The Hidden Stress of Constant Multitasking | Episode 59

There was a time when I thought multitasking was a strength.

Maybe you can relate. You’re attending a Zoom meeting while checking messages. You’re answering emails while listening to a podcast. You’re spending time with your child, but part of your mind is still trying to solve a problem. You might be reading a book while watching TV, or listening to a training while doing something else at the same time.

Because we are so used to doing several things at once, it can start to feel completely normal. It can even feel productive. We tell ourselves that we are maximizing our time, getting more done, and making the most of every available moment.

But have you ever noticed what happens afterward?

Your mind feels tired. Your attention feels scattered. You struggle to focus, forget things, or find yourself moving from one task to another without feeling fully satisfied with what you accomplished. You may feel busy throughout the day and still wonder where all that time went.

Sometimes the issue is not the amount of work you are doing. It is the way your attention is being used.

Multitasking is a habit I see often in business owners, leaders, parents, professionals, and high-performing people. I know it because I have been there too.

For years, I thought multitasking was a sign that I was efficient and responsible. I would listen to a training while working, reply to messages while doing something else, or spend time with my daughter while part of my mind was still thinking about business.

From the outside, it looked productive. But internally, my attention was constantly divided.

I was not fully at work. I was not fully resting. I was not fully learning. I was not fully connecting.

Over time, that creates a kind of stress that we do not always notice. It is the feeling that your brain never quite gets a break because there is constantly something else competing for your attention.

We often think of stress as something that comes from difficult situations such as deadlines, financial concerns, conflict, or other major responsibilities. Those things can certainly create stress, but constant mental switching can add another layer. Moving your attention from one thing to another, again and again, asks your mind to keep adjusting.

And what we call multitasking is often not actually multitasking.

Most of the time, we are rapidly switching from one thing to another. Work, message, email, social media, back to work, back to the message, back to the task. It can feel like your attention is playing ping-pong all day.

Each time your attention shifts, your mind has to reorient itself.

Research from Stanford University found that people who frequently consume multiple streams of information at the same time tend to be more easily distracted and have a harder time filtering out irrelevant information.

That is worth thinking about.

We often multitask because we want to become more productive, yet the habit can make it harder to focus, think deeply, learn, and stay present. Instead of becoming better at handling distractions, we can become more accustomed to being distracted.

I can relate to this personally.

There were times when I would be working on something important while listening to a training. In my mind, I was thinking, "I'm being productive. I'm learning while working. I'm maximizing my time."

But when I paused and really looked at what was happening, I realized I was not giving my full attention to either one. The work was not getting my best thinking, and the training was not getting my best listening.

Maybe you have experienced something similar. You pick up your phone to check one thing, a notification appears, you respond, you check another app, and a few minutes later you have forgotten what you originally intended to do.

The problem is not simply that you got distracted. It is that your attention has been repeatedly pulled in different directions.

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine have also found that interruptions can affect performance and increase stress. People may compensate by working faster, while also experiencing greater pressure, frustration, and mental effort.

That can help explain why you might finish a day feeling mentally exhausted even when you have not done anything particularly physical. Your brain may have been switching tasks for hours.

For a long time, I was constantly consuming information. I was always learning, always listening to something, always trying to make use of the time I had.

Some of that was genuine growth. But some of it was simply a mind that had forgotten how to pause.

Eventually, I realized that the moments that helped me most were not always the moments when I learned something new. They were often the moments when I slowed down enough to process what I already knew.

You can listen to ten podcasts, read five books, and attend three trainings, but if your attention is constantly divided, very little of that learning has the opportunity to fully land.

This matters beyond productivity.

When your attention is constantly moving, it can become harder to think deeply about an important decision. You may move quickly from one task to another without giving yourself enough space to consider what actually needs your attention. In leadership, this can also affect the quality of your communication because you are responding while still mentally carrying something else.

The issue is not necessarily that you are doing too much. Sometimes it is that you are trying to give your attention to too many things at the same time.

And that has consequences.

When attention becomes fragmented as a way of working, the quality of your thinking, execution, and presence can quietly suffer even while your activity level remains high.

The impact of divided attention is not limited to work.

I remember a moment while talking with my daughter, Sophie. She was sharing something with me, and I was listening, but not fully listening. Part of my mind was still trying to solve a business problem. I was planning, analyzing, and thinking about what I needed to do next.

In that moment, I realized something important.

The issue was not that I did not care. My attention was simply divided.

When that happens repeatedly, we can start missing small moments. Details in a conversation. Something someone is trying to tell us. A change in someone's tone. A chance to connect.

Not because we don’t care about the people in front of us, but because our minds have become accustomed to being somewhere else.

This is especially important for leaders, parents, partners, and anyone whose relationships depend on their presence. People may not remember every word of a conversation, but the quality of your attention affects how connected and understood they feel.

Being physically present is not necessarily the same as being mentally present.

What makes multitasking difficult to change is that the intention behind it is often positive.

People who constantly multitask are not necessarily trying to avoid their responsibilities. They may be responsible, driven, conscientious, curious, and eager to contribute. They want to learn, grow, help, and stay ahead.

So the mind starts offering reasonable-sounding thoughts.

"Why waste the time?"

"While I'm listening, I can answer these messages."

"While I'm talking to them, I can think about the next task."

The desire to make good use of time can slowly turn into discomfort with empty space.

We can become uncomfortable with boredom, slowing down, or simply being where we are.

I noticed this in myself. I had become so used to filling every moment that doing one thing without adding something else felt almost inefficient.

But not every moment needs to produce something.

Sometimes your mind needs space to process. Sometimes a conversation needs your full attention. Sometimes rest needs to actually be rest.

And sometimes the most useful thing you can do for your work is step away from it for a while.

At this point, you might be thinking, "But life is busy. I have responsibilities. I cannot focus on just one thing all day."

I completely agree.

This is not about becoming unrealistic or eliminating every distraction. It is also not about feeling guilty every time your attention wanders. That would simply create another thing to manage.

The shift is much simpler.

Notice.

Notice when you are splitting your attention unnecessarily. Notice when you are consuming information instead of giving yourself space to process it. Notice when your body is in one place but your mind is somewhere else.

Then gently bring yourself back.

One task. One conversation. One moment at a time.

Focused attention gives your mind an opportunity to engage more fully with what is in front of you. Research on attention and distraction has linked focused attention with learning, memory, performance, and well-being.

It is not necessarily about working harder. It is about allowing your attention to work more intentionally.

And there is something else that happens when we practice this.

Presence feels different.

There is less rushing. Less mental scattering. More connection. More space to notice what is actually happening.

That can change not only how you work, but how you communicate, make decisions, and experience the people and moments that matter to you.

One question I like to come back to is this:

Where in your life are you physically present but mentally absent?

Maybe it happens during meals. Maybe during conversations with your family. Maybe while you are working, praying, exercising, or resting.

And what might change if you gave that moment your full attention?

Not forever. Just for a few minutes.

You do not need to become perfectly focused. Your mind will wander. You will get distracted. You may catch yourself reaching for your phone or thinking about something that needs to be done.

The practice is noticing and returning.

That is what awareness gives us. It creates a little more space between what is happening and how we respond to it.

For me, that has become a meaningful part of Mental Fitness. The goal is not to stop having thoughts or to control the mind perfectly. It is to become more aware of the patterns that pull us away from what matters, so we have more choice in where we place our attention.

Sometimes that means choosing not to consume another piece of information. Sometimes it means finishing the task in front of you before opening another one. Sometimes it means putting the phone away when someone you love is talking to you.

And sometimes it simply means allowing yourself to pause.

We live in a world that constantly asks for our attention. Messages arrive. Emails appear. Notifications interrupt. There is always another article to read, another training to attend, another task to complete.

But just because something is asking for your attention does not mean it needs to receive it right now.

This is where productivity becomes more than time management. It becomes a question of attention, intention, and choice.

The next level of productivity may not be doing more. It may be being more fully present in what you are already doing.

Mental Fitness can support that shift. When your mind becomes less reactive and more focused, it becomes easier to stay present, make clear decisions, and take meaningful action without constantly feeling pulled in different directions.

Mental Fitness is the Most Effective Foundation for Clear Thinking, Resilience, and Sustainable High Performance. If you would like to explore this further, you can join the 7-Day Mental Fitness Challenge.

You do not have to give your attention to everything. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is fully show up for the one thing that is in front of you.

You can learn more here.

0:00 – Why Multitasking Feels Productive
2:18 – The Hidden Stress of Multitasking
3:26 – Why Multitasking Is Really Task Switching
4:24 – The Cost of Constant Distraction
6:18 – Why We Struggle to Slow Down
7:43 – How Multitasking Affects Relationships
11:21 – Join the 7-Day Mental Fitness Challenge