Stop Multitasking: It’s Killing Your Performance and Making You Feel Broken

If you’re often feel “broken,” anxious, depressed, or have difficulty functioning; consider talking with a licensed mental health professional or your doctor. Multitasking may not be the only cause.

What we call “multitasking” is generally task switching

True multitasking is the rare case when two things need portioning out to different mental systems that don’t get too in each other’s way (such as walking while listening to an easy podcast). Most of the “multitasking” we do on the job is task switching: you interrupt Task A, do a little Task B, then get back to Task A and have to reconstruct what you were thinking about. A quick reality check: what kind of multitasking are you doing?

Why multitasking crushes performance (even when you’re trying hard)

1. Your brain pays a “switch cost” to change gears
   Task switching isn’t just “doing two things.” It often entails executive control steps like shifting the goal and activating a different rule set—think mental gear-shifting. Classic lab work show these switching-time costs are real and subject to influences from task complexity and cueing (clear signals about what you’re doing next). 1) When the next task is ambiguous (“I’ll just handle whatever’s next”), switching gets worse.
2. Attention residue: part of you stays on the last task
   When you switch from Task A to Task B, your attention doesn’t always move cleanly. A portion can remain stuck on Task A—especially if Task A is unfinished, emotionally charged, or time-pressured. Researcher Sophie Leroy calls this “attention residue,” and the practical effect is straightforward: fewer cognitive resources are available for the thing you’re trying to do now.
3. Heavy media multitasking can train “wide attention,” not focused control
   In a well-known paper on media multitasking, Stanford-affiliated researchers found that heavy media multitaskers were more susceptible to interference from irrelevant stimuli and performed worse on some measures of cognitive control, including task switching. This doesn’t prove that multitasking causes the differences (causality is complicated), but it is consistent with what many people feel in real life: the more you live in constant input streams, the harder deep focus becomes.
4. Interruptions don’t just waste time—they raise strain
   Frequent interruptions are associated with higher workload and stress in office settings. For example, a large diary study of office workers found that more frequent interruptions predicted higher subjective workload, and that the perception of “interruption overload” helped explain the link (with complex primary tasks making the relationship stronger). Other lab and field research studies have examined how physiological stress systems respond to multitasking and interruption (in general, they find that the feeling of dual-/multitasking can be stressful and activate stress systems—though the findings vary with design and marker, and that nuance matters).

A Long List of Why Multitasking Makes You Feel Broken (Even When “Getting Stuff Done”)

• You rarely get a sense of completion. Many of your tasks stay half-open all day long, which keeps your mind actively rehearsing them.
• You mistake cognitive overload for your own personal inadequacy. Your day has felt hard, so you reason that you must be the problem.
• You live life inside a fog of “high alert.” Notifications and the need to rapidly switch between tasks create a constant state of readiness-to-respond.
• You undercount the real work. Switched work involves invisible work (actively reorienting, recalling, rerouting yourself in context for each switch), work that doesn’t necessarily appear on top of a to-do list.

This is why advice that just says “be more disciplined” often ends in failure—discipline will certainly help, but no amount of willpower can make oneself completely blind to the costs of switching. Fewer switches and cleaner transitions is what fix it.

Quick Self-audit: Am I Multitasking or Just Being Interrupted?

You don’t need fancy tools to diagnose the problem. For one day, pay attention to when you switch and toggle between actively doing something and your other brain-actives with this checklist.

• You open your laptop and immediately react to some messages before choosing what is your priority.
• You open 15–40 tabs so that “just in case” you may need one for something you don’t know about yet.
• You begin work on something, then remember another thing, then chase it down (addict self-interrupts).
• You dread starting deep work, because you are fairly sure you will be interrupted anyhow.
• You often tell yourself “I didn’t get anything done,” even at the end of busy days.
• You glance at email/Slack when deep focus work feels hard (avoidance in the guise of responsiveness).
• You leave meetings with no clear next steps, then waste time re-deciding what you decided.
• You lose your train of thought several times an hour.
• You feel mentally tired far earlier in the day than your work pace justifies.
• You finish the day with the important project untouched, but a slew of small tasks cleared.

Stop multitasking with a system (not a pep talk)

The goal is not “never switch tasks.” Many jobs require switching. The goal is to (1) limit unnecessary switching, (2) control when switches happen, and (3) make switches cheaper with better handoffs.

Step 1: At the start of your day, pick one “primary outcome” for today (before you open your inbox):

Start your day: Pick one thing that would make today a win, and write it down. (“Draft the client proposal introduction and outline.”) Choose two more secondary things to focus on next. (“Review the budget spreadsheet,” “Schedule interviews.”)
Everything else goes into a capture list (don’t ignore it; park it).
Put the primary outcome into a calendar block first. If it isn’t on the calendar, it isn’t!

Step 2: Turn vague tasks into “next actions” to close mental loops

One of the biggest sources of attention residue is vague, undefined work. Your brain keeps it active because it doesn’t know “done” means. To clear out that background noise, make the next action explicit.

• Vague: “Work on marketing.” → Next action: “Write 10 headline options for landing page.”
• Vague: “Prepare for meeting.” → Next action: “List 3 decisions needed + my recommendation.”
• Vague: “Deal with inbox.” → Next action: “Process email from 11:30–12:00; reply, delegate, or convert to tasks.”

Step 3: Batch communication (so messages stop hijacking your day)

Many of us multitask as we feel we must be instantly available all of the time. Instead, create predictable windows of availability. This protects focus and also enhances people’s ability to respond quickly, because you reply in batches with full context.

1. Pick two message windows on your calendar (example: 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.).
2. Turn off all non-urgent notifications on your desktop + phone outside those two windows.
3. Set a short status message: “In focus time—checking messages at 11:30 and 4:00. Call if urgent.”
4. Build a true-urgent path (phone call, tag, or escalation rule) so people aren’t stuck—hinting at the problem while texting, “call if urgent…”

A classic field study at UC Irvine found that limiting our exposure to email decreased stress and increased focus, but also highlighted how frequently we switch windows when our email is active, making the “invisible switching” problem visually concrete.

Step 4: Use a 30-second “closure note” before every switch

This is the simplest high-leverage tactic in this whole article. Before you leave Task A, write a tiny closure note so your brain stops trying to hold the context in working memory. This directly targets attention residue.

1. Write: “When I return, I will…” (one sentence).
2. Write: “Next step is…” (one concrete action).
3. If blocked, write: “I’m stuck because…” (so you don’t relive the confusion later).
4. Optional: add a 2–3 bullet mini-outline of what you already decided.

How to verify it’s working: After an interruption, time how long it takes to restart (not to finish—just to re-enter productive flow). Closure notes should shorten the restart time within a week.

Step 5: Build one daily “deep work island” (start with 60–90 minutes)

You don’t need an 8-hour monk schedule. You need one protected block where the important work actually advances. Over time you can add a second block, but one is enough to change your identity from “always behind” to “I ship.”

1. Schedule the block when your brain is best (for many people: morning).
2. Before the block: write a clear “finish line” (what will be true at the end?).
3. During the block: phone out of reach, notifications off, one app/window if possible.
4. After the block: do a 2-minute wrap-up note so you don’t carry it all day.

Step 6: Triage interruptions with a script (so you don’t default to switching)

Where possible, triage interruptions using this table so that you don’t just default to whatever kind of switching scrambles your brain the least:

If you manage a team: reduce context switching at the source Individual tactics help, but team norms are often the real culprit. Research on information workers shows that a meaningful share of your context switching is actually driven by external interruptions—not personal weakness. If you have a culture of instant reply at your company, you’re going to end up with a team that’s going to be respectful, rewarded, or even incentivized to multitask.

• Define “urgent.” Put it in writing. (If everything is urgent, nothing is.)
• Create office hours for ad-hoc questions, and protect focus hours.
• Batch meetings when possible; avoid scattering them across the entire day.
• Require agendas and explicit decision/outcome for meetings so people don’t carry it forward afterwards.
• Cultivate async status updates to prevent “quick alignment calls” from snowballing.
• Set the stage: leaders who don’t “always be closing” end up interrupting a lot.

A 7-day experiment to prove this to yourself

1. Day 1 (baseline) check how often you check messages and how frequently you think “oh what was I just working on?”.
2. Day 2, add two message windows plus turn off notifications except in them.
3. Day 3, add one 60-90 minute deep-work island.
4. Day 4, add closure notes before switching task.
5. Day 5, add some triaging scripts for interruptions (Is it our time, should we schedule it, or batch it, or is it a do now?).
6. Day 6, tidy up your workspace: close open tabs, and pin only what you need for the current project.
7. Day 7 (review), look back and see: how many blocks of deep-work you completed, how long it took to restart after interruptions, and did your most important outcomes move forward?

Common missteps that keep people in the fog

• Trying to ‘focus harder’ without upgrading inputs (notifications, meetings, opaque goals).
• Batching email, and then leaving chat notifications on (chat often contributes more micro-switches than email).
• Not claiming a true urgent channel (so you’re afraid to go offline).
• Task-switch without leaving a trail: no memory stub or next step to leave yourself.
• Assuming empty inbox all day = should feel good (sometimes it means you did the easy work first).
• Over-scheduling deep work without protecting it (focus blocks that get moved don’t work).

When multitasking is okay

The idea isn’t that some task pairing is prescribed for you forever. The point is really that two tasks which both involve active thinking, language, or decision-making are not good to pair.

• Good pairs: walking + light listening; folding laundry + audiobook; simple admin + background music (if it truly helps).
• Bad pairs: writing + messaging; analysis + meetings; coding + constant chat; anything safety critical (driving, operating equipment etc) + phone. If quality of output matters (strategy, writing, design, debugging etc) default to single-tasking.

Sources and further reading (non-exhaustive)

• Rubinstein, Meyer & Evans (2001): costs of a”switching-time” in task-switching for executive control (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance)
• Ophir, Nass, & Wagner (2009): do multitaskers have a lower volume of cognitive control? (PNAS)
• Leroy (2009): the effect of attention residue on task performance when people switch from one task to another at work (Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes)
• University of Washington Bothell: a plain-language summary of attention residue, (Sophie Leroy)
• Czerwinski, Horvitz, & Wilhite (2004): a diary study of task switching and interruptions (Microsoft Research / CHI). UC Irvine (2012): “email vacations” and the stress/focus effects of measured email checking interruptions in office environments.
• UC Irvine News (2012): “email vacations” decrease stress, increase concentration
• Caitlin Kerr et al (2020): Psychobiological stress responses: office stress and work interruptions (Psychoneuroendocrinology).
• Becker et al “Interruption Effects in the Same Biological System: An Unexpected, Unforeseen and Unpredictable Effect simultaneously Representing a Social Problem and Significant Challenge, in when will y’all be done? – the secret internet game” (2018) (2023): Trial of biological stress responses to multitasking and work shakes-up (Psychoneuroendocrinology)
• Rick et al. (2024): Diary of how interruption frequency relates to perceived overload and workload in office workers.
• Wickens – Applied Attention Theory (PDF)

FAQ

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. If you experience ongoing anxiety, depression, or trouble functioning, please consult a licensed medical or mental health professional.