While you’re reading this your attention is likely pulled in multiple directions. Maybe you just saw a push notification, or need to look up to check that you don’t miss your stop on the subway. Most of us are inundated constantly with demands for our attention. So I don’t need to tell you how stressful it feels. It can be tempting (and sometimes necessary) to try to attend to two tasks simultaneously. Sometimes, it’s harmless — like listening to a podcast while working out. Other times, trying to pay attention to more than one thing at a time costs us more than we might realize. What feels like productivity actually burns out our cognitive systems and increases our stress. Also, in most cases, trying to do more than one thing simultaneously is less efficient than taking each task one at a time.

Intentionally trying to tackle more than one task at the same time is often referred to as multitasking. In our busy, fast-paced lives, multitasking can seem natural and even necessary. Sometimes, we take a phone call while making dinner. In many professional settings where productivity is idealized as a sign of excellence, multitasking can be encouraged and rewarded.

In fact, our brains do not actually multitask. When we try to attend to more than one thing at a time, we are rapidly switching attention between tasks (referred to as task switching). We tune into the phone conversation and then shift back to making dinner. It happens so rapidly, we sometimes don’t notice the switching. Because of the way our brains function to handle tasks, this process of switching back and forth between tasks increases our burden and extends the time it takes for us to complete each task. And, we are more likely to make errors.

In order to switch from one task to another, our brains use executive controls to shift away from one goal and toward another (“I want to check my texts now instead of writing”). Next, our brains must organize around the behaviors and information relevant for the new task (i.e., contextualizing and reading the text). All of this can happen outside of our awareness in a few........

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