Stop multitasking and reclaim a third of your workday

The brain can walk and talk, but it can’t truly focus on two demanding tasks at once. What looks like multitasking is rapid task switching, and switching has a cost. In lab studies, people who juggle inputs take longer, make more mistakes, and remember less. In the office, it feels like trying to read a brief while someone whispers your name every two minutes.

Picture a support lead who lives in Slack. Her desk light hums softly, and her inbox pings like a metronome. She runs an audit for one hour and logs 19 context switches. Each switch steals 30–90 seconds of re‑orientation. She experiments: mutes notifications, batches messages into two windows, and runs two 45‑minute sprints to finish a customer FAQ update. The quiet feels odd at first, then strangely good.

A small anecdote: a test prep student put her phone in a zippered pouch and did 25‑minute math sprints. In a week, her accuracy rose and her anxiety dipped. Fewer inputs, better outputs.

Cognitive psychology explains the gains. Switching depletes executive control and working memory, which are limited. Interruptions create “attention residue,” a drag that follows you into the next task. Single‑task sprints concentrate cognitive resources, reduce residue, and improve learning. Batch processing turns a stream of small interruptions into a few planned waves. The result is smoother work and reclaimed time.

Give yourself sixty minutes to find your leaks. Track every switch and how long it takes to get back on task. Then set two short windows to process messages and silence the rest. Pick one task, set a 25–50 minute timer, and give it your full attention. When a thought pops up, park it on paper and keep going. Take a quick reset between sprints and review the next single target. Try two sprints today and notice how much cleaner your attention feels.