In our fast-paced world, people often exclaim that multitasking is a superpower — being able to handle emails, meetings, texts, and social media all at the same time. But research consistently shows that multitasking decreases productivity and focus. The brain just can’t do it. It can’t handle all these demanding tasks at once. And what it can do seems to be divided among the segments of the brain that manage the separate tasks — in this case, email, meetings, and so on.
You can take a 30-day focus challenge to clear your mind of multitasking. This could be especially good for some of us who are on the edge of working and concentrating. This could also suit people who are somewhat productive but work better when they have a straight-up deadline to work towards.
Why Multitasking Hurts Your Productivity
What we refer to as multitasking is actually rapid task-switching. This switching incurs a cognitive cost — each switch requires reorienting attention, recalling relevant information, and suppressing distractions (de la Fuente, 2022). This results in slower progress and more errors compared to direct, unfettered work.
In addition, trying to do several tasks at once puts too much demand on working memory and executive functions and can cause them to fail, resulting in mental fatigue and less creative problem solving (Xu et al., 2018). In real-life situations, like working in an emergency department or doing knowledge work, attempting to multitask tends to make people less efficient and more prone to making mistakes (D’Angelo et al., 2023).
The Science Behind the 30-Day Focus Challenge
The timeframe of 30 days corresponds with behavioral and psychological research, which suggests it takes about a month to form a habit (Lally et al., 2010) or to rewire behaviors into more advantageous forms. The research I’m aware of indicates that consistently practicing something for about 30 days makes it much more likely you’ll keep doing it. It’s a way of helping our neurons with their pathways.
Research on states of ‘flow’ indicates that when people are concentrating very deeply, they are experiencing something very similar to a kind of natural high. This concentration is correlated with feelings of satisfaction, a perception that one is doing well, and a handful of other very positive emotional states. “Flow” is sometimes stylized with a trademark symbol, but we can think of it without getting all regulatory (or possibly litigious).
How to Do the 30-Day Focus Challenge
1. Commit to Single-Tasking Blocks Begin by engaging in brief, concentrated work intervals—for instance, using the Pomodoro technique, work for 25 minutes—during which you focus solely on one task. Remove all distractions: mute notifications, shut irrelevant tabs, and declutter your workspace.
2. Give Up Multitasking
Even though it feels good to have multiple things going on at once, multitasking is actually harmful, not helpful. Cognitive science shows that when you switch back and forth between tasks, you are not truly attending to any of them. Instead, you are working at a much lower level of efficiency. When you are doing work that matters, give it your full attention. Don’t let any other tasks or people lure you away for a set amount of time. And then, when that time is up, go on to the next task that matters.
3. Monitor Your Progress
Keep a straightforward journal or digital tracker where you log the work sessions you undertake with full concentration and any distractions that occur. On a weekly basis, reflect on what has gone better this week in terms of working without distractions and what has presented new challenges. Use this to adjust your strategies.
4. Reduce Multitasking Triggers
Become aware of the signals that make you want to multitask: email notifications, social media, or in-person meetings. Over time, try to decrease your dependence on these signals by bundling your email and sending it during a set-aside time; using website blockers; or asking for some quiet time from the people around you.
5. Combine Mindfulness and Breaks
Elongated stretches of concentration can exhaust your brain’s attention system. Therefore, between focused blocks, practice even shorter resets. Use your brief intermissions to recalibrate your concentration circuits. Try a few quick, mindful minutes, or a fast tune-up of your attention with light physical movement.
30-Day Focus Challenge: Real-Life Benefits and Outcomes
People who are a part of 30-day focus interventions say:
- Greater efficiency: Achieving more in the same amount of time, or even less, with better quality.
- Decreased stress: Reduced feeling of being overwhelmed due to having to constantly switch between tasks and due to having tasks that remain unfinished.
- Increased mental clarity: Enhanced capacity to focus and not be sidetracked.
- Improved work-life balance: More leisure time because of productive work manners.
When employees cut back on multitasking, organizations reap rewards. Boosted productivity, decreased error rates, and improved employee engagement are probable outcomes. Favorable impacts on safety outcomes have been noted, as well, particularly in healthcare and knowledge-intensive industries (Si & Roberts, 2019; D’Angelo et al., 2023).
30-Day Focus Challenge: Tips for Success
Small Starts: If 25 minutes feels too long, begin with focus blocks of 15-20 minutes.
Make Wise Use of Tools: Applications such as Forest and Focus@Will, along with website blockers, assist in keeping your attention where it should be.
Accountability Partners: Tell a friend or colleague about your dilemma to cultivate a climate of consistency.
Winning Isn’t Everything, But It Is Something: Every now and then, you’ve got to set up a system where you can win and feel good about it. What is it, this mattering to yourself? It’s simply the A to Z of human life: we need to feel something, and we need to know that something feels good. If we can extend that something all the way out to what we do with our lives, we’ve really got something. And most of us, every day, do what it is with what we call work.
Conclusion
The 30-day concentration challenge is a practical, science-backed way to stop multitasking and supercharge your productivity. You likely pay a ‘concentration tax’ when you work. This means that some of your attention is always being diverted to whatever it is you were doing right before you came back to this task. And in a typical workday, you’re not just switching between tasks — you’re switching between modes of thinking that feel very different from one another and that use different parts of your brain. Your default mode network gets activated when you try to solve a problem that’s not right in front of you.
Your brain goes into ‘flow’ when you’re doing something with such intensity that you lose track of time. But you’re not doing either of those things when you’re working in a mode where you’re barely holding on and just kind of managing to stay on top of everything. You’re not a good multitasker, and neither is anyone else. Surprisingly, this also holds true for scientists and serial killers. Indeed, you’re better off single-tasking while taking short, humor-filled breaks between tasks.
References
- Abrams, S. (2019). Breathe to succeed: Increase workplace productivity, creativity, and clarity through mindfulness. Google Books.
- D’Angelo, S., Jaspan, C., et al. (2023). Using logs data to identify when software engineers experience flow or focused work. Proceedings of ACM. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581562
- de la Fuente, V. (2022). Digital Detox: Master your digital life. Google Books.
- Lally, P., van Jaarsveld, C.H.M., Potts, H.W.W., & Wardle, J. (2010). How habits are formed: Modelling habit formation in the real world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(6), 998-1009.
- Si, Y., & Roberts, K. (2019). Deep patient representation of clinical notes via multi-task learning for mortality prediction. AMIA Summits on Translational Science. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6568068/
- Xu, J., Hallbeck, S., Weinger, M.B., et al. (2018). The influence of stress responses on surgical performance and outcomes: A literature review. The American Journal of Surgery. https://proqualis.fiocruz.br/sites/proqualis.fiocruz.br/files/The%20influence%20of%20stress%20responses%20on%20surgical%20performance.pdf
