How to Get Better at Multitasking - the Ultimate Guide

Feeling overwhelmed by your daily tasks? There's always something demanding your attention, and it never seems to stop. If this sounds familiar, it's time to improve your multitasking skills. The good news is that anyone can get better at multitasking with the right approach. In this guide, you'll discover practical strategies to boost efficiency, stay focused, and manage multiple tasks without stress—so keep reading!

What Is Multi -Tasking and Why Does It Matter?

Multitasking is a necessary skill that allows you to do two tasks (or multiple tasks) at once. This skill is especially valuable during the job search, because many jobs are dynamic and require you to do multiple things at the same time.

Apart from your work commitments, you probably need to finish two or more tasks simultaneously in your private life as well. For example, you are cleaning your home while cooking lunch for your family. At the same time, you are watching over your kid.

This makes multitasking sound like a superpower, right? Yet, this skill is rather normalized in human perception and even expected.

The Link Between Brain Health and Multitasking

Our brains have evolved to handle several cognitive processes, but not all at once. Our brains switch between different tasks rapidly, which creates the illusion that we are doing multiple things at once. Short-term, this improves our cognitive abilities, but if you multitask all the time, it can increase your stress levels, impair your memory, and make you less focused.

What Psychological Research Shows About the Impact of Multitasking

This is exactly what research suggests - heavy-duty multitasking is bad for your cognitive abilities, working memory, and mental health, but if you do it properly, it can make you more efficient. Constantly having to divide your attention between different tasks has similar effects to experiencing a lack of sleep. The cognitive load can become too much for most people.

However, this doesn't mean that multitasking is always bad. You just need to combine the right types of tasks. Try solving math problems while listening to music. Keep in mind that this is also where human factors can play an important role. Different people react to multitasking differently. Some people enjoy multitasking while others don’t.

How to Develop Effective Multitasking Skills

Here's how to multitask properly and stay efficient:

Stay Organized with a To-Do List

A well-designed to-do list is your secret weapon. With these lists, you will memorize all the tasks you need to do. Plus, they can help you separate the high-priority tasks from the less important ones. This will help you focus on what matters the most, instead of wasting your time and energy on insignificant things.

Combine Similar Tasks Without Stress

The secret to successful multitasking? Knowing which tasks you can do together without making mistakes and stressing out. As we already mentioned, you can pair some simple cognitive tasks with listening to music. Or, you can call your friend and talk to them while preparing lunch. Many people listen to podcasts while finishing work.

On the other hand, you should avoid combining tasks that require the same type of attention. For example, talking on a phone while trying to fill in an important spreadsheet could cause some costly mistakes. Probably the worst case of wrong multitasking is texting while driving - these two activities should never be paired together.

Break Down Complex Tasks

As you write down your tasks, pay close attention to the more complex ones. Are there any that could be broken into simpler tasks? Then, combine these simpler tasks with other simple tasks, as suggested in the previous paragraph. Instead of getting stuck on one complex task, you will finish it one step at a time, while also finishing other small tasks simultaneously.

Practice Mindfulness to Improve Focus

In order to do several things at once, you need to be extremely focused. Unfortunately, many people suffer from a lack of focus. They struggle to focus on even one thing, so it's no wonder multitasking is impossible for them.

If you are one of them, there is one thing you can do. That thing is practicing mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice that teaches you to focus on one thing at a moment. This might seem counterproductive for learning how to multitask, but it actually works.

Through mindfulness, you get rid of mental clutter, which makes you better at dealing with multiple tasks and switching between them at rapid succession. This practice will also make you less stressed and overall better equipped to deal with even the busiest days.

Minimize Distractions

The reason why so many people struggle to focus is simple. They are distracted by too many things, but probably the biggest distraction is our phones. So, to be able to focus on more than one task, you will need to minimize distractions. Store your phone somewhere out of your reach. When working on a laptop or PC, log out of your social media accounts.

Maybe your colleagues are talking too loudly and distracting you. If that's the case, you can wear noise-cancelling headphones. If you are in a managerial position, delegate less important tasks to your subordinates. Oftentimes, we get distracted by tasks that aren't even worth our time.

Lead a Healthy Lifestyle

A healthy lifestyle is crucial for so many things, including your ability to multitask. Through regular physical activity and a healthy diet, you improve your mental clarity, working memory, and ability to focus. With regular exercise, you increase the blood flow to your brain. This gives you more capacity to deal with several tasks at once.

Balanced meals rich in proteins, fats, and whole grains will feed your brain, along with feeding your body. If your brain is "hungry," it will struggle with even the most basic tasks. That's why so many people experience brain fog when not eating properly.

Avoid Multitasking in These Situations

Obviously, you shouldn't multitask in certain situations. These situations often include more complex tasks that require your undivided attention. If that's your case, try to do just one task at a time. Don't do anything else until you finish the previous task.

One good example of such a situation is driving. Just a second of paying attention to something else could get you into an accident. Another example of when to avoid multitasking is talking to people, especially if those conversations are important or sensitive. Looking at your phone while talking to people is disrespectful, and it can also cause you to miss some important information.

Multitasking Mistakes and What to Do Instead

To make you even more efficient at multitasking, here is what you shouldn't do:

• Doing two or more demanding tasks at once: chances are, you will fail at both tasks. Instead, choose a single task, finish it, and then move on to another one.
• Frequent task switching: This will raise your stress levels and disrupt your focus. Instead, do one task for a while, then switch to another one. Take short breaks when switching between tasks.
• Getting easily distracted by notifications: if you are doing something, and an email or a message pops up, don't rush to open it. Instead, finish what you are doing and then check your email/messages.

Signs of Excessive Multitasking

Maybe your problem isn't that you don't know how to multitask. It's the fact that you multitask a bit too much. Excessive multitasking means that you are constantly juggling between multiple obligations and tasks. Over time, your stress builds up, you feel guilty because you can't get any more efficient, and you experience all the symptoms of burnout.

When that happens, you might feel like everything is slipping from your fingers. No matter how hard you try, you keep making mistakes. The quality of your work is reduced, and everyone notices you are not at your usual level. This creates even more stress. You struggle to sleep at night, and it's like you are constantly chasing something you can't catch.

When this happens to you, it's a clear sign that you need to take a step back. Work on the high-priority tasks only and leave the rest for later. If necessary, ask for help. Your friends, family members, and colleagues might take some burden off your shoulders.

Try to take breaks throughout the day, whenever you start to feel overwhelmed. Use calendars to plan your days. Maybe you are simply scheduling too many tasks in one day. Spreading them out to more days could make all the difference.

Improve Your Multitasking Skills

Multitasking is one of those skills that one keeps improving throughout one's whole life. That's why you shouldn't stop with this article. There are many great works and books on multitasking. Many experts in experimental psychology, such as J.E. Evans and J.S. Meyer, have researched the relationship between executive control over cognitive processes and task switching.

No matter which article or book you decide to choose for developing your multitasking skills, remember that it is a lifelong process. It's not a skill you can learn once and then never have to work on again. Keep your mind sharp and focused with consistent work on yourself.

Conclusion

Multitasking is the ability to do more than one task at once. However, contrary to popular belief, when you are multitasking, you are actually switching rapidly between different tasks. This is why you need to learn how to multitask properly. Make to-do lists, distinguish the high-priority tasks from less important ones, and learn which tasks go well together. Soon enough, you will become a multitasking machine!

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Multitasking a Technical Or Soft Skill?

Multitasking is a soft skill as it requires no technical knowledge, and it isn't connected to a specific industry or individual workplace. This means that everyone is expected to possess this skill, at least to some small extent.

Is Multitasking a Form of ADHD?

Many people with ADHD tend to do multiple things at once, but they do it because of their attention deficit, not because they are inherently better at multitasking. As a matter of fact, there is no solid evidence that multitasking is connected to ADHD.

Why Do I Struggle to Multitask?

There might be several reasons, but the most common ones are stress and fatigue. If you are too stressed and don't get enough rest, it becomes hard to focus on more than one task. Other reasons might be old age and health issues.

Can Multitasking Improve Productivity?

Yes, but only when done strategically. Combining compatible tasks and maintaining focus can boost efficiency, while trying to do too much at once can lower performance.

Which Tasks Should Never Be Multitasked?

Tasks that require full attention, like driving, operating machinery, or handling important financial or safety-related work, should never be multitasked to avoid mistakes or accidents.

Why Is Media Multitasking So Distracting?

Media multitasking splits your attention between multiple sources of information, overloading your brain. When you try to focus on two things at once—like a movie and your cell phone—neither task gets your full attention, which can lead to mistakes, stress, and reduced enjoyment or productivity.