Multitasking Mayhem: Why It's Killing Your Productivity (And What to Do Instead)

mantranaa24
May 3
3 min read

Updated: May 4

There was a Tuesday, I remember it vividly, when I thought I could conquer the world before lunch.

Emails? I’d blitz them while sipping my chai.
Client calls? I’d sneak in a few between school drop-offs and session notes.
Strategy planning? Oh, I’d sprinkle that in while waiting for my next Zoom to load.

I was a multitasking maven. Or so I thought.

Woman hurrying with a laptop in hand, surrounded by a clock, calendar, and papers. Pink and white tones convey urgency.

By 5 PM, I wasn’t proud.

I was exhausted, anxious, and painfully aware that nothing of substance had actually been done. Just… motion. No progress.

That’s when it hit me: I wasn’t working hard. I was working scattered.

And my brain? It wasn’t on my side because, frankly, it never signed up for this mess.

🧠 The Brain Betrayal (That’s Not Really a Betrayal)

Anthropomorphic pink brain with eyes and mouth, wearing sneakers, surrounded by speech bubbles with "WHY?", "WHAT?", "WHERE?", "WHEN?"

Here’s the part that most people get wrong: your brain isn’t designed to do five things at once. It's not being lazy, it's being loyal.

Every time we jump from a spreadsheet to a text, from a call to an email, from a tab to a thought, our brain isn’t multitasking. It’s task-switching. And that process burns through mental fuel like a '90s scooter with a leaking tank.

Research says we lose up to 40% of productivity this way. But research doesn’t show the worst part:

You lose yourself in the noise. Your attention becomes everyone else’s property.

A Scene From My Coaching Room…

I once had a client, let’s call him Aarav.

A high performer, beloved at work, the one who always said “yes” before the question was finished.

His calendar looked like a Tetris board. His mind? A browser with 27 tabs open and one playing music, but no idea which.

He came to me with classic signs: anxiety, forgetfulness, irritability, and the constant feeling of never catching up.

His problem wasn’t competence. It was context-switching chaos.

So we did something radical.

We slowed down.

🌿 One Task. One Focus. One Win.

Man in blue works at a laptop with chat bubbles, books, and a large clock behind. Bright colors, plants, peaceful office vibe.

What we introduced wasn’t new, but it felt new to him. (And maybe to you, too.)

We started using something I call the Focus Framework:

🔹 Choose ONE essential task for the next hour. No distractions.
🔹 Create a boundary: phone away, notifications off, door closed (even if metaphorically).
🔹 Commit: 45-90 minutes of full presence.

The result?

Within a week, Aarav wasn’t just getting more done, he felt lighter. Calmer. Sharper. Like his brain had space to breathe again.

📦 Why Batch Is the New Meta

Illustration of a woman meditating with a calendar, mail icon, and pencil. She is relaxed, wearing a red shirt and blue jeans, pink background.

Most of us treat emails like urgent telegrams from a war zone. They’re not. Neither are meetings.

So here’s another shift we made:

Emails? Twice a day, in one sitting.
Meetings? Bunched together, not scattered through the day like confetti.
Creative work? Protected time in the morning, when the brain is fresh and generous.

When you batch similar tasks together, your brain stays in one gear. And like any good engine, it performs better when it’s not shifting every 3 minutes. Understand the relation between Multitasking and Productivity.

💡 The Real Win Isn’t Just Time, It’s Sanity

Person meditating at a purple desk with a laptop and coffee. Thought bubble with a lotus flower. Calm office setting with shelves.

Single-tasking doesn’t just save time. It saves you.

It brings back:

✔️ The clarity to think.
✔️ The confidence to act.
✔️ The calmness to breathe between the doing.

You don’t need to be everywhere all at once.

You need to be fully present here, now, with what truly matters.

🎯 Try This Challenge (If You’re Ready for a Real Shift)

I dare you (lovingly): 👉 Pick one high-value task. 👉 Set a 90-minute timer. 👉 Cut off distractions like your peace depends on it because it does.

Then just do that one thing. Fully. Not while replying to WhatsApp. Not while half-watching a webinar.

Afterwards? Notice how you feel.