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This Is Your Brain On Multitasking (and What You Can Do About It)

Ellen Goodwin
3 min readApr 30, 2021

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The secret to getting things done lies in treating your brain like a house

Think about what a regular day looks like for you and how many things are constantly fighting for your attention. Whether it’s your phone, your family, the current news, social media, your co-workers, or another Zoom meeting, the battle for your attention is genuine and never-ending.

Often, it might feel like the best answer is to do as many things at once as you can: make breakfast while watching the news and talking to your kids about what is happening at school, all while you are mentally planning your day. But none of this even remotely resembles focus. Because it is not.

You are multitasking.


When you flip back and forth between two (or more) activities handled by two different regions of your brain, you are multitasking.

Think of a time when you were reading something on your computer, and someone called you on the phone. You started listening and responding, but you also kept reading.

After a few minutes, you realized you had no idea of what was being said or what you…

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Ellen Goodwin
Ellen Goodwin

Written by Ellen Goodwin

Productivity Consultant, TEDx Speaker, Podcast Co-host, Author of DONE: How To Work When No One Is Watching. Learn more at Ellen@EllenGoodwin.com

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