You have a meeting in five minutes, your to-do list keeps growing, and you just received another ping from your coworker asking a series of questions. You find yourself jumping back and forth between video calls, your inbox, and your deliverables, but can’t seem to actually get any work over the finish line.
This is the pitfall of multitasking. You spend too much time bouncing between tasks instead of giving your full attention to one at a time. In this guide, we cover how to become a better multitasker, even if that means not technically multitasking at all.
Why Multitasking Doesn’t Actually Work
Multitasking feels productive, but for most “thinking” work, it’s not effective because your brain can’t truly do two attention-heavy tasks at once. It can only rapidly switch between them, and that switching has real costs.
Your brain can run some things in the background (walking, simple routines). But when two tasks both need language, memory, or decision-making (writing and Slack, studying and watching TikToks), you can’t fully attend to both. You toggle, and each toggle forces your brain to reload context: “Where was I? What was I about to do? What’s the next step?” That reloading burns time and mental energy. Research shows context switching can reduce overall productivity by up to 40% and increase error rates by 50%.
Multitasking only “works” when one task is low-demand, like folding laundry while listening to a podcast or taking a walk and brainstorming. These situations work because one task is mostly automatic. Multitasking fails when both tasks require the same mental resources.
How to “Multitask” Better
The secret to multitasking better is to not actually multitask at all. It’s all about managing your load with structure and intention. Instead of chaotically juggling multiple tasks at one time, you need to learn how to effectively single-task so you can finally cross things off your to-dos.
These 7 single-tasking techniques can help.
1. Task Batching
Instead of letting small tasks interrupt you throughout the day, group similar activities together to reduce mental friction. For example, you could dedicate an hour or two to clearing out your inbox or processing vendor invoices.
Task batching helps minimize context switching. Your brain only has to prepare once for the entire batch, rather than shifting gears every few minutes, which can save a significant amount of mental energy.
2. Pomodoro Technique
The Pomodoro Technique breaks work into manageable intervals to help you stay focused without burning out. Set a timer for 25 minutes, focus only on your task for that entire interval, and then take a 5-minute break before diving into another work interval. After four cycles, you can take a longer break, usually 15 to 30 minutes. During your breaks, you can make a cup of coffee, walk some laps around your office, or do some stretches.
Pomodoro forces you to single-task while combating the cognitive fatigue associated with continuous work. It also helps you overcome procrastination by breaking down daunting projects into small steps. A project split into 25-minute intervals feels a lot more doable than a 2-hour breakless block.
3. The Ivy Lee Method
The Ivy Lee Method is a simple routine that helps eliminate decision fatigue and encourages you to work in a sequential, task-based order. At the end of each workday, write down the six most important tasks for tomorrow and prioritize them in exact order of importance. When you start work the next day, focus only on the first task until it’s finished, then move on to the second.
With the Ivy Lee Method, you don’t have to waste time figuring out what to work on first. You already have your priority list, and you can jump right into the top task. By forcing you to work on the highest-priority item first, it also eliminates the fatigue and focus loss that comes with switching back and forth between other tasks.
4. Time Blocking
This technique divides your day into specific blocks of time, with a single task or project assigned to each block. For example, reserve 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM for meetings and 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM strictly for focused, strategic work. Schedule the time on your calendar and treat your work blocks like a meeting with yourself that you can’t skip or book over.
Time blocking moves you from a reactive to-do list to a proactive schedule. Giving every task a dedicated “home” in your day helps reduce the anxiety of "what should I be doing now?" and prevents administrative tasks from consuming your working hours.
5. The Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix is a task management framework designed to help you triage your workload so you don’t multitask on things that don’t matter. With this tool, you categorize tasks into four boxes:
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Do (Urgent and Important): These tasks have deadlines or consequences if they’re not completed. You should complete them immediately.
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Schedule (Important but Not Urgent): These tasks are more long-term and have wiggle room or soft/unclear deadlines. You can schedule them for deep work times.
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Delegate (Urgent but Not Important): These tasks need to get done, but you don’t need to be the one to do them or your skillset isn’t necessary. You can hand them off to others.
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Delete (Not Urgent and Not Important): These are unnecessary tasks that only act as distractions. Remove them.
The matrix helps you determine which tasks truly require your attention and which are merely distracting, so you can prioritize effectively.
6. Deep Work
Coined by computer science professor Cal Newport, deep work prioritizes distraction-free concentration to master complex tasks quickly. Similar to time blocking, schedule 60–90 minute blocks of uninterrupted time to focus on a cognitively demanding task to eliminate "shallow work" like email or chat during this period.
Deep work can induce a flow state that allows you to produce higher-quality work and helps you avoid the "attention residue" that lingers when you glance at emails or phones. During your deep work block, proactively turn off notifications from apps that aren't essential to your current task. Use features like "Focus mode" on your phone to pause notifications and distracting apps temporarily until it’s time for a break.
7. Strategic Delegation
Multitasking often happens because you hold onto tasks that you shouldn't be doing. Be honest with yourself and identify tasks that are urgent but not important (Quadrant 3 of the Eisenhower Matrix) or tasks where you don’t have the specific skill set needed. Pass these responsibilities to team members with clear instructions and deadlines to get some breathing room.
Learning to delegate properly frees up your mental resources for high-level strategic planning and decision-making, rather than cluttering your brain with execution details that can and should be handled by others.
The Importance of Intentional Breaks
If you want to “multitask better,” breaks aren’t optional. They’re the reset that keeps your brain from sliding into sloppy work and constant context switching. When you work nonstop, your attention gets fragmented, and you wind up feeling frazzled. When you pause on purpose, you give your brain a clean transition point, making it easier to re-enter your next task with focus.
The key is to take breaks that actually recharge you, not breaks that quietly drain you (like doomscrolling or jumping into more messages). A good break should involve lowering your stress, resting your eyes, moving your body, or clearing mental clutter.
Here are some ways you can spend your break time, no matter how short:
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Stand up, stretch, and take a few slow breaths
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Refill water or make a cup of tea
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Jot a one-line “next step” before switching tasks
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Walk outside (even a short one) and let your eyes focus far away
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Eat a snack without your inbox open
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Put your phone on Do Not Disturb and reset your posture
A quick reset can be the difference between spending the next hour spinning your wheels or finishing the task in 20 minutes with your brain fully online.
Press Pause with FRE
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