missing the opportunity for real connection but also real productivity and real progress in our businesses. And I mentioned the Time Freedom challenge. I want you to go there right now, thetimefreedomchallenge.com or click on the link below. This is our opportunity to work together, to be intentional and laser focused with our time. I'm going to help you identify the things that have to happen now in your business so that you can go from making 20 or $50 an hour in your real estate business to making $250 to $500 an hour in your real estate business. And a lot of it comes down to intentionality and focus and bringing your attention to one thing at a time so you can accomplish real things every day. When I think about the most accurate definition of productivity in my mind is it was from Dan Kennedy where he said something to the effect, you know, productivity is the deliberate and intentional investment of time, resources, intellectual capital, people, etc. To move closer to meaningful goals in your business and personal areas of your life that matter something to that effect. And when you think about that definition and at the end of the day, are you measuring up to the standard of productivity? What did I produce today? You know, in a day where I'm shooting video, I can end this day and say, hey, listen, I shot two months worth of video and two days laser focus. I can't do anything in this time. So the presence that I have right now with you driving this point home is the same intentionality and presence. I want you to bring to everything you do. So join me for the Time Freedom Challenge. Click on the link below. If you like these videos, I always appreciate a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel and make sure you turn on notifications. I'll leave you with this final thought. If you want to achieve big things, you have to make decisions around your time. There's no way around it. You can't binge watch Netflix. You can't watch six football games on a weekend. If you want to be a good dad and a good husband, right? I hate to say it, and that's the thing that gets me the most in trouble because it sounds like I'm preaching. I like doing those things. I fall back on those things. Yet I've made a commitment in multiple areas of my life. And this multitasking BS that we throw ourselves into constantly. We're on the news. We're on social media. It's not serving anyone. So stay tuned. We'll see you in the next video.
