No Multitasking, But Dual-Tasking Is OK

Multitasking may be a problem, but Dual-Tasking helps you reach your goals faster. I purposefully dual-task every day.

 

Dual-Tasking: The brain does one thing while the body does something else.

 

Yesterday, I hiked through Rila National Park in Bulgaria. The weather was lovely and now I won’t forget this little country in Eastern Europe.

 

While walking, I held a conversation with a financial analyst who explained to me…

 

• Why he looks for CAPEX to match depreciation.

• Accounting is a dead performance review. Finance is about predicting the future.

• How to question Fortune-500 CEOs, even if you’re just 25.

 

Walk-and-talk doesn’t require special mental abilities but there I was, looking over the 7 Rila lakes and more knowledgeable about the finance industry.

 

 

Activities Have Mental And Physical Aspects, But Not In Equal Proportions

 

Working out is 90% physical and 10% mental. So is a hike up a mountain. So is traveling, where all that matters is that you are physically in the bus or on the plane.

 

Learning a foreign language, or finance or engineering is 10% physical and 90% mental. Paraplegics can learn French and you can think about your future from anywhere.

 

By combining primarily physical and mental activities, you can make progress towards both simultaneously with negligible performance losses for either.

 

Try to mix something you always wanted to do with something you always wanted to learn.

 

A few of my favorite combinations include…

 

• Physical exercise + E-commerce education

• Bus through countryside + Planning next month’s business strategy

• Beautiful hike + Speaking only German

 

The (Erroneous) Reason To Not Dual-Task

 

“It’s not the same experience.”

 

I used to worry I was ruining a ‘special’ moment, sneaking a look at my phone to read a vocab word.

 

But then I remembered that my long-term goals are also special, and that rather than ‘ruining’ an experience, I am only making a different one; one where I do the things I always wanted to do today while minimizing any delay reaching my long-term goals.

 

Sound good? Try dual-tasking.