Multitasking Costs More Than You Realize

Professor Earl Miller of MIT once invited people to multitask in a lab and found a startling truth: there’s no such thing. You’re actually juggling—switching from one task to another so fast you don’t notice, but your brain does, and it pays a price. Each switch takes you an extra three to fifteen seconds to reorient. That adds up to minutes lost per hour—minutes you could spend actually doing your work. Worse, the more you switch, the more mistakes creep into your work and the less creative you become. Neuroscience shows your neurons have to irreversibly rewire themselves each time you change tasks, and until they finish, you can’t think at full power. By understanding this “switch cost,” you see that forcing yourself to monotask isn’t just a nicety—it’s an essential upgrade for your brain’s performance.

When you fight the urge to juggle two things at once, practice by timing out one solid 20-minute block to do only a single task—maybe drafting your next email or reading a chapter. Close every other app and promise yourself no peeks. As the timer counts down, you’ll feel the quality of your work improve each minute—so give it a go this afternoon.