How often do you text while stuck in traffic, lose track of a podcast while doing chores, or flutter between the news and your inbox?

“We get stuck in this multitasking trap even without realising that we’re doing it,” said Nicole Byers, a neuropsychologist in Calgary, Alberta, US, who specialises in treating people with burnout.

Most of us avoid boredom if we can, Byers explained, and multitasking is a reliable way to ward it off. There’s also a lot of pressure to do it. “Our modern world — where so many of us spend most of the day on screens — really forces our brain to multitask,” she said.

The fact remains that we’re not great at doing it, and it’s not great for us. But there are ways we can be smarter in our approach.

Brain mechanics

First, “multitask” itself is a misnomer. Experts say it’s not possible to do two things at once — unless we can do one without much thinking.

“Usually, they’re actually switching their attention back and forth between two separate tasks,” said Gloria Mark of the University of California, US, and author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.

Suppose you engage in a single task like cooking dinner. From the moment you decide what to make, different brain regions, collectively the cognitive control network, collaborate to make it happen, said Anthony Wagner, a professor of psychology at Stanford, US.

This includes areas involved in executive function, or the ability to plan and carry out goal-oriented behaviour. Together they create a mental model of the job at hand. Your brain might do this, Wagner said, by drawing on both external and internal information, like the ingredients in your fridge or your memory of the recipe.

Mark compared this process to drawing on a mental whiteboard. But if your friend calls you to rant about her day, it gets wiped clean. “Every time you switch your attention to a new task, your brain has to reorient itself,” she said.

The downsides Generally, “when we switch between tasks, we pay what’s been dubbed a ‘switch cost’,” Wagner said. “We’re going to be slower and less accurate than we would have been if we stayed on a single task.” Speed and precision aren’t the only risks. Multitasking is more cognitively demanding, even when we’re doing things enjoyable. When we multitask, we can tax our working memory, Byers explained. “The more we overload that system, the more mental fatigue it can lead to,” she said. Other studies have found multitasking can set our heart racing, raise our blood pressure, trigger anxiety and negatively impact our perception of the work at hand. One thing at a time

Mark suggested you start by observing yourself throughout the day, noticing when and how you task-switch without realising it. From there, you’ll need to practise monotasking, or doing one thing at a time, to gradually retrain your focus and build your tolerance.

If you’re struggling, start small. Can you monotask for five minutes? How about 10?

When to multitask

Your life is probably going to include some level of task-switching.So stick to your strengths. Certain activities “strain our systems and drain our brain power more,” Byers said. So if a task requires a lot of mental effort, you probably won’t be better off multitasking. For example, you might be good at crocheting while watching TV, but a beginner might need full concentration to avoid skipping stitches.

When and how we switch tasks matters, too. Rather than pivoting at the drop of a distraction, Mark suggested swapping at “break points”, places in your work flow where it will be “easy to pick it up again without having to do redundant work.” As you read this article you might try getting to the end before checking your notifications.

Use multitasking when it actually helps. Stacking habits, particularly activities you like with ones you don’t, can give your brain more positive reinforcement. If, for instance, you’re more likely to do the dishes with the TV on, it’s probably worth sacrificing a bit of attention. “Our brains may not like change,” Byers said. “But they do really like rewards.”

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