The other day I came across a curious image: someone with three screens.
- On one, an anime was running.
- On another, there was an open terminal with code executing.
- And on the third, a document with tasks or notes.
My reaction was a mixture of empathy and doubt: “Is this focus or chaos disguised as performance?”
On the surface, this scene conveys a modern idea of productivity: “doing many things at once.” But is it really?
Multitasking Sounds Good… But It Doesn’t Work So Well
Multitasking has been romanticized. The idea of being able to answer emails while coding, review a design while listening to a daily stand-up, and have a tutorial playing in the background while finishing a ticket.
The reality is different: the brain doesn’t process several complex tasks simultaneously; instead, it rapidly switches context between them. This constant jumping consumes cognitive energy and increases errors.
Doing many things at once doesn’t make you more productive. It just makes you more tired.
From Professional Experience
As developers, architects, or technical leads, we deal with multiple fronts: urgent bugs, meetings, code reviews, and new features. It seems inevitable to multitask. However, the moments of greatest professional impact almost always come from deep focus: that block of time where we truly connect with the problem we’re solving.
“Being busy” all day is not the same as making progress on what’s important.
From Daily Life
Even outside of work, we have normalized multitasking: cooking while listening to a podcast, answering messages during a conversation, or checking social media while watching a series. We do it out of habit, not necessity.
And the result is similar: less presence, more exhaustion, less enjoyment.
So, What Do We Do?
It’s not about eliminating all multitasking, but about identifying when it truly sabotages us. Here are some practical ideas:
- 🧠 Focus blocks: Reserve at least 1 hour a day without interruptions for cognitively demanding tasks.
- 🔕 Silence notifications during key moments.
- ✅ Do one thing at a time, even if it seems slower at first.
- 📵 Screen-free breaks between work blocks.
- 📝 Short list of priorities: Choose 1 or 2 key tasks for the day that will define whether it was productive.
In Conclusion
You’re not alone. We all fall into the trap of “being busy” without being effective. But every time you choose to do less, but better, you are training your mind for what truly matters.
Productivity isn’t about how many tabs you have open, but how much attention you are capable of sustaining.