Multitasking and Burnout: Why Your "Superpower" Drains Productivity

Do you pride yourself on juggling emails, meetings, texts, and family responsibilities all at once? Many working women see multitasking as a badge of honor, a superpower that helps them get everything done. I used to think the same. If I was replying to a client, finishing an email, attending a Teams call, and getting my daughter ready for school simultaneously, I felt unstoppable.

But here’s the truth: multitasking isn’t a superpower, it’s a superpower drainer that can accelerate burnout.

Is Multitasking Really a Superpower?

The issue is that humans cannot truly multitask. Multitasking is neither a superpower nor an actual skill; it’s an illusion. When you believe you are concentrating on two things simultaneously, your attention is actually shifting from one task to another. This results in using up cognitive energy, or brain power, in switching focus between tasks, rather than dedicating it to the task itself.

The reality is simple: multitasking creates an illusion of efficiency, but in truth, it drains your brainpower and energy.

The Cognitive Cost of Multitasking

Your cognitive energy is not limitless. Eventually, you need to rest and allow your brain to recover. If you try to push through, your brain ceases to function effectively. You've likely experienced that sensation of being unable to think clearly. So, if you constantly make your brain switch between tasks, it will tire more quickly, ultimately decreasing productivity instead of increasing it. This can have multiple impacts:

• Reduction in Work Quality: When you multitask, you pay less attention to individual tasks, leading to a decrease in overall output quality. This results in spending more time correcting errors and redoing tasks—apparently, my multitasking superpower might have reduced my productivity by up to 40%.

  
  

• Increased Stress: Multitasking has been shown to increase stress, negatively affect mood and motivation, and cause anxiety. Constantly switching tasks can limit creativity and even affect working memory.

  
  

• Personal Relationships: Because multitasking prevents you from being fully present with family, friends, and colleagues, it can impact personal relationships.

Multitasking and Burnout

Many of us organise our day around time rather than cognitive capacity. We treat time as a resource to maximise, forgetting that our brain has limits. Overloading it with simultaneous tasks can lead to burnout, leaving us exhausted, disengaged, and less productive.

Recognising that multitasking is a superpower drainer is an essential step in the Anti-Burnout Mindset:

• Treat cognitive energy as finite.

• Focus on one task at a time whenever possible.

• Accept multitasking only as a temporary necessity, not a sign of efficiency.

The Anti-Burnout Mindset

Shifting from multitasking to focused single-tasking is a crucial element of preventing burnout for working women. By acknowledging your cognitive limits and intentionally managing your energy, you can increase work quality and efficiency, reduce stress and mental fatigue and protect your wellbeing and personal relationships.

Multitasking may feel like a superpower, but in reality, it’s draining your most valuable resource: your brainpower. Recognising this is the first step toward more sustainable productivity and a healthier work-life balance.

Explore my Anti-Burnout Blog for more tips and tricks.

Mairi Joyce

9 March 2025