Let me ask you a question. Do you honestly believe you’re an effective multitasker?
If you answered yes, I’ve got some bad news for you.
We’ve learned more about the human brain in the past few years than we did in the previous few hundred, and here’s one thing we now know with absolute certainty. Your brain cannot focus on two cognitive tasks at the same time. None of ours can.
I know it feels like you’re multitasking throughout your workday, but what you’re actually doing is task switching—toggling from one thing to the next.
- a buzz on your smartphone
- a ping from your computer
- someone popping into your office
- or the distraction of being “half on the call, half on email”
The result?
A constant background hum of chaos. That nagging feeling that you’re busy all day but somehow not getting anything done. One of my clients once described her workday as “having 100 computer tabs open in her brain.” That visual stuck with me, because it’s exactly how so many of us operate.
Here’s the brutal truth.
Task switching burns mental energy.
Every time you stop something and start something else, your brain pays a toll. It creates mental fatigue and destroys productivity.
Second, the more you switch, the more mistakes you make. We think we’re getting more done, but the quality is suffering—badly.
And here’s the kicker.
Constant task switching is dumbing us down about 10 IQ points, which may not sound like much… until you remember the average IQ is around 100. That’s 10% of your brain power GONE—simply because your attention is being shredded into 5-10 minutes bursts of energy all day long.
To put it in perspective, multitasking has a cognitive impact roughly equivalent to being sleep-deprived for 24–36 hours.
And for comparison, marijuana users in similar tests only lost about 5–6 IQ points.
(No, I’m not recommending you start smoking weed before work!)
A lot of people defend their “multitasking” by saying, “Well Tim, I can walk and talk at the same time.” Sure—because walking is automatic. And listening to music while answering email is fine because those use different processing pathways.
Think about texting while driving—two cognitive tasks competing for the same mental real estate—and suddenly you can’t do either safely.
So please stop texting and driving. Your family—and everyone else’s—will thank you.
Look, I get it. Your workload isn’t decreasing. If anything, it’s increasing as you read this. But if you want to be truly effective in your role, then create space in your calendar for deep thinking and focused work. Your toughest strategic challenges require your full attention—not fractured leftovers.
If you’re not intentionally carving out time to mono-task, you’re not just doing yourself a disservice—you’re shortchanging your team and your business.
Thought for today:
Stop multitasking. Start mono-tasking.
Until next time—cheers to your continued success, and to focusing on one task,
One Quarter Turn at a time.
Thoughts for the week:
“Multitasking is just doing multiple things poorly at the same time.”– Anonymous
“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker
“Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not.” – Cal Newport
“If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will.”– Greg McKeown (Essentialism)
Looking forward to our next connection
Coach Tim
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