The Myth of Multitasking, Why It’s Killing Your Productivity

Think you’re great at multitasking? Think again. 

In this eye-opening episode, productivity expert Julie Shulem exposes the truth behind one of the biggest myths in modern work culture—and why it’s actually slowing you down, increasing stress, and sabotaging your results. 

What feels like multitasking is really “task switching”—and every time your brain jumps between tasks, it loses focus, drains energy, and reduces your efficiency by up to 40%. That constant switching doesn’t just hurt your productivity… it impacts your creativity, memory, and even leads to burnout.

Julie breaks down the science in a simple, practical way and walks you through a powerful exercise that proves—once and for all—why doing one thing at a time is the real key to getting more done in less time. You’ll also learn proven strategies like single-tasking, time blocking, deep work sessions, and batching tasks so you can eliminate distractions, regain control of your time, and finally move the needle forward.

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, busy but not productive, or constantly behind no matter how hard you work—this episode will completely change how you approach your day.

Hit play and discover why focus—not multitasking—is your true superpower.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Are you ready to finally break free from overwhelm, procrastination, and burnout? If you're ready to focus on what truly matters and create momentum to reach and exceed your goals in business and in life, then this podcast is for you. Welcome to the Efficiency Advantage, the podcast where clarity meets action and purpose that fuels your progress. So here's world-class productivity expert and your host, Coach Julie.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

We've all said it. I'm Julie Shulem, and today's episode of the Efficiency Advantage Podcast is all about that one little concept, multitasking and what it really means. So let's begin. I bet a lot of you can relate to some of these scenarios. Let me guess, you're checking emails during a meeting, or scrolling while watching Netflix, or reading even just while watching TV, or switching between a whole bunch of tabs, you know, while you're quote working, getting things done. Problem solving while you're actually texting. Or trying to learn something new while scrolling through social media. Hmm, probably not working the way you think it should. So today I'm gonna break down why multitasking isn't a superpower. It's more like a productivity killer. So if you're gonna look at it for what it truly is, we need to talk about this. So in this episode, how about I show you what to do instead to actually get more done in less time? And I'm gonna share a cool little exercise midway that you can do to kind of prove to yourself why some of the things that you think you're multitasking on, you're really not. So that you can see the reality of what multitasking, what you think is multitasking, can and cannot do for you. So first let's see what is multitasking. So despite thinking that you are knocking it out of the park and super productive that you're doing multiple things at once, you're not. What we're actually doing is something called rapid task switching, which means that we are literally going back and forth between different things we think we're doing simultaneously. And here's why. Humans can't focus properly on two cognitive tasks simultaneously. There's a lot in that sentence. Let me break it down for you. For example, try writing an email while having a real conversation. Quality drops instantly if you can even do those two things at once. And we've all witnessed it when we see someone else is doing something different while we're speaking with them. As soon as they say, Oh, wait, what? What did you just say? I missed it. We know. They're doing something else too. Something that required their full attention, which diverted their attention to your conversation. I bet you can relate to times where it felt like your mind took a little vacation mid-conversation. You know, when you start thinking about what you're gonna make for dinner when the person mentioned something to you about the restaurant they ate at last night. This, by the way, can be quite common for those with ADHD. However, that's a topic for another time. Here's the key point: your brain is not parallel processing, it's context switching. You're not doing two things at the same time that require your mind. You're actually going back and forth really, really fast. You want to know a few things you can do simultaneously? You can write an email and have your laundry running in the washing machine. You can boil water, preheat an oven, cook something all the while you're working on an email or writing a report. You can listen to a podcast or an audiobook while walking or working out or cleaning the house. Notice the things I just shared. One is a low-demand task, and the other a higher cognitive one. If both tasks require active thinking, you're not multitasking. Again, your task switching. Now, while there are a few things you can check off your list or begin while doing something requiring your brain, there are very few things that can be done at the same time as something else. Let me explain some of the science behind why this fails. So, cognitive switching. The cost, it's pretty great. Every time you switch tasks, your brain resets. It needs that little bit of time to transition to the other task. So if you find yourself saying, wait a minute, I need to wrap my head around this, or realize that you're needing a little mental shift time, that's your brain trying to get back on track. Imagine doing that every few seconds. That can become exhausting. It might help you to know that when you are trying to multitask, your productivity can actually drop by up to 40%. And that's not being productive at all. That is totally wasting valuable time. Another thing to think about and realize is that research shows that when you move from one task to another, part of your brain kind of stays stuck on the previous task. We haven't even made the lead to the other task fully yet. And you're trying to do multiple things at once. Think about that. You can probably imagine that by doing this, it can result in faster burnout just due to sheer mental fatigue. Think of it like this it's like opening 20 apps on your phone and everything slows down, right? If you have too many things open and trying to, you know, that are vying for your attention at the same time, nothing's gonna get your full attention. So you want to be very mindful about how this is actually playing out for you. I do this really cool exercise when I'm speaking, where I have everyone write down a sentence. And I show the sentence to them on the screen or lay it out in some fashion. And what I have them do is write the sentence out, whatever it may be, and then write below each of the letters, then number them. So the first letter is one, the second letter is two, the third letter is three. Okay, get the idea here. So I have the whole group, it's really fun as I usually do these in large groups, and it's really fascinating to see because I actually time this and I have everyone do this exercise. Write out the sentence and then write the numeral down below it in order for each of the letters. Simple, they're easy tasks, but they're done in a certain order. Now, the next time I have the entire group do the same thing, but we're doing it a little different. They're writing the letter and then the number right below it, and then the second letter of the word and the number right below that. So they're going back and forth, back and forth. Getting the idea here. I have done this countless times, and I time the group as to how long it takes for the first part of the exercise and how long it takes for the second part. It is always considerably longer. Keep in mind the end result was achieved faster and better the first time around by staying on track. All right. So think about this because when you're applying this concept to work situations or anything that you're working on, you're gonna end up with lower quality work. You may find you make more mistakes. Think about this task switching exercise I just explained. If you're having to constantly go back and forth, you might misspell the word or get the sequence of the numbers wrong. This also can end up affecting your thinking. You may be thinking a little more shallow. You aren't really giving that thing you're working on your full attention, and you may not come up with a viable solution to a problem you're working on, or move the needle forward at all as you wish, or are expecting to. You also may induce increased stress. If the brain is constantly in catch-up mode, you may be bringing on that feeling of always being behind, and that can lead you to overwhelm, stress, and even eventually anxiety. So much for trying to be more effective when in reality you're being less so. You also may reduce your creativity where there's just no space for deep thinking. Your memory may be impacted. It's harder to retain information for most people when you're not really paying attention to one thing at a time. Your brain isn't really absorbing, and you're not putting it into your working memory. And another example is you know, while working on things, they just ultimately end up taking longer, and your output may simply be poor. So why we're still believing that this is a thing that we can actually multitask? Well, for many of us, switching tasks and we're working on multiple things, we're feeling wow, I'm really productive. Look at all these things I'm working on. You get that dopamine hit? Great, but are you really moving the needle forward? You may find that, you know, oh, I'm really, really busy. So, yeah, I'm doing important things because I'm getting all these things, you know, started and have my hands in many, many places. Okay, well, seriously, how much of that is actually really moving and again, moving things forward? There might be workplace expectations. A lot of times a client will say, Oh, I've got all these things and they're all top priority. I'm just gonna try doing all of them at the same time. That's not gonna work. I have not seen it work to date, and I've been doing this a long time, and I have seen clients just really falter where things just slip through the cracks. So you want to be able to have some kind of a system or protocol, and you can go back to a previous episode where I speak about these, so that you can actually work on things effectively. And a lot of times people feel like, well, I'm I'm really efficient because you know, I'm I'm feeling so productive, so I must be productive. When in reality they're not. And multitasking kind of makes us feel like we're moving fast, but in reality, it produces slow results. I had a client one time who actually tested this out. He, you know, wanted to prove me wrong. Like, okay, go for it. Anyway, he did this where he really stayed focused on one thing at a time and didn't try to do the multi-thing, multi-you know, tasks that he had done previously. And he started timing himself and found out he was getting things done so much faster by actually staying engaged in one thing at a time. Just stay on that task. It's what I do too. And yes, there's temptations to you know, jump into something else. Great, you know, if that comes up and you're like, oh, I really need to think about this or work on this, put it on your list. If it's already on your list, great. Make sure you've time activated when you're going to do it. But stopping, jumping into something else, coming back to the first thing, you're making it very confusing for yourself. So here's what actually works instead, and lets you check things off your list. All right. So I just said one of them, single tasking, one task, fully focused, stick with it, get it done, move on. And then you can do a time block, dedicate specific chunks of time for certain kinds of work. Schedule tasks sequentially, not all in the same time block. Break it up, and then you'll ultimately get farther and get more done, and in less time overall. I've had people prove this over and over again have some really good deep work sessions scheduled in your day. Yeah, whatever works for you. 30, 60, 90 minutes of completely uninterrupted time. That means phone off or in airplane mode. That means everything just stops. Stay focused. There are apps that can help you do this, you know that, uh, where you can get uninterrupted time to write, create, think. Stay on task. You'll feel amazing when you get that task done after putting that uninterrupted time into it. And another thing you can do is batch tasks. You can put various kinds of admin things together. And I do this in my work, so I'll do like all my emails and calls all in the same chunk of time. It requires kind of the same kind of focus, at least it does for me. And that way I'm getting a lot of things done. And at the same time, it's all in one part of my day. Make sure that you reduce distractions. So turn notifications off. You know, whatever you're doing, it can wait 30 minutes. Whatever it is, see what time frame in your day can be isolated so that you can just focus on something that needs to be done and reduce the distractions. I actually did this for a company where a small business where we took everything and we kind of looked at how everyone was working and we created blocks of time where no one was allowed to interrupt anyone else in the entire company for a full hour twice a day. It was phenomenal. The productivity just skyrocketed, and the company became more successful even by the by you know doing these few things that we we put into place. So that was one of them, and it worked out brilliantly. Try to have fewer tabs open so you're not tempted to jump to something else. You know, grab the URL if you need to go to something that you're not accustomed to going to, put it in your task list, and add that to what you're going to be doing later on. So make sure that you're not jumping to things that aren't on your list and that you don't need to be doing right that moment. Stick with the thing you you promised yourself you would do. So, what I have people do is if you find yourself kind of jumping between things that you know you're not supposed to be doing, just stop, ask yourself, what's the one thing I should be doing right now, and go do that. So, to recap, multitasking is task switching. You can combine a body task with a brain task or a passive task with an active one, but you can't combine two thinking tasks without losing performance and productivity. Task switching will result in lost productivity. So keep this in mind. Focus is your real superpower. Tomorrow, try doing just one thing at a time and notice the difference. If this episode changed how you think about productivity, share it with someone who needs to hear it. If you have a thought, question, idea, or anything you want to share with me, please go to ask coach Julie, askcoachJulie.com, and Julie is spelled J-U-L-I, no E-N-E-N, or email me directly at balance at coachJulie.com, and I would be delighted to answer your question. And if it's something that warrants a podcast episode, hey, it might even become that. Thank you so much for subscribing. If you have not done so, please do so. Share this with someone who you think might really appreciate this episode, and I wish you a productive day.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

So that's it for today's episode of The Efficiency Advantage. Head on over to Apple Podcasts iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week that posts a review on Apple Podcasts or iTunes will win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a private VIP day with Coach Julie herself. Be sure to head on over to theefficiencyadvantage.com and pick up a free copy of Coach Julie's gift. And join us on the next episode.