0:42 Understanding why multitasking breaks productivity

4:57 The role stress plays in multitasking failures

8:44 Use your workday rhythms to schedule key responsibilities

13:53 Hacks to use ChatGPT as your thought assistant

19:48 Finding the balance between physical and mental loads and high and low stress loads

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Dan Uyemura: [00:00:00] Here's the exact reason why multitasking is failing you.

Nick Reyes: Welcome to the PushPress Podcast.

Dan Uyemura: Where gym owners learn to dodge bad advice, crush their competition, and actually make money doing what they love. Let's get after it.

Nick Reyes: So, you and I have conversations, I think quite often, uh, about efficiency, how we can get more done, how we can do more and less time.

Uh, I think a lot of times this comes back to like. Multitasking and how, you know, it's, no, it's, I don't think it's a secret to many people on our team that back in the day, you would, you would send us ideas and thoughts while also running. Mm-hmm. So today I, I, I want to spend some time unpacking multitasking, efficiencies and how we can do more, but while being pulled in all these different directions with less time on our hands.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, it's a pretty good topic. Like being efficient with your time is probably the differentiator between high [00:01:00] achievers and not,

Nick Reyes: especially as an entrepreneur.

Dan Uyemura: A hundred percent. Like the, yeah, I think that's probably the, if you had like a one leading indicator that indicates if a business is gonna be successful, it's how the leader spends their time.

Nick Reyes: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, I think there's this, uh. To me, there's this mental picture that I have of, uh, trying to, you know, uh, I'm like squatting in the gym and in between sets of squatting I'm going and grabbing my laptop and I'm like sending out an email and I'm like, okay, now gotta get to this next set of five.

Right? And this is back and forth and it's always like, is that the most, is that. Is that right? Am am I wrong in doing this? Am I

Dan Uyemura: right in doing this? So, do you know, it's hilarious since you mentioned that I, I didn't even think about this while we were preparing for this episode, but I'm the guy in my gym.

We're in between everything we do. I'm in our slack. Like you guys wouldn't even know I'm working out. Like the coaches must [00:02:00] hate me because it's like we're warming up and I'm like firing off Slack messages. You know, I finished my inchworms, I'm like replying to some, like we're, we are in a thread and, and if I don't reply instantly, I'm doing inchworms.

Nick Reyes: Like you are doing the physical

Dan Uyemura: movement. Yeah. Your thumbs are tied up. But I get so obsessed with like. The conversation and keeping things going. Like, it's almost more important for me to be back to my phone. Like, this is gnarly to admit on camera, but like, I'm literally that guy in the gym who's like everyone else who doesn't know what I'm doing is probably like, what the hell is this guy?

I need to be on his phone like 40 minutes of a 60 minute class.

Nick Reyes: Why in the hell can't

Dan Uyemura: Dan focus? Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Reyes: So yeah, let's, let's unpack that a little bit, right? Because what really that example right there. Is this, um, I think of it as in like a balance between what you can physically do and what you can mentally do.

And even the example of you running is like this [00:03:00] balance between you having a physical exertion, uh, while the brain is also just cooking on an idea or a concept. Um, I think there's a, a, a little framework around this that we can, that we can unpack.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, totally. 'cause I, I've actually told people this in the past that I stopped doing CrossFit for this very reason.

Uh, it's because it gets so intense, you cannot actually be in two places at once during CrossFit.

Nick Reyes: So

Dan Uyemura: unless you dial it in like I do, and then I'm spitting slack. But if you're really exercising for the intense piece of it

Nick Reyes: mm-hmm.

Dan Uyemura: You're in a black hole for 30 minutes.

Nick Reyes: So it's like the, the, the higher the intensity or the higher the stress, the less you can do anything else, essentially, right?

Correct.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. So, like Fran,

Nick Reyes: like Fran, right? So like, uh, I am gonna be hauling ass, so I can't do anything else,

Dan Uyemura: including [00:04:00] three. Like, like a, a natural reflex that we are doing all day long, all of a sudden becomes hard.

Nick Reyes: Becomes hard, and then you get Fran cough 'cause you literally could not breathe for Yes.

You know, a co few minutes there or whatever. Right? Yeah. So, so yeah. So it's interesting 'cause you can run and think, but you can't do Fran Yeah. And think,

Dan Uyemura: and, and so there's an example that you gave earlier that actually was very illustrative of this is like you told me that you like to, uh, drive and think.

Like if you have to go somewhere far.

Nick Reyes: Yep. A 40 minute drive to the airport for this trip is a great time for me to like get deep on a thing and think through it.

Dan Uyemura: Right. However, if you were late for your flight, I. Or if it was like raining, sleeting, snowing and there's an accident that people are, you know, you're, you have to drive around

Nick Reyes: the intensity and the stress is different than the beautiful sunny day driving to the airport cruise control on the highway.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. So there's this interesting like two by two [00:05:00] matrix I was trying to work up before this to try and understand the relationship between stress. I think there's three factors at play that I'm trying to work through is like the amount of stress, which I think is more of a. Cognitive response, like how do you feel about the situation?

There's amount of physical load and then there's amount of mental load mm-hmm. That can be, can be thought about. And I think as I was working through it, it's like the stress and the physical load are kind of like on one side of a two by two matrix. Like it doesn't matter if it's uh, high physical or low physical, or high stress or low stress, like they all work together versus the mental load part.

Nick Reyes: Right, right. Yeah.

Dan Uyemura: And Go ahead.

Nick Reyes: No, I was gonna say, I, I just wanted to tie back to maybe the reason why this is important to understand because I think it ties into some of the other stuff we've been talking about in this, you know, session of recording, which is efficiency around or intent around what you do and when you do it.

Mm-hmm. So if you know, [00:06:00] hey, I'm gonna go on an hour long jog tomorrow, and I also have this project kind of hanging over my head. I'll spend that time to think through it and then bucket that time accordingly. Right. So it's like you can get these levels of efficiency if you're intentful about knowing when you have a low stress mm-hmm.

You know, physical type of, um, of activity accompanied with that. You need to drive something else.

Dan Uyemura: And or on the flip side of it, if you know you have a very lot of things, like a lot of things you've gotta think through, you can choose not to do. A Brazilian jujitsu class next week, every day. And instead get on a treadmill, uh, you know, get on a rower, get something where you can let your mind kind of wander through it and still get your exercise.

Like you can choose your activities as well.

Nick Reyes: Yep, absolutely. So, uh, you have recently started going to Starbucks. I'm a [00:07:00] we're, we're, you're two hours earlier than I am. Uh. And yet we always are like, I'm up, I'm, I'm probably on my second cup of coffee And you're already at Starbucks, right? So it's 4:00 AM Vegas time, which is insane to me.

Mm-hmm. Uh, I'm an early riser and early grinder that I think that you even beat me to the punch. What started the the early 4:00 AM time and why Starbucks?

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. So I mean, just in general, I get up early and I think that has to do with honestly how much stress I'm under with this company. I just don't sleep well.

There's always like, invariably, every night one of my dreams turns into something that is loosely related to PushPress. I have an idea in the dream, I wake up and my brain's like a thousand miles an hour. So anyway, I used to go to the gym four or five, like four or 5:00 AM in the morning, and I would work out during that time 'cause I would be awake, I'd be fully cognitive.

Uh, like there's no way I'm going back to sleep. And, and I. I can't, I don't wanna sit around at home and do nothing. So I, I would go [00:08:00] to the gym and what I started to realize is like, I went to the gym early and come three or four o'clock, like I'm mentally fried because I've been up for, you know, a full 12 hours at that time.

And I've been like, high performance, like all go. So by three or 4:00 PM I'm kind of coming down, coming off of my work day. My creativity is low, my patience is low. Like everything is just like gone by three or 4:00 PM And what I realized. Recently was if I flip my schedule and I work out at four or 5:00 PM and I work at 4:00 AM that four to seven or four to eight window is so peak work for me.

Like I probably get eight hours worth of net work done in like three or four hours at Starbucks with headphones on.

Nick Reyes: So I, I think what that points to is one of the most beautiful things about entrepreneurship. That every gym owner should, should maybe spend some time thinking through, which is, what tasks am I best at [00:09:00] executing on?

Uh, when, like, when, when do they actually fit within my own personal schedule? So you just outlined yours and the reason why, and I'm sure you just, it's not like you just landed on that you had to kind of test and move and then you kind of probably hit an unlock and go, oh, that felt good. Is there a way to know when you hit that unlock?

Or like, what's the feeling? What was the feeling like when you like, like, screw it, I'm just gonna go to Starbucks. And then it's like, oh, like what? What is that? When did you know that that Starbucks thing was like, we're gonna keep doing this?

Dan Uyemura: You know? That's interesting because I think it also comes with seasons of your life or job.

Right now we're in a season where I feel like I have a lot of things that I've gotta work through that are kind of even more big picture than ever. Mm-hmm. So that pressure was probably weighing on me for a while before it just started to feel like working out in the morning. Like I started to feel like working out was even a waste of my time.[00:10:00]

Um, which of course it's not, but when you start feeling that way, it's like, it's again, cognitive dissonance. Like, I'm like, I know it's not, but I feel like it is. So I have to inspect that a little bit. Mm-hmm. And what I just realized was like. Really felt like a waste of time was come three o'clock I would be laying on a couch doing my, like, thinking slash daydreaming.

'cause I was so exhausted by that point. And, uh, my night routine was basically like three or 4:00 PM I'm mentally shutting down. We would have dinner at like five or six, walk the dogs and I'd be in bed by eight. Hmm. So it was like by three o'clock, like my day was basically over. And I started to feel like that was a waste.

And so what I, when I, what I experimented with was flipping work first. I go to work out at 4 45. Now there's a 4 45 CrossFit. I go to get back by six. Now everything's the same. Eat dinner, walk the dogs, take a shower, go to bed. But the actual of working out and then going to bed felt better. Mm-hmm. In terms of like the cadence of my day.

So I don't, I mean, honestly I don't know [00:11:00] what it was, but it was the level of stress that I was feeling from work. That drove me to experiment with the change.

Nick Reyes: Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. Yeah, I, I've experimented with a lot as well. Uh, I'm typically a 5:00 AM riser, uh, will spend normally until around eight, pretty deep into work get.

Get Sandra to school and then it's back at it for just a short period of time, clean up anything that I need to free my mind to go work out, right? So it's like, but that workout time's been pretty consistent for me. Uh, now to, I think to your point, there are times when I am at the gym and I'm on my phone and I really have to go, Hey, look,

Dan Uyemura: it'll still

Nick Reyes: be there in the, it, it'll be there.

Spend the time like getting after it here. And that goes back to like, I can't do the intensity that I want to bring while also doing the mental intensity there. Right? Yep. So yeah, that's, it's, it, it's an interesting dynamic, um, which kinda speaks to, I. How you go about mixing like the [00:12:00] mindless with the mindful, uh, and like the, the, the driving and uh, you know, as an example.

I'm trying to think. Are there any other examples of mixing, you know, mindless, monotonous tasks with very mindful ones?

Dan Uyemura: Well, so for me, folding clothes is one.

Nick Reyes: Okay.

Dan Uyemura: I hate folding clothes. Hate it. Like when you think of the frameworks of time spent. I am, I literally will make the argument that I'd rather leave my clothes, like I will, like make them nice in the, in the laundry basket, in a way that I can peel things off.

Mm-hmm. But I'm like, why am I gonna spend that time folding it to put it in a drawer to take it out and ruin again? I would rather just pick it, right? Like I pick things right outta the laundry basket until my wife gets mad at me. So when I end it, so what'll happens is like I'll stack load and I'll have it, like, I'll just like pick things off the top.

Another load will come still picking things off, like another load will come. And then finally my wife Maddie's like, put your shit away. So then when I'm, now I'm unfolding three loads of stuff, right? And it's taking me like 40 minutes, but like that period of [00:13:00] time now turns into like. I'm just, I'm just like folding clothes, thinking about stuff, you know?

Nick Reyes: It, it, it kind of goes back to like the, uh, what was it, Steve Jobs just had the, the one outfit or whatever. Yeah. And it's like I don't have to worry about folding and putting in a proper place because I just wear the same damn thing every day. Yeah. And I don't have to think about what I'm wearing every day.

'cause I would just wear the same damn thing.

Dan Uyemura: So here, here, here's the, the funny thing is like, so it's basically like, uh, a slot machine of clothes. Like that's how I do it. No matter, even if I fold it, there's a stack of them, top of the stack shorts, top of the stack shirts, top of the stack underwear, top of the stack socks, put it on.

Every once in a while I'll put something on and I'm like, God, what did I put on? Like, it's like, because Royal blue with olive green, yeah. Most everything I have is like black gray or like just some, some super muted tan and like it all works. And then once in a while I'll have like a concert shirt that's like neon pink with like green, under green pants or something.

And I'm like, oh my God, what did I do?

Nick Reyes: Big misstep here. Uh, let's get into some hacks here. Um, one actually that I, I stumbled on, [00:14:00] on my, on a drive to the airport a few trips ago was, uh, was talking to Chat GPT, and it was one of those, like, I had some things that I wanted to unpack and then for whatever reason, and I don't even remember what it was now, but it was like I needed something to consume them rather than just a blank notepad and then to do something with the thought.

Mm-hmm. And so, uh, oh, I think it was like our sales compensation plan. And so I just started talking through very top of mind why we did it, what we did it what I was looking for, and GPT just organized my 40 minute brain dump. That's huge. Heck

Dan Uyemura: yeah. So, one thing I've noticed, like, and if you, if you, if you slack with me, you notice like I typo a lot of shit.

'cause I can't type as fast as my brain thinks, and I don't have the time to stop and fix it for the most part. So people learn how to read. Dan, for the most part it works. But Chat GPT outta the box has always understood me. You know what I mean? So it doesn't matter if [00:15:00] I'm talking. And I do a lot of voice to text too.

So a lot of times it'll be like, I'll, and you can't read it all, or I don't, like, a lot of times I'm voice texting while I'm driving. Mm-hmm. So I'll just voice it, send it, and then I'm like, oh God, that was like, miss it. Did all the words wrong. But Gym, Jim, yeah. That one is actually understandable by humans.

A lot of times it'll just be like, maybe I slur my words. Maybe I talk too fast. I don't know. But it's just like I'm looking at 'em like, God, like I barely even understand what I, I said. But anyway, Chat G kind of gets it. So it's like it takes all the inaccuracy outta everything. Typing fast, typing, typing fast, no spaces typing fast.

You don't have to bold shit, like you just literally stream a consciousness into Chat GPT. You can just say like, Hey, organize that in a notes for me, or tell me how this should be communicated to my CRO, or whatever it is. And it's like, bam. Done. Right? Super big hack, I think. I think one of the biggest GPT hacks that I don't see people using enough today that I, I would bet in six months everyone will be doing this is using Chat GPT as your [00:16:00] assistant in terms of a thought assistant.

Mm. So a lot of times I'll just be like, Hey dude. And literally that's why it's how I talk to my GBT or Hey, hey dude, like. What do you think? Is this a good idea? And I'll, like, then I'll just ramble my idea. Mm-hmm. And they'll just, and I'll be like, be critical. Gimme the pros and cons. Like, be honest with me.

And then they'll just tell me like, this is, and then you can kind of like shape your thought through that as opposed to like, wasting your time to do that. Or, or even worse, maybe spend like four hours in my own head trying to figure it out myself. Yep, yep. It's major speed.

Nick Reyes: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, especially if you build.

Templated outputs, which, so there's like loose output, which is kind of what you're explaining, or templated outputs, which I did on the way here, which was, uh, asking it while I'm like in the southwest, like little stalls like here with my A seven just waiting to go board, right? Like I'm like produce a sit, uh, produce a uh, a dock in my format on this sales spiff.

And I explained it to it, doc was done, sent it over to John and Ian, like to go through approval [00:17:00] like. Took no time at all. Mm-hmm. You know, so there is, there's something about voice to grow from now. Yeah.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. The one, the one point of pause I do put on GPT or, or AI in general is I, I feel like, I feel like it's gonna separate a lot of people in that there's a, there's this nuance between using it to go fast and using it to be good.

Nick Reyes: Yes. Uh,

Dan Uyemura: and, and sometimes those, those can be the same. A lot of times they're not.

Nick Reyes: There's some, uh, there's a, there's cycles that it should get you part of the way there. It does not take you all the way there.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah, I think, I think for the, okay, so I'll give you an example of, I'm gonna give you example, a counter example.

So first of all, lemme make my point. I got a lot of pa things written to me lately where it's, uh, you can read it and just know it was Chat GPT, which in and of itself isn't bad. But then if you're like, Hey, you know what, this like one section doesn't make sense. Like, can you, or what are you thinking about this?

And they're [00:18:00] like, Hmm, I don't know. Lemme get back to you. Like, I'm like, did you even think about what's been written here? Or did you just tell me what Chat GPT told you? Like, that doesn't really work. Here's where I actually think it's good. And it, and it kind of lends into what you were saying, um, I think I've been doing a lot of customer research calling up customers, ask them questions about like their business and what's going on.

I've taken a shit ton of time to build a question template and a report template. And the report template is exactly how I want to be broken out on like things they said and level of effort and like, and I let GBT kind of do some analysis on like, do you think that's a good use of our engineers time to build these types of things?

And I basically just say like, and I upload it all. I create a project in GPT, I upload all these as like sample files and reference points and all that shit. And then I'm like, use the report template. Here's the interview. I did generate the report, do not deviate. And then for the most part, like 90% of what come back is dead on.

I don't have to read it because I, I did the interview, right. It's just synthesizing my information and then I [00:19:00] will go through and be like, 'cause it will always do more

Nick Reyes: and it will, may maybe get a little something that you remember like slightly off. And then you can make that little course correct if you need to.

Dan Uyemura: In this example specifically. I'll interview customers and it'll be like, and I'll like, I'll interview a customer. I'll be like, there's, that is the one thing that is massive and GPT will always gimme five, right? It'll be like the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And I'm like, no, 2, 3, 4 and five are, throw that away. It's just this one.

So you still have to go through and like give it an overview. For the most part, like, and I've told people, I've given the reports to, I'm like, this is Chad GPT output. I can stand behind everything that's here because I did the interview, but I did not alternate. I'm basically just giving you what Chat GPPT told me and it still works, right? Yeah. So there are times that it does work.

Nick Reyes: Yep. Yep. A hundred percent. Trying to think through, if I'm a gym owner, where are the best areas for me to multitask or maybe find balances between? Physical or [00:20:00] environmental load versus mental load. And I do think there's a big part of the like work that needs to be done around like maybe you do your own programming.

That's a pretty high mental load. You could balance that with a low physical load, walking, you know, talking into GPT around like. Hey, I wanna build a back squat cycle. Here's what I'm thinking. And you're just gonna go on a walk or maybe even on a slow jog, right? And you're gonna maybe get to get your level two, you know, uh, level or, uh, zone two cardio for the, uh, for the day or whatever it is, while also mm-hmm.

Explaining some of those more complex areas of this,

Dan Uyemura: God, you, what I just realized as you explained this is mental. Like these loads are relative. Like for me at this point, to do a back squat programming cycle, I'd have to sit on the whiteboard and like, don't gimme some coffee and don't talk to me.

Because you know, it's not what I do anymore.

Nick Reyes: I, I guess you're right. Yeah. 'cause driving might be a high mental look for some people. Well,

Dan Uyemura: for a [00:21:00] 16-year-old or an 8-year-old, it might be like, I'm doing nothing but driving. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Reyes: God, I hope so.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. But yeah, that's interesting. It is very relative that the load you feel is a relative thing.

Yeah. For somebody who's really good at Fran, they might be able to breathe. Right.

Nick Reyes: Don't agree with it. Uh, I, so I guess maybe that's probably our biggest takeaway here though, is whatever is your relative low on one area, you can technically multitask only if you balance with a high on the other, or only if you're trying to do the high on the other side.

Dan Uyemura: Let me, and actually let me add clarity to this, this matrix of what can be multitask or not, because that actually was the, the topic of this podcast. Mm-hmm. Um, anything that is. Anything that is high physical or stress load, it's, it, this is a either or mm-hmm. Thing. So it could be, it could honestly be low physical high stress, which is like driving while you're late.

Right? Yep. Uh, but if, if one of those two conditions are true, [00:22:00] physical load or stress load is high, you cannot multitask it. Yep. If the, if the, if the, the condition is, it has to be low physical load, low stress, and low stress load. Then you can multitask it across either a low mental load or a high mental load.

But if it's a high mental load, you have a chance for doing it either wrong or poorly. Yep, yep. If it's a low, low, low, it's perfect combination.

Nick Reyes: And there might be some people who hear this episode and think, that's bullshit. I know I can do both, and I can tell you that even though you think you are, I.

You're probably misstepping and maybe no one's telling you. And here's how, here's where this bit me in the ass. Uh, I was doing something around fitness and then racing home from the gym and there was some higher stress loads and I was trying to reply to one of our team members in Slack. This was early last year, and she had some concerns [00:23:00] about decision, a decision that was made, and I was addressing her concerns in the Slack message.

Come to find out, I did not address those concerns appropriately. I thought I was like, double read the message, triple read the message. This looks good. Send it. Right. And she was right. Like I, I made a misstep in how I addressed those concerns. I thought it was good. And it took another conversation later on with her to then unpack that I had screwed up.

So you might think you are and you just don't have someone that's gonna tell you. You didn't do that, right? So it was like that physical or that environmental stress. I thought I did something right. Turns out I, I pissed off a team.

Dan Uyemura: There's, um, if we actually dig into this, there's definitely some science and this is the type of shit I get a geek out about.

There's some science here where it's like when you're under high mental, physical stress, some area of your brain is not able to function. [00:24:00] Which means like, you're gonna misinterpret emails, you're gonna, you're gonna take things people say is offensive or attack like they're attacking. Like there's something there where you just can't function when you're in that stress mode.

So the multitasking needs to stop.

Nick Reyes: Mm-hmm.

Dan Uyemura: Because that's when you screw up, is you're like, let me just handle this email while I'm in bumper to bumper traffic. Yep. You're misreading stuff, misre, replying this stuff, you know, misinterpreting things. Yep. Yeah. Let's, to be honest, like I've been under a high level of stress for this keynote I'm working on, and I think I've been more snappy with people than ever because it's just like, I don't have the, the mental bandwidth to deal with one more thing.

I feel like.

Nick Reyes: Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just, it's just heightened all around. Yeah. Yep.

Dan Uyemura: And that's not even multitasking. That's just like trying to do my age. It's just like, it, like I'm, I guess I'm perma multitasking right now because like I feel so much stress from what I'm working on. Mm-hmm. That everything else is in conjunction with that no matter what.

Nick Reyes: Well, the good news is deliver it for the first time tomorrow. Stress will come down a little bit.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. So I get the first one off my back.

Nick Reyes: Yep.

Dan Uyemura: Let's go. I apologize to everyone who's been around for the last 14 days.

Nick Reyes: We are [00:25:00] good. Let's roll. All right. I got some questions.

Dan Uyemura: Yeah. So for me. I would say, um, what do you think, what do you think is, um, the biggest GPT hack that you've discovered?

So like some way that you've worked with Chat GPT, OpenAI, cloud, whatever you use, perplexity, all the a hundred thousand of them out there now. Um, in some, in some unique way that has unlocked something very special to you. I'm curious. Podcast@pushpress.com. Let me know you got one. You have any questions?

Nick Reyes: Um. Maybe what are some of the places that you've been able to multitask? Is there your, what's your version of driving to the airport and, you know, expanding on Thought podcast@pushpress.com. Cool. See you guys.

Dan Uyemura: Thanks for listening to another episode of the PushPress Podcast, where we help gym owners, entrepreneurs and fitness enthusiasts thrive with actionable insights, inspiring stories and strategies for growth.

Nick Reyes: Don't forget to follow the show to stay updated on new episodes. And if you're ready for [00:26:00] more, join our free Facebook community for gym owners. Check the show notes for the link and we'll see you next time. Keep raising the bar for your business and community.