If you thought multitasking was helping you win at life, here's the truth

You’re at a Zoom meeting, but you’ve managed to order your groceries; you’re watching your favourite show while chopping vegetables or helping your child with homework, while folding laundry. Sounds like a typical day in most of our lives? Multi-tasking has become the norm. It's a badge of honour, a mantle we carry with pride in an age where busyness and hustling seem to be the keywords to success. But is multitasking yielding you anything, or is it just leaving you exhausted and perplexed?

We spoke to experts who decode what an endless task list and constant multitasking are really doing to your mind and body. “It feels productive, but in reality, the brain can only handle one demanding task at a time. Multitasking often means doing many things poorly instead of one thing well,” says Mumbai-based psychologist Dhara Ghuntla. It could help while coupling simpler tasks together, such as listening to a podcast or music while folding laundry, or listening to an audiobook while commuting, or even listening to a podcast while on a walk. However, “in the case of complex tasks, multitasking can reduce focus and precision and cause mistakes and mental fatigue. You are doing too many things at a time, and you need to focus,” says Dr Jayendra Yadav, senior consultant neurologist of Medicover Hospitals, Navi Mumbai.

Multitasking, according to Dr Yadav, “divides attention, impacts focus, and increases stress, which can, in turn, affect productivity and memory.” So, while switching from one task to another might make you feel like you’re productive, it is, in fact, counterproductive. All we’re really doing is switching from one task to another quickly. “Juggling tasks drains focus and slows you down. A smarter way is task batching—group similar jobs together. For example, you could return a call you’ve been meaning to right after you tackle an email that has been in your inbox for a while—both of these come under communication. Give them undivided attention for short bursts,” Ghuntla says.

“You could also allot chunks of time for specific tasks, like once every two hours you could check your email and maybe reply to a WhatsApp chat,” Dr Yadav says. “Multitasking or rapidly switching between tasks overloads the prefrontal cortex and strains working memory. This can then raise cortisol and dopamine fluctuations, disrupting neural efficiency and weakening long-term learning and focus pathways. When you are multitasking, it is not always possible to meet the deadlines,” he adds.

In short, jumping between tabs or tools mid-task or checking a to-do list while in a meeting isn’t as jumped up as it seems to be. Slowing down or being mindful could be more beneficial. Multitasking is like putting your brain into overdrive mode. “It can overstimulate the brain, disrupt sleep-wake cycles, and reduce the brain’s ability to fully recharge and relax,” Dr Yadav says.

Multitasking can also age the brain faster. “It creates mental overload rather than deeper processing. Instead of deep focus, you end up with mental clutter and fatigue,” Ghuntal says. Checking emails while in a meeting or checking messages while listening to a webinar has become more commonplace, especially since for a lot of us, working from home has become a norm and physical meetings have become a rarity. This also means that boundaries between work and home lives have become blurry. It is essential to slow down and start focusing on one task at a time. “We multitask to feel in control, but it backfires. Try a to-do list ranked by urgency and importance, or use the “top three tasks a day” rule—finish those and you’ve already won,” Ghuntal says.

It helps to remember that our brains aren’t built for multitasking, and taking a brief pause between tasks is essential.

Lead image: Pexels

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