Surprise! There’s a Right Way to Multitask - Nir And Far

Welcome to the Near Eyal podcast. We're going to be reading from Nir's article, There's a Right Way to Multitask. My name is Nick Gray. I'll be reading the article, but I'm going to ask Nir to say hello because he's going to be giving commentary throughout of one of his greatest hits.

Hey everybody, this is Nir Eyal and I want to introduce you, if you're not already familiar with my good friend Nick Gray. Nick is a fantastic human being who has written a wonderful book called the Two Hour Cocktail Party, which I highly recommend you check out. If you have always had a hankering to host more events to get together with your friends, but you're not really sure how to make it happen, Nick's guide is the book to check out again. That's a Two Hour Cocktail Party. And thanks again, Nick, for being here.

I appreciate doing this. I love reading your articles and each time I read them, it's so helpful for me. Oh my God, I forgot to tell you someone recognized me. I do not kid you. From Your podcast on LinkedIn, they said, is this the same Nick Gray that's helping near reboot his podcast? I said, oh my gosh, no way. How cool is that? Excellent. Excellent.

I hope. I don't know if you like that, but I hope it happens in the future. If it's helpful.

I love it. I love it. I love your podcast and I love your listeners. All right, let's get started. Surprise. There's a right way to multitask. Here's how to get more out of your day without overtaxing your brain. Everyone knows that multitasking destroys productivity, right? Haven't we all seen studies and read articles telling us that it's impossible to do two things at once? In some ways, that's true. The evidence is pretty clear that humans are awful at performing too complex tasks simultaneously. Generally speaking, we commit more errors when juggling many tasks at the same time, and we also take longer, sometimes double the time to complete the tasks. Scientists believe this wasted and decreased proficiency occurs because the brain has to work hard to refocus attention. However, bundling certain tasks is a great way to squeeze more from your day with little effort. You just need to figure out which ones to bundle. Lucky for you, I developed a method that helps you do just that. I call it Multi channel multitasking. Section 1 Understand your brain's multitasking limits before we can dive into what tasks can be done simultaneously, there are a few key things to know about the Human brain. Number one, the brain has a limit on its processing horsepower. The more concentration a task requires, the the less room it has for anything else. That's why we can't solve two math problems at the same time. Number two, the brain has a limited number of attention channels and it can only make sense of one sensory signal at a time. You can't listen to two different podcasts, one in each ear, without mentally tuning out one of them. We can only receive information from one visual or auditory source at a time. Number three, that said, we are perfectly capable of processing multi channel inputs, something scientists call cross modal attention. It allows our brains to place certain mental processes on autopilot while we think about other things. In fact, studies have found that people can do some things better when they engage multiple sensory inputs. Some types of learning are enhanced when people also engage their auditory, visual and tactile senses at the same time. So under those guidelines, we know that we can't bundle two complex tasks and, and we can't bundle tasks that require the same sensory input. But everything else is fair game.

Yeah. So this, I think this is a pretty big revelation for me. And since I wrote this article, I've gotten further into the research around how you can get better at cross modal attention. And it actually turns out like it's a skill you can harness. Again, the idea here is that you can't process multiple sources of information on the same channel. You can't do two math problems at the same time. You, you can't watch two television shows at the same time. You can't listen to two podcasts at the same time, but you can absolutely cross over these channels and do them at the same time. So for example, there's some new research and actually some practical applications around how getting better at cross modal attention can improve your cognitive capabilities. There's actually an interesting startup here in Singapore called Sparked that I've been going to five days a week. And it's like a gym. It's like a high intensity interval training gym. But it's so interesting. They make you do math problems or like cognitive tasks as you're exercising. So for example, yesterday they have this big board, this big like screen with a bunch of numbers on it, and you have to do addition problems or subtraction problems or multiplication problems and touch the right answers as you're stepping over this block at the same time. So you're going over the block and under the block and over the block. So you're doing that automatically as your brain is trying to, like, figure out the answer to these math problems. So you absolutely can multichannel, multitask. And now we're going to get into how you can actually use that for other productive tasks.

I love that. That's really cool. So as you're doing the physical activity, what you have to, like, press the buttons and do math problems?

Exactly, Exactly. So and they do. They have a bunch of different forms. For example, they have another one where you have to, like, there's. You have to do a different exercise when you see a color on this lit disc. And as the color changes, you have to think of, okay, green means I have to do a squat, blue means I have to touch it with my hand, and red means I have to touch it with my foot. So you're doing this processing in your brain, and as you're like running in between these different tasks, it speaks for.

Itself that you're going there five days a week. So that's pretty awesome.

Actually.

It's got a ton of potential, actually. It's really, it's really fun.

All right, next section is called Build Task Bundles. Your brain may not have the processing power to write a report and listen intently to a conference call at the same time, but you can pair one of those complex tasks with a lower level task that uses a different sensory input. For example, a recent study found walking, even if done slowly and on a treadmill, improved performance on a creativity test when compared to sitting down. That and the fact that walking improves cognitive function and productivity might explain why walking desks have become so popular. People are certainly capable of brainstorming ideas while walking one to two miles per hour, which is a great way to bundle work and exercise. Side note from the reader. I'm on a standing desk right now. That's a treadmill desk. I turned the treadmill off, but I use a treadmill desk.

It's great.

Likewise, stepping out of the office for a long walk while taking a phone call or inviting a colleague for a walk in meeting checks off two positive things at once. And multichannel multitasking goes beyond work. Cooking and eating a healthy meal with friends allows you to do something good for your body while while also investing in your relationships. Listening to a nonfiction audiobook on the way to work is a good example of making the most of a commute while investing time in self improvement. Doing the same while cleaning makes the chores seem to pass more quickly. Sometimes one task can encourage us to do another, which is called temptation bundling. A super effective motivation hack. The term was coined by Katherine Milkman at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, who ran a study in which participants were given an ipod loaded with an audiobook they could only listen to at the gym. Those participants made 51% more gym visits than those in the control group. I take advantage of temptation bundling by only allowing myself to listen to my saved articles using the Pocket app with its text to speech capabilities when I'm exercising or on a walk. Getting to consume those articles feels like a small reward and motivates me to work out or take a stroll again. Multichannel multitasking is an underutilized tactic for getting more out of each day. We can build this technique into our schedules to help us make more time for traction and use temptation bundling to make activities like exercising more enjoyable.

Excellent. Thank you for that, Nick. And yeah, just to reinforce some of the points here, I think, you know, I love to overturn apple carts. So whenever I hear, you know, if you, if you ever read an article about how ways to improve productivity, three tips, invariably the first tip is going to be, you know, somebody googled and found another article that basically regurgitated the same myth, which is you cannot multitask. And so I really like to research, to dive deeper and see what the literature says. And it says you in fact can absolutely multitask. You just have to do it appropriately. And that's by doing it with multi channel multitasking. And I found that what I wrote in this article and what some of these studies have found, that you can actually improve your productivity, you can improve your creativity by combining these channels. So saying, okay, I can only do one thing because I read some article in Vogue magazine that says I can only, you know, I can never multitask. And then saying, okay, I'm going to sit here and just do this one thing. You actually could be hurting yourself that you might do better at that task if you combine it with some other sensory channel like taking a walk while you're having a phone call or listening to an article in the gym. You, you can actually do better at those tasks by combining them with other sensory channels.

I was wondering, why are we able to drive and listen to books? Is it because driving is visual and the book is. Yeah, how does that work exactly?

So driving is actually a really great example of how habits can turn certain behaviors onto autopilot. So when you're first learning to drive at, you know, 16 or 18, you know, you're white knuckling it the whole time. Cause it's not yet a habit. You're just learning it for the first time. And so your brain hasn't put it on autopilot yet. And so you need all your faculties to concentrate on how to drive. But then very quickly, as you become comfortable with driving, yeah, you can have a conversation, you can listen to the radio, you can have a phone call. You can do all kinds of things because you're exactly right, driving engages the physical sensory channel and the visual sensory channel, but not that much of the auditory channel. And so that's why you can absolutely do these things.

At the same time, you mentioned at the end of the article the concept of temptation bundling, and I've heard you talk about it before with the apps and listening to your articles at the gym. Is there another common temptation bundling that you've heard? For example, like, I don't know. I don't know an example, but like where someone would give themselves a reward if they went to the gym or something? I don't know.

I think actually this is kind of in, in your department around ways to get together with your friends and bond with others there. I think there is something interesting around saying I, you know, let's say I'm trying to cut my calories for the week, but I'll allow myself to enjoy a little bit more because I'm going to cook with my friends. So I only indulge in certain foods when I'm cooking with my friends. That might be an idea so that you're, you're, you're bundling the social time, the conversation, along with like the physically making the food itself.

That makes sense. I've heard from people who drink alcohol that they have a rule that, that they will say, never drink alone. I never drink alone. And so I wonder if there's something around that, around the habit. But that could be the opposite side of it. If you enjoy listening to this podcast, would you please leave a review? Any app that you listen to, just go into the app and click a little review there. Nia reads all of these reviews and it helps us to encourage going through some of these classic articles about productivity and habits and even now, the right way to multitask. So if you, if you enjoy these articles, please send a hello to Near. Let them know that you enjoy it, and we'll take suggestions too. If you have an article that you'd love for us to read out here on the podcast and get Near's feedback on it, send that over as well. Thank you for listening. This has been an episode of the Near EAL podcast. You can find it online at nearandfar.com Sign up for the free newsletter where near shares awesome, fantastic advice science backed strategies for designing healthy habits that your customers will love. Thanks for listening.