Multitasking Is a Myth

Multitasking has somehow become a badge of honor.
We say it with pride—“I’m good at multitasking.” As if it signals capability, efficiency, even intelligence.

I don’t believe it does.

The more I observe myself, my clients, and the way real progress happens, the more I see the opposite: multitasking is not a strength. It’s a constant state of distraction that creates the illusion of productivity while quietly reducing the quality of everything we do.

I once came across an idea in a book that stayed with me. Multitasking does exist in nature—but not in the way we imagine it. Wild animals, for example, eat while simultaneously scanning their environment. They are alert to danger, protecting their young, ready to run or fight at any moment.

That is multitasking.

But it is also a state of stress.
A survival mode.

And yet, this is the exact state many of us try to operate in for hours every day—switching between emails, messages, meetings, tasks, notifications, and thoughts, all competing for our attention. We are constantly “on,” but rarely fully present.

The problem is not that we are doing too much.
The problem is that we are doing too many things at once.

Real productivity—deep, meaningful, high-quality output—requires something very different. It requires focus. It requires space. It requires the ability to stay with one task long enough to actually move it forward.

This is why time blocking works.

Not as a productivity hack, but as a discipline.
When you give yourself even 30 minutes to work on one thing only—without notifications, without interruptions, without the temptation to “just quickly check”—something shifts. Your thinking deepens. Your decisions become clearer. You stop reacting and start creating.

It sounds simple, but it is not easy. Because it requires you to step out of that constant stimulation loop where everything feels urgent and important.

Emails, messages, notifications—these are not interruptions by accident. They are designed to pull your attention. If you don’t decide when to engage with them, they will decide for you.

This is why I treat communication as a task.
I schedule time in my calendar specifically for emails and messages, instead of allowing them to break my focus throughout the day. It changes not only how much I get done, but also how I feel while doing it.

There is more calm. More clarity. Less mental noise.

Now, I will admit—there are exceptions.

Listening to an audiobook while driving alone is one of them. It doesn’t compete for the same type of attention, and it can actually enrich the time.

And then there is parenting.

If you have ever had a small child, you know that life does not pause for “single-tasking.” You might be cooking, holding a child, answering a question, and keeping an eye on something else—all at once. It is messy, imperfect, and very real.

You can peel potatoes with a child on your knees.
And somehow, it works.

But even here, the goal is not to build a lifestyle around constant fragmentation. It is simply a response to a phase of life that requires flexibility.

For everything else—especially for the work that matters—multitasking is not helping you.

It is slowing you down.
It is making your thinking shallower.
It is keeping you busy, but not effective.

If you want to test this, don’t change everything at once. Just take one block of your day—30 minutes—and protect it. No phone. No notifications. One task.

See what happens.

You might find that what you thought required three hours of scattered effort can be done in one hour of real focus.

And more importantly, you might notice how different it feels to actually be present with what you are doing.

Because in the end, productivity is not about how many things you touch.

It’s about how deeply you engage with the things that matter.