The Myth of Multitasking

Do you know someone who checks emails during meetings, writes reports while attending webinars, or keeps multiple documents and browser tabs open? Despite these distracting scenarios, multitasking is celebrated in job descriptions, cover letters, interviews, and performance reviews. It’s presented as a superpower. After all, who wouldn’t want to hire—or be—a worker who can juggle multiple projects simultaneously?

The problem: No one can.

What we call “multitasking” is more accurately described as “multi-taxing” because the brain can only store a finite amount of information and prefers to complete tasks before starting new ones.

“Don’t try to multitask,” says Earl Miller, a professor of neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, during a presentation at the school’s Radius program. “Many of you are probably thinking, But I’m good at it! Sadly, that’s an illusion. You don’t actually multitask; you task-switch. This wastes time, makes you error-prone, and decreases your ability to be creative.”

Cognitive Stresses

Research confirms that the brain doesn’t manage separate tasks simultaneously but rapidly toggles between them. This back-and-forth switching may feel productive, but it comes with significant cognitive costs.

Sophie Leroy, dean of the University of Washington Bothell School of Business, writes in the Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes journal, “People need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers.”

Even a brief activity switch, like checking a Slack notification while drafting a proposal, can drain more cognitive energy than you think. A University of California, Irvine study found it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain full focus after even a brief distraction.

We often compare the human brain to a sponge, but sponges get saturated—and so too do our brains. Having too much information leads to cognitive overload. Research shows that cognitive overload can reduce productivity, impair decision-making, hinder learning and recall, increase anxiety, and even diminish empathy.

You probably experience cognitive stress whenever you try to read an email while someone talks to you. Personally, I’ve never been able to watch TV and write at the same time. One of those actions always suffers. And, often, both do.

Optimize Your Brainpower

The good news is that there are steps you can take to tackle, not juggle, multiple priorities effectively. Here are six strategies to mitigate cognitive load and boost your efficiency:

1. Make prioritized to-do lists. Don’t just make a list—rank the items and organize them by urgency and impact. A short, prioritized list can help you focus more than a long, comprehensive one.
2. Start each day with a plan. Before opening your inbox, establish clear intentions and priorities for the day. Let your plan—not incoming messages—guide your attention.
3. Time-block your calendar. Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time in your calendar for focused work on single projects. Keep your email closed, silence your phone, and protect that time with the commitment you’d give to a meeting with your CEO.
4. Be fully present in meetings. Give conversations and meetings your full attention. Put your phone out of reach, close browser tabs, pause notifications, and turn off additional monitors.
5. Give yourself transition time. When switching tasks, give your brain extra time to switch gears. A short break between tasks can help you reset your focus and transition more effectively.
6. Unitask! Focus on one task at a time. One of Leroy’s recommendations is to resist the inclination to attend to multiple tasks simultaneously.

“We also have to reassure ourselves—in an interconnected world that demands our attention all the time—that if we don’t respond right away, it’s not the end of the world,” the business school dean says. “It is okay to take care of our attention first so we can engage with the world more fully and with more intentionality.”

Even with the growing body of research, it may be a while before multitasking is retired from workplace language and expectations. But that doesn’t mean you need to wait. With this fuller understanding of multitasking, you can start accomplishing more by focusing on less.

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