GUEST POST BY Wendy Jenkins OAM, READY RESILIENCE
Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in-the-moment solutions and long-lasting results. Learn actionable tips you can apply right away in Ready Resilience Founder Wendy Jenkins’ articles, written exclusively for the TEMi community.
The Neuroscience of Modern Work: The Myth of Multitasking
This year, Wendy Jenkins OAM, Founder of Ready Resilience, will focus her insightful TEMI monthly articles on ‘The Neuroscience of Modern Work’, offering science-based insights and tips you can apply right away.
Why Constant Context Switching Feels So Exhausting
Many people move through the workday feeling busy but strangely unproductive.
A task is started, then paused for a message. A meeting interrupts focused work. An email triggers another priority. Attention shifts between conversations, platforms, decisions, and competing demands.
By the end of the day, there may be little tangible progress, yet significant mental fatigue.
This is partly because the brain does not switch attention as smoothly as modern work often expects it to.
Although many people describe themselves as strong multitaskers, the brain is not designed to consciously focus on multiple complex tasks at the same time. What most people experience as multitasking is actually rapid task switching. Attention moves quickly from one demand to another, repeatedly stopping and restarting cognitive processes.
The next time someone proudly claims to be an excellent multitasker, it may be more accurate to describe them as an efficient multiswitcher. Efficient multiswitchers may move quickly between tasks, but the brain still pays a cognitive price each time attention is redirected. Focus rarely resets as fast as people think it does.
Each switch requires the brain to reorient. It needs to recall information, adjust priorities, and rebuild focus around a different cognitive frame. Even brief interruptions create a neurological cost.
The prefrontal cortex, responsible for attention, planning, and decision making, works best when it can maintain sustained focus. Frequent switching increases cognitive load because the brain is repeatedly resetting and redirecting attention.
Importantly, this is not simply about lost time. It is also about depleted mental energy.
Context switching fragments attention. Part of the brain often remains attached to the previous task while trying to engage with the next one. This can create the feeling of being mentally scattered or cognitively full by the end of the day.
Modern workplaces unintentionally amplify this strain through constant notifications, overlapping priorities, back-to-back meetings, and expectations of immediate responsiveness.
Small adjustments can help reduce the load. Protecting short periods of uninterrupted focus, batching similar tasks together, and reducing unnecessary notifications all support deeper cognitive engagement. Even brief pauses between activities can help the brain reset more effectively.
The brain performs best when attention has enough stability to fully engage. Constant switching may feel productive in the moment, but sustained focus is often what allows clearer thinking, better decisions, and more meaningful progress.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Wendy Jenkins is the founder of Ready Resilience, Co-Founder of the Lungitude Foundation, certified Neuroplastician, Speaker and Lung Transplant Survivor. Ready Resilience helps organisations thrive during times of change and challenge, using practical neuroscience-based resilience tools that have been proven to offer in the-moment solutions and long-lasting results.
Having been told she had two years to live over eighteen years ago, Wendy is passionate about empowering people to transform their perspective on life’s challenges through dynamic masterclasses, workshops, and certified resilience training. To learn how Wendy can support and inspire you at your next conference, leadership event, or personal development session, please email we***@*************ce.com or visit www.readyresilience.com.
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