The Multitasking Myth: Why doing more often results in achieving less

How often do you find yourself answering an email while listening to a Teams meeting, checking a notification, and trying to remember what you were doing before the phone rang?

It feels productive. After all, you're doing several things at once. Except, you probably aren't.

What we call multitasking is usually task switching. Rather than processing several demanding tasks simultaneously, the brain rapidly shifts its attention between them. Each shift comes with a cognitive cost, and the more complicated the tasks, the greater that cost can become.

So while your computer might happily run a browser, spreadsheet, Teams and Photoshop at the same time, your brain isn't quite built the same way.

Your brain isn't a computer

The comparison isn't perfect, but thinking about the brain like a computer can help explain what's happening.

A computer can have multiple programs running simultaneously because its processor, memory and operating system are designed to manage multiple processes. Your brain is considerably less modular.

One useful analogy is working memory.

Working memory is the limited mental workspace we use to hold and manipulate information while we're actively thinking about something. The prefrontal cortex plays an important role in the executive control of this information, helping us maintain goals, manage competing demands and direct attention.

You could loosely think of working memory as the brain's RAM.

But there's an important caveat: the analogy shouldn't be taken literally. Neuroscience research doesn't identify a dedicated "RAM circuit" in the brain in the way a computer has physical RAM. Working memory is supported by networks that also perform other cognitive functions.

Still, the basic idea is useful.

Your mental workspace has limits.

When you're writing a report, you're holding its purpose, the argument you're making, information you've just read, the sentence you're currently constructing and the next point you want to make.

Then an email notification appears.

Now your brain has another piece of information to evaluate. Is it urgent? Who sent it? Do you need to respond? What was the email about?

You might switch back to the report within seconds, but some of that mental processing has already been spent elsewhere. That's where multitasking starts to look a lot less efficient.

The hidden cost of switching

In a series of experiments, psychologists Joshua Rubinstein, David Meyer and Jeffrey Evans examined what happens when people switch between different tasks.

They found measurable switching costs, with people taking additional time when alternating between tasks. The costs became greater as the rules involved in the tasks became more complex.

Think of it like changing applications on your computer.

When you move from a spreadsheet to an email, your brain doesn't simply press "minimise" on one task and open another. It has to work out:

Where was I?

What was I doing?

What rules apply to this new task?

What information do I need?

What should I be paying attention to?

Then, when you return to the spreadsheet, you have to reconstruct that mental context again.

The individual switches might only take seconds. Across an entire day, they add up. It might only take a millisecond to close one application and open the next one to swtich tasks, however the lost time comes from rebuilding that focus and momentum.

Then there's attention residue

Task switching becomes even more interesting when the previous task isn't finished.

Organisational psychologist Sophie Leroy coined the term attention residue to describe what happens when thoughts about one task persist after we've moved on to another. In her 2009 research, participants found it harder to perform on a subsequent task when their attention remained caught up in an unfinished previous task.

This is why the following sequence can be so draining:

Write report → answer email → Teams message → meeting → "quick question" → back to report.

You've physically returned to the report. Your attention hasn't necessarily returned with you.

This is something we explored in more detail in Attention Residue: Why switching tasks can leave your focus behind, and it's one reason a day filled with small interruptions can feel surprisingly exhausting even when you've been "working" the entire time.

The multitasking myth is surprisingly persistent

Part of the problem is that we think we're better at multitasking than we actually are.

Research has found that people tend to overestimate their ability to multitask. A study published in PNAS by Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass and Anthony Wagner found that people who frequently engaged in media multitasking were more susceptible to interference from irrelevant information and performed worse on certain tests of filtering and task switching.

There is an important caveat here too.

Later research attempting to replicate these findings has produced more mixed results, so it would be too strong to say that multitasking permanently makes people worse at attention.

What is much better established is the immediate cost of switching between demanding tasks.

The problem isn't that your brain is incapable of handling multiple things in a day.

It's that asking it to actively juggle multiple demanding things at the same time isn't free.

Not all multitasking is equal

Of course, we don't need to sit in a silent room and stare at one document for eight hours.

Some combinations of activities are relatively easy.

You might listen to music while doing routine admin. You might walk while having a conversation. You might fold laundry while listening to a podcast.

The difficulty increases when two activities compete for the same cognitive resources.

Trying to read a complex document while listening to someone explain something important is very different from listening to background music while sorting files.

The NeuroLeadership Institute describes this as a problem of competing demands on the brain's cognitive resources. When tasks require the same resources at the same time, switching becomes more costly.

So the question isn't simply:

"Can I multitask?"

Instead it is:

"Do these tasks actually need my attention at the same time?"

Meetings, messages and the modern workplace

The modern office makes this particularly difficult.

Your inbox is always available, Teams is always open, and your phone is within reach. A colleague can lean over and ask a question, or someone starts a conversation nearby.

None of these things has to be a major interruption, but together, they create a steady stream of competing demands.

Research by Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke found that people whose work was interrupted often compensated by working faster, but this came with increased stress, frustration, time pressure and effort.

In other words, interruptions don't necessarily mean you get less done. Sometimes you simply have to work harder to get the same amount done. That's an important distinction.

Productivity isn't just about how much work gets completed. It's also about how much cognitive effort, stress and attention it takes to complete it.

Give your brain fewer things to juggle

The answer isn't to eliminate every notification, meeting or conversation. That's not realistic, particularly in collaborative workplaces. Instead, it can help to distinguish between collaborative work and focused work.

When you're brainstorming, discussing ideas or solving a problem with colleagues, interaction is exactly what you need.

When you're writing, analysing information, preparing a presentation or working through a complicated problem, the same interaction can become a distraction.

This is when utilizing different focus methods depending on the task is often the most effecting way to handle multiple projects at once.

Time Blocking can create deliberate periods for a particular type of work rather than allowing your inbox to dictate your day.

'Eat the Frog' takes a different approach, encouraging you to tackle an important or difficult task before the smaller distractions start to accumulate.

And if you're struggling to get started in the first place, finding the right conditions for focus can sometimes matter just as much as finding the right productivity technique.

The common thread is simple amongst all of the research is to protect your attention before you need it.

Create space for focused work

There is also a physical side to the multitasking problem.

You can close your email. Silence your phone. Turn off notifications. But you can't always turn off the conversation happening three desks away. You can't stop someone walking past your screen. You can't necessarily control when a colleague decides to ask a quick question.

The physical environment can therefore become another source of competing information.

Acoustic pods offer one way to create a more contained environment for focused work. By reducing the sounds and activity competing for your attention, they give employees somewhere to step away from the wider office when a task requires uninterrupted concentration.

The goal isn't to make everyone disappear into a pod all day. It's to give people choice over the environment they work in, particularly when the work in front of them needs more concentration than collaboration. Sometimes it's as easy as introducing a small microbreak, or a quiet space for people to replenish and recover mental energy.

What if a pod isn't the right fit?

An acoustic meeting pod isn't necessarily the right solution for every workplace, budget or layout.

If a fully enclosed acoustic pod doesn't align with your company's budget, acoustic screens can offer an effective alternative. Wall-mounted, freestanding and slide-on desk dividers can help reduce the spread of sound and minimise visual distractions for nearby employees without requiring a fully enclosed space.

Alternatively, if acoustic dividers don't suit your workplace aesthetic and you prefer a semi-separated layout, open meeting spaces, highback booth seating can provide a middle ground between completely open collaboration and a fully enclosed room.

The important thing is not necessarily finding one perfect solution, it's creating a workplace where people have access to different environments for different kinds of work.

Stop multitasking. Start switching deliberately.

Multitasking sounds like a valuable workplace skill. It suggests you're capable of handling everything at once, responding quickly and squeezing more into your day, unfortunately the research paints a different picture.

Your brain can handle an enormous amount of information, but its ability to actively focus on multiple demanding tasks at once is limited. Switching between them creates costs, unfinished tasks can leave attention behind, and frequent interruptions can increase the effort required to get work done.

So next time you find yourself replying to an email while listening to a meeting and trying to finish a report, don't ask yourself: "How can I get better at multitasking?"

Try asking: "Which one of these actually deserves my attention right now?"

Sometimes doing less at once is the fastest way to get more done. Get ahead Monday. Take it easy Friday. Looking to create a dedicated focus space? Speak with our team to find out how a Hush acoustic office pod can help reduce distractions and support focused work across your workplace

For a deeper understanding on how task switching affects your workflow, see our article on Attention Resiude. Research Referenced: Rubinstein, Meyer & Evans (2001), "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching".

Leroy (2009), "Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks." 

Mark, Gudith & Klocke (2008), "The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress." 

Ophir, Nass & Wagner (2009), "Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers." 

Wiradhany & Nieuwenstein (2017), "Cognitive control in media multitaskers: Two replication studies and a meta-analysis." 

The NeuroLeadership Institute, "The Myth of Multitasking",