That’s just one of the many revelations I’ve experienced reading Ron and Tasra Dawson’s Refocus

Ron visited MIVA earlier this month and I was so impressed with what he had to say, I just had to get the book. Good thing I did. As a wedding and event videographer, I often get wrapped up in the creative side of my passion, and forget that I’m also running a business. The book is packed with information and insights that I’m certainly going to take to heart and put into practice.

As anyone who runs a video production business knows, we wear a lot of hats, and I’m sure most of us – myself included – try to wear a lot of those hats at the same time. If you’ve ever sat down to edit a sequence, then twenty minutes into the edit get distracted by thoughts of an invoice you forgot to send or a follow-up call you still need to make, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The inefficiency of trying to do too many things at once was really brought home last night as I was reading the “Managing Your Time” chapter is Ron and Tasra’s book:

There’s a quick and simple exercise in which, on one line you’re asked to write the sentence, “Multitasking wastes time and costs money.” Here’s the catch, after every letter, you write the sequential number on the line directly below it. In other words, you write “M” on line 1, then writer the number “1″ on line 2. You write “u” on line 1, then write the number “2″ on line 2, etc. Time yourself. When you’re done, time yourself writing the complete sentence, without any numbers, and immediately afterwards write the sequence of numbers, 1 – 35, on line two. If you’re like me, and have been under the impression that trying to kill two (or three) birds with one stone makes you a real go-getter, you might be surprised at the results.

Thanks Ron and Tasra!