We live in a world that celebrates multitasking. People brag about answering emails during meetings or studying while watching TV. It feels productive–like you’re squeezing more into your day. But here’s the truth: your brain doesn’t multitask like you think.
But here’s the thing: multitasking, as most people imagine, doesn’t really exist. What we usually do is something called task-switching. That means the brain quickly shifts focus from one thing to another, back and forth. However, each switch takes time and mental energy. It slows you down, making you more likely to make mistakes.
So What’s Going On in Your Brain?
When you shift from one task to another, your brain doesn’t instantly adapt. It takes time to ‘change gears’, to refocus, redirect attention, and suppress irrelevant thoughts. This process taps into your executive functions, which are handled by the prefrontal cortex, located just behind your forehead.
Executive functions are like your brain’s CEO. They help you concentrate, plan, control impulses, and juggle mental tasks. But CEOS aren’t meant to do manual labour, and multitasking is exhausting for this system. Instead of smoothly blending tasks, your brain is essentially turning one off, then turning another on. Over and over and over.
The Multitasking Myth
Multitasking feels good because it gives the illusion of productivity. Checking off more items faster. Staying ‘connected’. Doing it all. But feeling busy isn’t the same as being productive.
In fact, heavy multitaskers often perform worse on memory and attention tasks. A 2009 Stanford study found that people who regularly juggle multiple streams of information were less able to filter distractions and took longer to switch between tasks. Even when they weren’t multitasking, they struggled to stay focused.
So why do we keep doing it? Because dopamine, the brain’s reward chemical, spikes when we respond to new stimuli. A text. A notification. A fresh scroll. It feels rewarding, even if we’re really just jumping from distraction to distraction.
Impacts
In school or work, multitasking leads to shallower learning. You might complete your homework while half-watching YouTube, but you’re less likely to retain what you learned. Students who use laptops to multitask during lectures perform worse on tests, even when they thought they were paying attention.
It’s not just academics. The most dangerous example of multitasking is texting and driving. Research has shown impaired reaction times as bad as drunk driving. That’s how serious switching costs can become when focus is critical.
Exceptions?
Sure, but it’s limited. Your brain can handle multitasking if one of the tasks is automatic. Walking while talking. Folding laundry while listening to music. However, if both tasks need active thinking, focus, or memory? The quality of both drops. Even so-called “super-taskers”, the rare people who show no measurable drop in multitasking performance, aren’t immune to cognitive fatigue. For most, trying to do two mental tasks at once means doing both worse.
Breaking the Habit
The brain loves single-tasking. When you focus deeply on one thing, your mental clarity improves. You remember more. You feel less stressed. You enter what’s known as a flow state, where work feels smooth and even enjoyable. So let’s start small:
- Work in distraction-free sprints
- Keep your phone out of reach or out of sight
- Try tools like the Pomodoro technique: work then rest
- Group similar tasks together (batch emails, study, then scroll)
Multitasking might feel like a modern skill when in reality, focus is the real superpower.
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