Multitasking Is a Lie! (And it's why your business feels scattered)

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How to Stop Cognitive Brain Switching and Build Momentum in a 90-Day Focus Window

This might be a little dramatic, but I believe multitasking is a lie! It's not good for us and it's not effective at helping you get things done!

If your business feels scattered right now, there’s a very good chance multitasking is the reason.

Your business doesn’t feel scattered because you’re lazy or because you lack discipline or because you’re doing anything wrong. It’s because your brain was never designed to succeed multitasking.

Let’s clarify something important

Multitasking doesn’t actually exist the way we think it does.

You might think of multitasking as being able to respond to an email, answer in Slack, write a sales page, brainstorm your next podcast title, blog topic or social post, and do all of that kind of simultaneously.

But that’s not actually multitasking. It’s actually task switching or cognitive brain switching.

Your brain is not doing two cognitively demanding things at once. It’s rapidly switching between them, and every time it switches, there’s a cost to your effectiveness.

Every time we switch our tasks, our brain has to unload one set of information and then load another. That switching drains mental energy, slows us down, reduces clarity.

So when you’re writing an email, checking Slack, thinking about a client, talking to a client, looking at Instagram, editing a landing page, you’re not being efficient if you’re doing all those things mostly simultaneously.

You’re fragmenting your focus, and that fragmentation is expensive.

A few numbers that might surprise you

1. "Multitasking" can cause productivity to drop by up to 40%.
Multitasking or cognitive brain switching can reduce productivity by as much as 40%. That means almost half your potential output could be disappearing, not because you’re unmotivated, but because your brain is switching constantly. That’s not a minor inefficiency. That is massive.

2. It takes about 23 minutes to regain focus after a distraction.
If you’re interrupted with an email or a Slack message, it takes the average person about 23 minutes to fully return to the original task. So when you check one notification, answer one quick, “quick” message, or just glance at something, it’s not costing you 30 seconds.

It’s costing you up to 23 minutes, and it’s costing you depth, depth of thinking.

And entrepreneurs live and die by the depth of their thoughts and their productivity.

3. Continuous partial attention harms your brain.
When we’re constantly splitting our focus, it harms our working memory. It harms our learning and it harms our decision making, which means multitasking doesn’t just make you slower. It could make you worse at strategy, creativity, problem solving, and long term planning.

And that is terrifying to think about if you run an online business.

What this looked like in my own work

This topic actually came to my mind recently because I found myself thinking, maybe I have ADHD now. Sometimes I just feel so scattered and this is not normal for me. Do I have ADHD?

And while it’s true that perimenopausal women do experience some of the symptoms of ADHD or ADD as they’re approaching menopause like I am, I’m sure it’s not enough to diagnose me as being ADHD.

What I noticed is that in my work, I was literally jumping all over the place from platform to platform while I was working, tab to tab on my browser. (not to mention how many browser tabs were open!)

I was answering a client’s question, responding to another’s email, trying to build an automation in my software, and respond to our virtual assistant team all at the same time.

I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off in the digital space, in the virtual world, clicking from here and there and back to over here.

And this is not multitasking. This is cognitive brain switching and it was not working.

Sure, clients and customers were getting what they wanted, but they were not getting the best of me.

And I felt like "nothing" was getting done because the intentional projects weren’t being moved forward. I was only in reactive work.

I wasn’t failing because I lacked effort. I was working super hard.

I was failing because I lacked focus. And so everything was getting partial energy, partial attention.

Why multitasking is so seductive

Multitasking, also known as cognitive brain switching, is very seductive.

It actually does feel productive. It feels responsible. You’re getting back to everyone as you should be. It feels like you’re keeping everything moving, keeping everyone happy.

But imagine with me for just a moment.

Imagine you’re trying to push five rocks, big rocks or boulders up a mountain at the same time. Imagine jumping back and forth between all those boulders, trying to keep them all moving up the hill.

That doesn’t build momentum. It builds exhaustion.

And when every big rock or boulder feels important, nothing gets completed. Eventually one or several of your big rocks will roll back down the hill.

And this is why your business might feel scattered, chaotic, might feel behind.

Do you always feel like you’re behind? Maybe Multitasking is the reason why!

It’s not a capability problem. It’s a focus problem.

What I notice when I focus on ONE big goal

Let me share one more example with you that comes directly from this promotional period that we’re in right now for my upcoming workshop From Scattered to Strategic.

As I’ve been staying super focused this quarter on launching it - writing the landing page, brainstorming the copy, brainstorming titles, writing and sending emails, recording podcasts like this one - I’ve seen a shift in my own work in my online business.

In past quarters, I might have had two or three big goals. But as a solopreneur right now, it’s tough to spread high intention and focus across multiple big goals.

What I found in the past is that one of these big goals would get a lot more focus than another. And if I’m being honest, none of them really moved forward that much as I hoped they would in the quarter.

I felt scattered and confused about what I was actually working on each day.

But in this launch, this time around, as I’m focusing on this one big goal this month, every day I know exactly what I need to do.

I’m able to focus more clearly. Ideas and thoughts that I want to share with you have come more easily.

It’s like I'm creating more brain space by staying focused!

During my multiple "big rock" quarters, there was confusion and fatigue. But during this focused season, I’m noticing momentum.

And that’s what I want for you too.

If multitasking is a lie… what works?

What works for productivity is focus, focused effort on one meaningful goal at a time. Not five.

Is there any kind of multitasking that works? I would say yes.

The kind of multitasking that does work is physical multitasking, doing two physical things at the same time.

• Walking and working with a walking pad at your desk

• Walking and listening to a podcast. You probably walk or drive and listen at the same time already.

• It might look like folding laundry and listening to a book.

But when it comes to your business, what creates momentum is depth of focus and activity.

Because depth of focus and activity are what create momentum.

And then momentum creates confidence.

Confidence creates growth.

That’s the opposite of being scattered, overwhelmed, or confused!

Why I believe in a 90-day focus window

That’s why I believe in a 90-day focus window.

90 days is long enough to create the "Big Mo", momentum. It’s long enough to see measurable progress. But as I’ve shared, only if the focus is singular.

What you can do differently this week

I’m curious after reading this blog, what will you do differently this week to stop multitasking or cognitive brain switching?

Here are a couple ideas:

• Close all the other apps while you’re writing.

• Set a specific time to respond to clients or emails and only do it during that time.

• Set a timer for your heavy lifting brain activities like strategic thinking or writing, and don’t do anything else during that time. It might be 30 minutes. It might be 60 minutes. Whatever works in your brain, but stay focused on that one heavy lifting brain activity.

Let me know if any of these ideas help you. Comment below!

AND GO REGISTER for the upcoming workshop:

FROM SCATTERED TO STRATEGIC: How to pick the ONE Best Goal for the Next 90 Days to Make Success in 2026 INEVITABLE