Multitasking vs. Single-tasking

Picture this: Dave, a modern-day professional, immerses himself in the hustle and bustle of daily tasks, darting from one activity to another, each demanding a slice of his fragmented attention. Hold on, scratch that. Let’s not romanticize the gritty reality of multitasking. It’s not an art, it’s not a skill. It's a scientifically documented pitfall. Let's talk facts. According to a study from the University of London, multitasking can drop your IQ as much as a night without sleep. That's not a badge of honour, that's a red flag waving vehemently, screaming for attention. Here’s another: a report published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology highlights that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%. That’s not just a dip, it's a cliff, a dangerous drop into the abyss of inefficiency. Think of your brain as a computer processor. When you overload it with too many programs running simultaneously, what happens? It slows down, lags, and sometimes crashes. The human brain, despite its complexity, operates on a similar principle. We are not built for simultaneous processing. We are built for focus, for dedicated engagement with one task at a time. But Dave is relentless, right? He bounces from emails to meetings, from spreadsheets to Slack notifications, a relentless pinball in the arcade of modern business chaos. Wrong move, Dave. Because with each switch, Dave pays a tax, a "switching cost" that drains cognitive resources and time. It’s like driving with a foot on the brake – a surefire recipe for burnout and decreased output. Steve Jobs didn’t rise to the pinnacle by scatter-gunning his focus. His genius lay in the relentless pursuit of perfection, in doing one thing, doing it extraordinarily well, and then moving on to the next. So, here’s the hard-hitting reality: Multitasking is not a skill to be honed; it's a mirage to be avoided. In the realm of business and entrepreneurial excellence, it's time to dismantle the multitasking myth, to discard it like the outdated relic it is. We need a shift, a radical refocusing of our energies. Because the future belongs not to the busiest, but to the focused, to those who can navigate the noise and hone in on what truly matters. Remember Dave? Tomorrow, Dave opts for a change. He decides to embrace unitasking, giving each task his undivided attention, nurturing it to completion without the cacophony of modern-day distractions. And as the day winds down, Dave realizes a profound truth: Multitasking was the greatest con of the modern business world. No more divided focus, no more fractured efforts. Do one thing, do it well, then move to the next. In the quest for excellence, it’s not about juggling tasks but mastering focus. One focused step at a time, onto a path less chaotic and more productive.

The Brain Isn’t Actually Multitasking What we perceive as multitasking is, in neurological terms, rapid task-switching — a process that incurs significant cognitive costs. The brain doesn’t truly do two things at once; it simply toggles between tasks quickly, and that toggling has a price. It Costs You Time and Accuracy Research by Rubinstein, Meyer, and Evans found that task-switching can cost up to 40% of a person’s productive time due to the cognitive load of moving between tasks. Studies using brain-imaging technology confirm that performance scores are lower and error rates increase in multitask conditions compared to single-task conditions. It Impairs Memory and Attention Chronic multitaskers show inferior working memory performance and greater difficulty filtering out irrelevant information, leading to increased mental fatigue and stress. Frequent media multitasking is also associated with more self-reported attention lapses, mind-wandering, higher impulsiveness, and more problems with executive functions. It Hurts Academic and Professional Performance Research indicates that media multitasking interferes with attention and working memory, negatively affecting GPA, test performance, recall, reading comprehension, note-taking, self-regulation, and efficiency. Students also tend to underestimate how much it’s hurting them in the moment. The Brain Can “Disengage” Under Overload According to research, brain may “downshift” or limit additional resource allocation when cognitive load becomes excessive, rather than rising to the challenge. The Bottom Line For complex, goal-oriented work, monotasking — focused engagement with a single task — remains the superior strategy for sustainable productivity and cognitive fidelity. The research is fairly consistent: the feeling of being productive while multitasking is largely an illusion.

⚡ Multitasking: Where confidence goes up and performance goes down Let’s start with the lie. You think you’re good at #multitasking. Spoiler: you’re not. Neither am I. Neither is your top performer. Neither is that high-output founder who answers Slack, approves budgets, reviews pitch decks and eats breakfast all at once. Because the brain doesn’t multitask. It switches, and every switch comes at a cost. 🧠 The neuroscience is clear: you're not doing five things. you're doing one thing, badly, five times. What we call multitasking is actually task switching. Each time you shift focus, your brain burns time, energy and working memory. • You take longer. • You make more mistakes. • You remember less. And here’s the kicker: ⬇️ Read this twice The more you multitask, the more convinced you are that you’re good at it. Read that again. The more you multitask, the more convinced you are that you’re good at it. That’s not confidence. That’s cognitive bias. It’s your brain lying to itself under pressure and calling it efficiency. 📚 The research: it's not a debate, it's physics Psychologists at Stanford ran cognitive tests on heavy multitaskers. They found that these “high performers” were worse at: • Filtering distractions • Remembering key information • Switching tasks efficiently • Even recognizing they were underperforming And the American Psychological Association? They found that frequent task switching can slash productivity by up to 40%. So, if you’re writing a deck, replying to WhatsApp, and glancing at your inbox? Congratulations. You just took a 40% hit in quality and you’re too distracted to notice. 🔁 So why do leaders keep doing it? Because busyness feels like progress. Because answering fast makes you feel responsive. Because in a world of alerts, tabs, pings & panic, focus feels like a luxury. But here’s the truth: Multitasking is a self-inflicted performance tax. And most leaders are paying it… with interest. 🎯 The fix: focus like it's a competitive advantage The best leaders don’t do everything at once. They do the right thing, at the right time, with full attention. Try this: • Time-block your day. Protect deep work like revenue. • Turn off notifications. You don’t need to know you’ve got mail. • Batch your decisions. Group similar tasks & attack them with full presence. • Create slack in your schedule. Focus isn’t just about intensity. It’s about margin. 🔒 Real productivity isn’t frantic. it’s focused. Multitasking might impress your ego. But it’s focus that earns results. So, the next time you feel the urge to juggle… Don’t. Slow down. Pick one thing. Give it everything. And watch how fast everything else starts moving. #productivity #leadership #executivepresence #focus #management

Multitasking used to be cool. If you could multitask, you were (seemingly) more productive than someone who couldn’t. But as the world has sped up, I think the superpower now lies with the single-taskers, those who deeply focus on one item at a time. While I was thinking about this, I came across a new interview where Elon Musk articulated the answer. Musk noted that the real killer of productivity is constant context switching, jumping between tasks, messages, and responsibilities. In his words, “Fear is not the mind-killer; context switching is.” This is especially true when multiple inboxes are lively and you’re forced to keep shifting your attention. He explained that he uses time-segmented management: he blocks his time to focus on one area (Tesla, SpaceX, personal stuff, etc.) to avoid bouncing between them, because the cognitive cost of switching every few seconds or minutes is huge. For many, managing time in strict blocks is difficult, though with meaningful effort you can make it habitual. Ever since discovering the true cost of switching tasks, I’ve been more hesitant to pick up my phone to check WhatsApp while going through my inbox, or to innocently switch tabs in the middle of a workflow. Think about what you do while your AI is thinking of a response — sometimes that’s ten seconds, sometimes a few minutes — you hop out of the tool and lose your cognitive momentum. We miss out on the readiness required to evaluate the answer. By the time the AI responds, our brain is already halfway into a WhatsApp chat, and the cost of switching back to “deep work” mode is higher than ever. Perhaps the new discipline isn’t just about how we work, but how we wait and think when AI is thinking.

The Myth of the Multitasking EA — And What Actually Makes Us Effective If there’s one misconception that has followed Executive Assistants for decades, it’s this idea that we are at our best when we’re juggling everything at once. Spinning a dozen plates. Managing five priorities simultaneously. Living in an adrenaline-fueled blur of calendars, decks, travel, Slack messages, and executive emotions. And for a long time—especially early in my career—I thought that was the expectation I had to live up to. For at least the first 15 years of my career, I bought into the myth that the most effective EA is the one who can absorb the most, do it all at once, and never break a sweat. But here’s what experience (and frankly, a little wisdom) has taught me: Multitasking doesn’t make us more effective. It makes us scattered. What makes us great is our ability to sequence, prioritize, and bring calm to complexity. The real power of a seasoned EA isn't frantic motion. It’s intentional focus. It’s knowing what needs to be done right now vs. what can wait. It’s protecting your executive from the noise so both of you can operate at a higher level. It’s slowing down enough to see around corners instead of constantly reacting to what’s right in front of you. Over time, I learned that: 🔹 Not everything is urgent (in fact, most things are not). 🔹 Not every fire deserves to be fought immediately. 🔹 And sometimes the most productive thing you can do is pause, breathe, and decide what actually matters in the next 10 minutes. That shift—from juggling to intentionally sequencing—changed everything for me. When we stop chasing the myth of “doing everything at once,” we open up space to: ✨ Anticipate instead of react ✨ Think clearly instead of rushing ✨ Support our leaders at a deeper, more operational level ✨ Prevent fires instead of constantly putting them out So if you’re an EA who feels constantly pulled in a thousand directions, hear me when I say this: You don’t have to do it all at the same time. In fact, you shouldn’t. Your value is not measured in how many tasks you can stack on top of each other. Your value lies in your ability to bring clarity where there is chaos, order where there is overwhelm, and focus where there is fragmentation. After 25 years in this career, that lesson has been one of the most liberating—and one of the most powerful ones I've learned. Here’s to the EAs who do less at once, but accomplish far more. Here’s to the ones who lead with intention, not interruption. Here’s to the quiet, steady operators who make everything around them work better. We are not multitaskers. We are orchestrators. And there’s a world of difference between the two. #ExecutiveAssistant #EACommunity #EALeadership #StrategicPartner #AdminProfessionals #ExecutiveSupport #AssistantLife #ProductivityMindset #Prioritization #FocusOverMultitasking #EACareer #LeadershipSupport #OperationalExcellence #BehindTheScenesLeaders #SupportProfessionals

Multitasking is a lie (And it almost ruined my reputation!) I was on a client call. Simultaneously drafting an email to another team. And responding to a manager’s message. I thought I was being efficient. Impressive, even. Look how much I can handle at once. But here’s what actually happened. I missed a key point the client mentioned on the call. The email I sent was unclear and created more confusion. Three tasks. Zero done well. That hit hard. Because I wasn’t slowing down. I was working more. Doing more. But quality? That was suffering. Here’s what I realized. Your work is your brand. If your deliverables don’t reflect quality, you’ll get questioned. The feedback won’t be in your favor. I was in a hurry to impress people. To show how fast I could get things done. But speed without quality is just noise. I changed my approach. One task. One focus. 100% attention. When I document a control, I only document that control. When I’m on a walkthrough call, I’m only on that call. When I review workpapers, that’s all I’m doing. The difference? I finish tasks in the same time. But I actually remember what I did. And when someone asks me about it weeks later, I can answer confidently. Because my full attention was there. Multitasking feels productive. But it’s just fragmented work. Your attention is your biggest asset in audit. Don’t split it across three things and expect exceptional results. The world celebrates multitasking. But single-tasking is what delivers quality. Do you find yourself multitasking during audit work?

Number 1 Red Flag from Clients: "Our new employee should be able to multitask." Let’s unpack this. Because when I hear “multitasker”, I ask: “Do you need a Swiss Army knife… or a scalpel?” Here’s why this is dangerous: Multitasking is usually code for: "We want one person to do the job of three." You’re not hiring a growth marketer, you’re hiring a marketer, project manager, copywriter, designer, and CRM expert… all in one. And that’s a recipe for burnout and underperformance. 🧠 Multitasking kills deep work. Creative + strategic roles thrive on focus. If your new hire is constantly jumping between tasks, you’re not getting their best work, you’re getting scattered output. 🎯 Elite talent wants clarity, not chaos. When your job post screams “multitasker,” it often signals a lack of structure. High-performers want to know their lane, own it, and crush it. ✅ What to say instead: “We need someone who can prioritize effectively across multiple projects, with clear goals and support.” That attracts disciplined, proactive talent. (Not generalists trying to survive your to-do list.) 💡 Pro tip: Multitasking feels productive. But focused execution wins the game. 👀 Hiring in LATAM? Let’s find you a focused specialist, not a burned-out multitasker. You’ll get 10x more value that way.

The Myth of Multitasking in Clinical Research We often glorify multitasking in this industry. The ability to juggle monitoring reports, site calls, and patient visits all before lunch is praised as the mark of a strong professional. But the reality is that multitasking doesn’t equal productivity—it equals divided attention. Every time you switch tasks, your brain resets. That reset creates tiny delays that add up to hours lost. Worse, it increases the chance of errors: missed data points, overlooked signatures, forgotten updates. In clinical research, those small errors can have big consequences. I once thought the key to leadership was doing more at once. But what changed my perspective was seeing colleagues who worked differently. They didn’t rush to answer every e-mail immediately or keep 10 tabs open during site visits. They prioritized. They finished one thing, then moved to the next. Their results? Higher accuracy, calmer teams, and fewer deviations. Leaders who want sustainable success need to model focus, not frenzy. Prioritize what matters, protect deep work time, and remind teams that quality > quantity. Multitasking looks impressive, but clarity and focus deliver excellence.