Multitasking might feel like a superpower, juggling emails, messages, and tasks all at once. But research shows it’s not helping your brain at all. In fact, it can slow you down, drain your mental energy, and even harm memory and focus.

What happens when you multitask?

Every time you jump between tasks, your brain has to stop, shake itself off, and start over. It’s like running a marathon, then immediately running a sprint repeatedly. Exhausting!

Multitasking makes it harder to remember things, when you read something and you can’t remember that’s your hippocampus saying “it’s too much… slowdown…”

Doing five things at once is exhausting. Your brain eventually taps out, leaving you grumpy and foggy. It looks impressive, but the quality of each action suffers. Your brain thinks it’s working hard, but in reality, it’s mostly dropping balls.

Your brain is not a multitasking machine, it’s a finely tuned, slightly dramatic organ that prefers one thing at a time. Stop juggling so much; your focus, memory, and sanity will thank you.

Normally, when interrupted, the brain temporarily reallocates attention to handle the new task, then returns to the original memory task. Multitasking is especially harmful for older adults because interruptions cause longer-lasting disruptions in working memory.

If multitasking or cognitive fatigue is affecting your daily life, reach out to a counselling psychologist for guidance and support.

Reference

Clapp, W. C., Rubens, M. T., Sabharwal, J., & Gazzaley, A. (2011). Deficit in switching between functional brain networks underlies the impact of multitasking on working memory in older adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108(17), 7212–7217. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1015297108