Why the Myth of Multitasking is Costing You More Than You Know

I was making dinner last night — zucchini lasagna boats, which sounds far more impressive than it actually is — while talking to my mom on the phone. I was also preparing the ricotta filling at the same time.

The ricotta filling called for two eggs.

I cracked them into the ground beef mixture on the stove.

I didn't notice until it was too late.

My mom was still talking. The beef was still cooking. I was present for none of it.

Before I go any further — I want you to try something right now.

Start at 12 and count backwards — but as you say each number, name the corresponding month out loud at the same time.

12 — December. 11 — November. 10 — October.

Keep going all the way to 1.

Now notice two things. How long that took. And how much harder it was than simply counting backwards from 12 or naming the months on their own.

That gap — the extra time, the hesitation, the effort — that's the cost of divided attention. Your brain wasn't doing two things at once. It was switching rapidly between them, paying a small tax every single time it made the switch.

That's not a personal failing. That's neuroscience.

If something in here is already sitting with you — I'd love that conversation. Simply send me a message.

The flashlight, the floodlight and the juggler

In her book Peak Mind — which I recently finished and haven't stopped thinking about since — neuroscientist Amishi Jha describes attention as three distinct systems, and understanding them changes everything about how you think about focus.

The flashlight is your ability to direct attention to something specific. Wherever you point it, that thing becomes clear and everything else dims. Right now your flashlight is on these words. Your phone notifications, the conversation happening nearby, the temperature of the room — all of it has retreated into the background.

The floodlight is broad and open — a wide receptive awareness that keeps you alert to everything happening around you in the present moment. It's what kicks in when something unexpected happens and you need to be ready to respond in any direction.

The juggler is the executive — the system that oversees the other two, holds your goals in mind, and keeps your behavior aligned with what you're actually trying to accomplish. Override. Update. Refresh. That's the juggler's job.

Here's the problem. When you try to do two things at once, the juggler has to keep switching the flashlight back and forth between them. And every switch leaves both tasks dimmer, less precise, and more prone to error.

Which is how eggs end up in ground beef.

What this actually looks like in your business

You're on a call with an agent — an important one — while simultaneously replying to an email. You hear the agent. You're not listening to the agent. Your flashlight is split and neither task is getting your full best.

You're doing your morning prospecting while responding to texts. You finish both feeling vaguely dissatisfied — not sure you did either one well. Because you didn't.

You're telling yourself you're participating in a webinar — one you genuinely signed up to learn from — while simultaneously responding to  a few texts. You'll catch the important parts. Except you won't. Because your flashlight can't be in two places at once and your juggler is too busy switching to hold onto either one. 

This isn't a productivity problem. It isn't a time management problem. It's an attention problem. And attention — as Jha's research makes clear — is your most valuable and most finite resource.

Here's what nobody tells you about doing one thing at a time

Most people avoid it because they think it will slow them down. The research says the opposite.

Switching between tasks can consume up to 40% of your productive time. For an eight hour day that's over three hours lost — not to the work itself, but to the cognitive cost of constantly reorienting between tasks.

You are not saving time by multitasking. You are hemorrhaging it.

One thing at a time. Fully. Flashlight on. Juggler locked in.

Be where your body actually is. Not where your next task is. Not where your last conversation left off. Right here. This call. This person. This moment.

That's not a limitation. That's how your best work actually gets done — and how you get more done in less time than you ever will by splitting your attention between two.

Your clients feel it when you're fully there. Your agents feel it when you're not. And if you're being honest — you feel the difference too.