There’s no such thing as multitasking, according to business expert Sophie Leroy
A UW professor and organizational management expert explains why bouncing from task to task takes a toll on your brain.
Are you making the most out of your workday, or are you leaving behind “attention residue” by multitasking? Illustration by Janet Mac.
Sophie Leroy, a professor of management and dean of the UW Bothell School of Business, picks up the phone on the second ring. Fresh out of a Zoom meeting, and after taking a beat, she is ready to chat.
Shifting from a conversation with a colleague to explaining her academic research to me, Leroy notes the critical importance of transitions—even if it is just taking a moment. “I need to give the brain time to process what just happened,” Leroy says. “When I take 30 seconds—or even just a few seconds—to review what I just did or agreed to do next, then my brain can relax and switch focus” and ultimately be more productive. While some see multitasking as a valuable skill, there is no such thing, she adds. We just switch back and forth between things really fast, and that is problematic.
Sophie Leroy, the newly-appointed dean of UW Bothell’s business school, established the study of interruptions—the moment of transition from one task to another and its effect on performance — as a new research area within the field of organizational behavior.
Over the past 17 years, Leroy has studied the brain and how we more and more must constantly shift focus. Her research and findings have caught the interest of the popular press, including Time magazine, The New York Times and The Economist.
One key finding: Switching leaves behind “attention residue.” Our brains want to finish a task before focusing on the next. Like having too many browser tabs open, unfinished tasks stay active in our minds, disrupting performance throughout the day.
Fragmented work time and work norms—or even social norms—exacerbate this problem. We juggle projects and teams across text, calls and email. Switching between focused tasks, meetings and texts, emails and phone calls, stretches our attention beyond its limits.
“We assume the brain will focus wherever we want it to focus,” Leroy says. “But the brain doesn’t function that way. Our brain likes to have things closed, or in good standing, before switching to something else.”
Instead, many of us start multiple tasks and shift between them all day. “There’s a disconnect between what we ask the brain to do and what it can do,” Leroy says. “As people switch between meetings and tasks, the brain struggles to let go and move on.”
To minimize attention residue, Leroy suggests working offline to avoid interruptions and taking breaks between tasks and before meetings. Her own habits include tackling complicated tasks early in the day—before 9:30 a.m.—when her brain is the sharpest and she has time to focus.
“As you go throughout the day and you switch between tasks, the brain craves completion,” she says. “Let’s assume you’ve been in meeting after meeting. It’s 2 p.m. and you have a choice between doing an important task that you may not be able to finish before your next meeting or a smaller task that can be done quickly. You’re going to pick the task that will give a sense of completion as fast as possible. But strategically, that may not be the task you should be choosing to do. It takes more self-control later in the day to manage our need for completion.”
As a scholar and parent, Leroy applies her research at home with her children. “I used to joke that one day I would give them the wrong computer or lunch,” she says. “I was experiencing attention residue about work and becoming more prone to making mistakes.” She adjusted her routine. Before focusing on her children, she plans her workday, writes her to-do list and reviews her top goals. “And then I would focus on our home routine,” she says. “I did this to give my brain what it needed to let go of work and be more present.”
Leroy also emphasizes giving children space and time to finish tasks. Whether completing a homework assignment or reading a chapter, the practice builds focus and follow-through—skills that will serve them in adulthood.
People struggle with switching between tasks because they fear what they may leave behind. Writing things down helps the brain let go and return more easily.
Activities that train the mind to focus and let unrelated thoughts go can help us manage our attention. Meditation and mindfulness help train the mind to let go of unresolved thoughts or tasks. Likewise, activities that bring people into a zone, like musicians when they’re playing, condition brains to be present. “They focus completely on the art, and that is a very useful skill to practice,” Leroy says.
“A lot of us have lost that habit,” she says. “The brain is a muscle. The beauty of it is that we’re capable of training ourselves and our attention for longer stretches of time. We also have to reassure ourselves—in an interconnected world that demands our attention all the time—that if we don’t respond right away, it’s not the end of the world. It is OK to take care of our attention first so that we can engage with the world more fully and with more intentionality.”