We used to think that the most productive people were good at multitasking. I was proud of my ability to do 5 things at once, slotting in quick carpool arrangements while working on that week’s bulletin (I used to work at a church!), while planning when I’d get to the grocery store for that night’s dinner. Science now tells us that multitasking isn’t all that great —it tends to worsen your memory and make you less productive overall. However, even worse, we no longer just split our attention between easy and demanding tasks. Now we’re splitting it on multiple high-attention tasks at once, and we’re doing it all the time.
Money quote: The term was first used in the 60s to describe computer performance. The human brain, though, is not a computer, and human attention is a very limited resource.
In today’s attention economy, we are constantly bombarded by emails, texts, notifications from social media and group chats, as well as more news to catch up on, books to read, podcasts to listen to (on 1.5x speed so we can fit more it!), shows and movies to watch, the next new thing to buy, new gadgets for productivity, wellness, and more. Everything wants our attention (and media companies are earning an average of $3 per hour of our attention), and it’s overwhelming. And trying to keep up with it all — so we don’t miss anything from work, friends, family, or the latest trend — is scattering us and exhausting us.
As this highly informative blog says:
Every time you start to think about what you have to do or remember, that thought takes up some space in what is known as working memory. The more information you need to work with, the more space in working memory you require. There is a limit, of course, and it is fairly small.
The more we store in working memory, the less cognitive resources we have available for everything else. This is fine for undemanding tasks—brushing your teeth or riding your bike can be accomplished with only a fraction of our attention. It’s not ok when we want to enter a state of flow, remember something long-term, or have to perform some type of cognitively demanding mental calculations.
This video is an excellent explainer of how the internet affects our memory consolidation, which is how we learn.
The most descriptive term for this constant pull on our attention is a concept called continual partial attention, as described by Linda Stone in 1998. CPA triggers mental overload as your brain is constantly trying to juggle various inputs. This perpetual state of alertness activates your brain’s stress response, creating anxiety and mental fatigue. Over time, this stress builds up, leading to burnout as you struggle to manage the constant stream of distractions.
Continuous partial attention (CPA) is similar to multitasking but is more cognitively demanding. Multitasking might be combining a routine or automatic task that requires little cognitive processing, like stirring a pot, with a more demanding one, like writing an email. CPA is writing an email while watching a movie.
The first difference is the motivation. Multitasking stems from an impulse to be more productive or efficient, often to make time for more meaningful pursuits. Continuous partial attention is motivated by the need to be connected and alert to the best opportunities, and requires a different kind of vigilance. As Stone says, “We pay continuous partial attention in an effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place behaviour that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis.” It’s a compulsion.
The second big difference is that CPA requires juggling multiple mentally demanding tasks, leaving none of them with your full attention. Examples include texting while in a meeting, listening to a podcast while working, or watching TV while studying. This causes a person to not fully pay attention to either activity, resulting in poor cognitive function and affecting our ability to reflect or think creatively. Researchers have linked rapidly switching between tasks to diminished working memory capacity, inattentiveness, and reduced cognitive flexibility. In contrast, novelty, focused attention, and challenge are essential components of enhancing cognitive function.
CPA can also negatively impact how well we collaborate, cause us to play it safe in our decision-making, and hamper productivity. In addition, this split focus on multiple information streams and tasks can lead to workplace or educational stress and a poor work-life balance. An increasing need to be perpetually available in professional settings causes difficulty in distinguishing between professional and personal spheres, leading to more frequent and intense overwhelm, overstimulation, and burnout, and higher levels of depression & anxiety.
Some common signs of CPA include difficulty focusing on a single task, frequent task-switching, feeling mentally exhausted without accomplishing much, increased irritability, and leaving tasks incomplete. CPA might be at play if you often feel scattered or overwhelmed by distractions.
What to do? Strategies to balance the effects of continuous partial attention include incorporating mindful practices and using technology to set boundaries with that technology. Techniques like deep work, single-tasking, and turning off notifications can help retrain your brain to focus on one task at a time. Practicing mindfulness can also help you stay present and reduce mental overload. Here are some ideas, large and small:
- Delay your wake-up phone scroll, even by just a few minutes. “Your brain sort of wakes up like wet cement,” says Montminy. The first “imprint” you make matters, she says.
- Create an “analog bag” to reach for instead of your phone
- Protect larger blocks of time for focused deep work and proper rest (time-blocking techniques like the Pomodoro Technique can be helpful here). Block off an hour or two each day where you silence notifications and dedicate yourself to one project. It may feel uncomfortable at first, but this focused time can drastically improve your productivity.
- Put your phone in another room during dinner or while working. Give your full attention to others during interactions (as in put away your phones, no typing on the computer keyboard while having conversations).
- You could even try chaining your phone to the wall for a week!
- Restrict yourself to one program at a time rather than jumping between them.
- Establish some tech-free time every day, or at least turn off some notifications or delete apps that aren’t serving you.
- Move more in general. Stave off mental decline by getting your heart pumping!
- Stop multitasking and do one thing at a time.
- Take a breathing break.
- Take mindfulness breaks or “purposeful pauses”
- Try out the Dutch concept of Niksen: the act of doing nothing or being idle as a way of managing stress and burnout. It encourages an antidote to busyness. You dial things down by just hanging out, looking at your environment, or listening to music without multitasking. The idea is doing something without a purpose.
Since I started drafting this several weeks ago, I’ve begun implementing some small changes, and I do notice my focus while working has been getting better, and I think I pick up my phone less compulsively.
- I try to start my day with a quick meditation or affirmations, rather than scrolling or checking email.
- I’ve turned off the notification icon for texts on my computer tab. I also turn my phone to do not disturb when I’m working. If I want to stop and see if I have a new text, it has to be a conscious decision, not because I see or hear an alert.
- I’ve also (sometimes ) started making dinner without having an audiobook playing in the background. I find I feel less frazzled when I do so.
Here’s the simplest (and hardest) one: when I’m watching TV with my husband in the evening, I don’t do anything else. No scrolling, no paying bills or meal planning, just that one thing: relaxing with my husband. It’s a little embarrassing how hard it can be to leave my phone alone and… just watch TV. It’s like relearning how to relax. I deserve a break, and it’s enough.
