Although you may not want to believe it, research has shown that the human brain is not actually capable of doing two thinking (cognitive) tasks at the same time. Think of it as a single-screen TV. You can’t watch two shows at once, but you can flip back and forth, missing some of each show; the more shows you watch, the more you miss of each one. Time is lost when switching between tasks, and the time loss increases with the complexity of the task.

Managing multiple tasks at once reduces your working memory and concentration and increases stress. People who multitask are actually less efficient than those who focus on one “complex” project at a time. Errors go way up, and it takes far longer—often double the time or more—to get the jobs done than if they were done sequentially. So stop multitasking and get things done.