Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #113| Why Multitasking Will Never Increase Your Productivity, & The Secret Hack To Use Instead
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: You're drowning in tasks, jumping from one thing to the next, answering emails while listening to a podcast and somehow feeling like nothing is actually getting done.
- 0:08Michelle Gauthier: Does this sound familiar?
- 0:10Michelle Gauthier: It's time to break the cycle.
- 0:11Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:23Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former overwhelmed working woman and current life coach.
- 0:28Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Hey friend, thanks for joining.
- 0:44Michelle Gauthier: Today we're diving into a concept that could really change the way you work.
- 0:48Michelle Gauthier: It's one of my favorite things.
- 0:50Michelle Gauthier: It's batch working.
- 0:51Michelle Gauthier: If you feel like you've been stuck in a cycle of multitasking, feeling like you're constantly busy but never actually getting anything productive done, this episode is for you.
- 1:00Michelle Gauthier: We're going to talk about why multitasking is sabotaging your efficiency and, honestly, why multitasking isn't even possible, what batch working is and why it works, and then how to start implementing batch working in your life.
- 1:15Michelle Gauthier: Don't hear this and think, I don't think that can work for me.
- 1:18Michelle Gauthier: Give it a listen.
- 1:19Michelle Gauthier: There are so many places in your life where you can try this and really improve your efficiency.
- 1:23Michelle Gauthier: So by the end of the episode, you'll have your own powerful strategy to free up time, reduce overwhelm and work way more efficiently.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's talk about why multitasking is actually slowing you down and also why this has been sold to us as a good quality and something that we should be doing if we really want to get things done.
- 1:42Michelle Gauthier: First of all, research shows that our brains aren't wired to multitask efficiently.
- 1:47Michelle Gauthier: There's a study from Stanford that shows that people who try to juggle multiple tasks at once are actually less productive and more prone to mistakes than those people who focus on one thing at a time.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: There's a term that I learned while researching this, and it's called attention residue, and it's the idea that when you switch between tasks, your focus lingers on the previous task for several minutes, meaning you're not fully engaged on what you're working on.
- 2:14Michelle Gauthier: And if you're flipping back and forth, you have that attention residue going back and forth and back and forth, so your brain never gets a chance to settle in, If you think about even when you're texting and trying to listen to someone at the same time.
- 2:28Michelle Gauthier: So if someone's talking to you and you're trying to send a text at the same time.
- 2:31Michelle Gauthier: You might catch parts of what they're saying and you might make sense on the text, but you miss a lot of key details and it's probably not the most articulate text you've ever sent.
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: And the same thing happens when you multitask at work.
- 2:45Michelle Gauthier: It feels like you're getting more done, but in reality you're just taking longer to do two different things.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: I like to think about it.
- 2:53Michelle Gauthier: How, on a computer, if you have many windows open and you can do that thing where you have it, show all of your windows at the same time.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: So imagine that you did that even with just three windows.
- 3:04Michelle Gauthier: Which one are you looking at or working on or paying attention to?
- 3:13Michelle Gauthier: Or like at a sports bar, when they have a whole bunch of TVs, or like one TV that's showing four different games.
- 3:16Michelle Gauthier: It's like what am I supposed to pay attention to here?
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: And every time you switch around you have to remind yourself okay, that's this game with this team.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: There's just no research or proof that multitasking serves us in any way.
- 3:28Michelle Gauthier: So if that doesn't work, what does work?
- 3:32Michelle Gauthier: It is batch working.
- 3:34Michelle Gauthier: So let's talk about batch working, what it is and why it works so well.
- 3:38Michelle Gauthier: So batch working is essentially the opposite of multitasking.
- 3:41Michelle Gauthier: Instead of switching between different tasks all day and sort of being at the beck and call of your email, your social media, your phone ringing, you group similar tasks together and do them in focused blocks of time.
- 3:54Michelle Gauthier: Here is why it is a game changer to do this.
- 3:58Michelle Gauthier: It reduces decision fatigue.
- 4:01Michelle Gauthier: You don't have to constantly switch gears and go back and forth and think wait, who am I talking to?
- 4:06Michelle Gauthier: Who am I responding to?
- 4:07Michelle Gauthier: What do I need to think about here?
- 4:08Michelle Gauthier: It also helps you get into a more chill flow state where your brain is working at peak efficiency because you're just working on the one thing, and it eliminates distractions by giving your mind one clear focus at a time.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: Here are a couple examples that you can try.
- 4:27Michelle Gauthier: So, number one think about emails.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: Instead of responding to your emails or your Instagram messages every time a new one pops up, you could batch all of your email responses into one or two dedicated time slots per day, say like 10 am and 3 pm, and that way you're not constantly interrupting deep work to answer messages.
- 4:47Michelle Gauthier: I'm having a batch working day today, in fact, and I can look at my calendar right now and see that from 10.30 to 11 am, I'm responding to emails and Instagram messages, just as an example.
- 4:59Michelle Gauthier: So even if I were to see an email come in, I can rest assured I don't have to answer that right now I already have a scheduled time where I'm going to get back to that person.
- 5:07Michelle Gauthier: Another example is a household type example.
- 5:12Michelle Gauthier: If you think about all of the papers actual physical papers, mail and information emails that come into your house in a given week so like bills depending on your kid's ages, papers from school oh my goodness, the amount of stuff that used to be in their backpacks when they were little.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: Invitations, calendars, you know, like the school calendar.
- 5:34Michelle Gauthier: Here's what's coming up next.
- 5:35Michelle Gauthier: Or I'm participating in a mastermind this year where the coaching times where I need to attend these group meetings change every week.
- 5:45Michelle Gauthier: So every week I need to manage and figure that out for my calendar.
- 5:48Michelle Gauthier: So just think about all those things that are coming in.
- 5:52Michelle Gauthier: And I use this method called the Sunday basket, where I just collect all of those things, either paper or digital, until Sunday.
- 5:59Michelle Gauthier: So I have an actual physical bin that I put the paper stuff in and then I have a folder on my email where I put the stuff and then on Sunday I process the whole thing I pay bills, I update our calendar, sign whatever stuff I need to sign for school, and it feels so good to have that empty basket and that empty email folder and just know what I'm looking at for the week.
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: It completely prevents that panicky feeling that can come up when you see this big stack of paper that's been sitting on your kitchen counter forever and it's probably mostly stuff you need to recycle, but you have that nagging feeling that there's something really important there that you haven't addressed.
- 6:37Michelle Gauthier: It gets rid of that entirely.
- 6:39Michelle Gauthier: So batch working really allows you to work smarter, not harder.
- 6:43Michelle Gauthier: Two more things I want to add about this.
- 6:45Michelle Gauthier: If your brain is suggesting I don't have the kind of job where that's possible or that just doesn't work for me, try to focus on instead what could work for you Based on the type of job you have.
- 6:57Michelle Gauthier: If responding to emails twice a day is absolutely impossible, could you try responding to emails the last five minutes of every hour or the first five minutes of every hour, Like could you do some other version of that?
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: So challenge yourself to think about what you can do instead of what won't work for you.
- 7:15Michelle Gauthier: And the other thing is just a funny side note.
- 7:16Michelle Gauthier: So I was writing this and I was trying to remember who created the concept of the Sunday basket so I could give credit where it's due, because I have used that for I mean since before I was even a coach so 10 years probably and it's a woman named Lisa Woodruff at Organize 365.
- 7:32Michelle Gauthier: And I thought, oh, I'm going to send her a message right now and thank her for this great idea and tell her that I use it all the time in my coaching and I should invite her to be a guest on my podcast.
- 7:41Michelle Gauthier: Oh wow, she sells cool products to get and stay organized.
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: And I was like, wait a minute, we are writing a podcast.
- 7:47Michelle Gauthier: We are in the space of the day where we are writing a podcast.
- 7:51Michelle Gauthier: So I jotted it down as a thing to do for later when I respond to my messages at 1030 and got back to work on writing this podcast.
- 7:59Michelle Gauthier: So now we know multitasking is less than ideal.
- 8:03Michelle Gauthier: Batch working can be super beneficial and really helpful to you and your productivity.
- 8:09Michelle Gauthier: Let's just talk about how you can get started right away.
- 8:11Michelle Gauthier: First thing is identify your own personal biggest time wasters.
- 8:15Michelle Gauthier: So look at your daily schedule and what tasks interrupt your focus the most.
- 8:20Michelle Gauthier: So, is it emails?
- 8:22Michelle Gauthier: Is it meetings?
- 8:23Michelle Gauthier: Is it social media?
- 8:24Michelle Gauthier: Is it your kids coming in your office?
- 8:27Michelle Gauthier: These are all prime candidates for batch working.
- 8:31Michelle Gauthier: And, just like I said a few minutes ago, think about what you can do instead of what you can't do.
- 8:36Michelle Gauthier: And if you're thinking, how do I batch work my children, it depends on their ages, of course, but we have a rule at my house that if my door is closed, my kids are not allowed to come in.
- 8:47Michelle Gauthier: Now, my kids are teenagers, so that works for them.
- 8:49Michelle Gauthier: If you have little kids, they're not going to follow that rule, but maybe for you you set up a time of the day where you for sure have a babysitter or someone else to care for your kids.
- 8:58Michelle Gauthier: And I really do batch work my time with my kids, because there are certain hours in the evening that we always work on homework, for example.
- 9:05Michelle Gauthier: So be creative.
- 9:14Michelle Gauthier: There's lots of ways that you can get started on this.
- 9:15Michelle Gauthier: So once you decide what it is, just choose one of those things, so let's say email or social media, and then choose a specific time block to work on each one.
- 9:20Michelle Gauthier: What I used to hate to do at my corporate job was doing like expense reports or filling out anything like that, and I would always either forget to do it or try to do it when I was on a conference call and mess it up somehow.
- 9:30Michelle Gauthier: So just set aside one block of time just for that, with zero distractions, and try it out and see how it works.
- 9:37Michelle Gauthier: Also, think about what time of day is best for you to schedule those tasks too.
- 9:42Michelle Gauthier: So for me, I do writing my podcast, recording my podcast, writing my newsletter all the things that require my highest and best, most creative energy in the morning, because I'm a morning person.
- 9:54Michelle Gauthier: I'm much better in the afternoon at doing more routine tasks.
- 9:59Michelle Gauthier: So that example of expense reports that I just gave, I can totally do those in the afternoon.
- 10:03Michelle Gauthier: If I have to get back to people on certain things, the afternoon is a better time for me to do that.
- 10:09Michelle Gauthier: So give it a try.
- 10:11Michelle Gauthier: Start small, Test it out.
- 10:13Michelle Gauthier: Try batching work for just one area of your life this week and see what happens.
- 10:18Michelle Gauthier: I suspect it's going to become much smoother in terms of workflow and that you'll get a lot more done.
- 10:24Michelle Gauthier: I would love to hear what you end up doing for your batch work and get this.
- 10:30Michelle Gauthier: I just changed something, in fact, on the podcast, so there used to be an option where you could send me a text, and I liked that, because you could send me a message, but it didn't show who it's from and I can't reply back.
- 10:39Michelle Gauthier: So then I really hated it, because sometimes people would say what day is that class, and then I just couldn't answer them because I didn't know who it was.
- 10:46Michelle Gauthier: So there is a link in the show notes now to send me a message.
- 10:50Michelle Gauthier: It will pop you immediately into my Instagram DMs and you can send me a message.
- 10:54Michelle Gauthier: Tell me what you time blocked and how it worked, or ask me if you have any questions about this.
- 10:59Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's now do Michelle's do less for more success.
- 11:04Michelle Gauthier: Tip here it is Close your email tab right now for one hour, or put your phone in another room just for one hour.
- 11:15Michelle Gauthier: You'll get more done probably in that single hour than an entire morning of working with that constant inbox checking.
- 11:21Michelle Gauthier: Just give it a try, All right?
- 11:23Michelle Gauthier: So here's what we talked about today.
- 11:26Michelle Gauthier: Multitasking is a productivity killer.
- 11:28Michelle Gauthier: Batchworking is where it's at, and I gave you a couple steps on how to implement batchworking into your life and challenged you to start today on one simple thing If you're feeling sick of being busy but yet not feeling productive, this one shift can make a big difference in your efficiency and peace of mind.
- 11:47Michelle Gauthier: That is it for today.
- 11:49Michelle Gauthier: Hey, I just looked earlier this week and I saw that we have 96 five-star reviews.
- 11:55Michelle Gauthier: We're so close to 100.
- 11:58Michelle Gauthier: Would you please, if you haven't go out there as you're listening to this podcast, you should be able to easily do it and rate the podcast and give me a review.
- 12:07Michelle Gauthier: That would be so meaningful to me if you would take the time to do that.
- 12:11Michelle Gauthier: Every time you do, I'm telling you.
- 12:13Michelle Gauthier: I hear people all the time telling me oh, I'm a new listener to your podcast and I love this and I'm not doing anything different for that to happen.
- 12:20Michelle Gauthier: It's when you guys do great ratings and reviews that it shows to more people when they're searching things like overwhelmed or people pleasing or any of the things we talk about on this show.
- 12:30Michelle Gauthier: So if you would do that, that would be fantastic.
- 12:32Michelle Gauthier: Have a great week.
- 12:33Michelle Gauthier: See you soon.
- 12:38Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 12:41Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegothiercom.
- 12:47Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.