Do the following sound familiar?

• Dad, I can follow the lesson video on my computer while playing on my phone.
• I am listening to you, honey! I just need to send this email.
• Yes, I totally agree! But could you repeat what you said one more time, please?

Yes, these are common aspects of our daily conversations. Many go through life assuming they are “intelligent” enough to juggle multiple tasks at once, while others constantly race against time, trying to complete as many chores as possible—almost as if there were an ultimate finish line. “Multitasking” has unfortunately become so widespread despite all the scientific evidence that the human brain is not wired to handle multiple tasks simultaneously. A cursory search on the Internet would present the unequivocal conclusion that what we do in these instances is not actually “multitasking,” but rather “task-switching.” As with any situation where we act against our innate nature—designed with purpose—dysfunctions arise, setting off a chain reaction that affects many aspects of life.

What happened to the age-old advice that parents should spend “quality time” with their children, giving them their full attention? Has the importance of establishing and maintaining eye contact in a conversation diminished? Have we come to cherish being constantly chased by time, burdened with endless tasks imposed on us, rather than taking control and steering it toward the goals we truly value? These are just a few of the many questions we, as human beings, need to ask ourselves to reset our lifestyles, striving to have meaningful, peaceful lives worthy of living with admirable outcomes.

What happens if we don’t rectify our lifestyles? How much does “multitasking” chip away from our personal, social, and professional lives? Let’s start with our personal lives. If we strive to do things the right way by giving them the time and attention they deserve, then “multitasking” becomes a source of stress, as we constantly struggle to keep up with multiple tasks at once without overlooking anything. This very reason is also highly likely to generate anxiety since we worry whether we are doing things correctly and completing them as expected. Finally, if we spend most of our time juggling small tasks that require different types of activities and lead to diverse outcomes, we end up undermining our ability to focus on a single, more comprehensive task—one that demands a much longer period of concentration than needed for our “multi tasks.” It is well known that stress, anxiety, and low concentration trigger a chain reaction of physical conditions, including elevated blood pressure and increased heart rate, and contribute to a long list of illnesses.

Let’s continue with our social lives. Here is a common scene in today’s families, the innermost circle of social life. Family members sit together in the same living room, each absorbed in their phones, scrolling through social media posts that have no relevance to their own family. Everyone is immersed in their own “alternative world,” disconnected from real life, spending all their time ensuring they don’t miss a single detail of others’ lives. Meanwhile, they may overlook a child's genuine need for attention and care from their parents. The entire interaction consists of a few brief moments of superficial communication that lead nowhere. Each person is left to experience their own joys and sorrows alone, making their own decisions without support. Over time, this erodes the bonds of love and respect within the family. Doesn’t this resemble a chain reaction, like the one that leads to an atom bomb exploding within the family?

Now, let’s turn to the outer circle of social life: friends. When gathered together, only a couple of friends actually listen to the one speaking, while the rest are absorbed in their phones. Then, they switch roles—the ones who were distracted start talking, while the others retreat into their screens. A series of fragmented conversations unfold, each failing to reach a conclusion and, as a result, depriving us of the cognitive joy that comes from a sense of wholeness or completeness. In other words, it becomes a hodgepodge of collective monologues, where no one is truly trying to understand one another. Instead, they speak just for the sake of talking, mistaking this for “socializing with good friends.” No one is giving the attention needed to fully understand a topic of conversation and everything spoken is forgotten the minute goodbyes are said. Once again, love, respect, and care among these so-called “true friends” begin to fade, weakening the bonds essential for building and sustaining a close-knit circle of friendship.

One might assume that professional life is the one domain where multitasking proves valuable. After all, productivity and task completion are what matter most in the workplace. Surely, multitasking would support these goals, right? Unfortunately, that is not the case. On the contrary, in addition to its three common effects in personal life—stress, anxiety, and low concentration—multitasking triggers chain reactions that can significantly harm the workplace climate and productivity. Let’s begin with the most commonly expected “benefit” of “multitasking”: productivity. A quick internet search reveals studies showing that when employees are unable to focus on a single task for ten minutes, twenty minutes, or thirty minutes because they have to answer phone calls or attend to clients at the same time, companies suffer significant losses in productivity.

A more subtle consequence in the workplace arises when an employee, overwhelmed by the pressure to multitask, abandons their quality standards and “takes the liberty of” making abundant mistakes. In most office environments, these mistakes do not go unnoticed by colleagues. They eventually have to be corrected by these colleagues, creating extra workload for them. When this pattern persists, it inevitably creates tension among colleagues and disrupts an otherwise warm and cooperative work environment. One does not need to be a fortuneteller to predict what kind of a domino effect such tension would have on the harmonious functioning of such a workplace.

To conclude, after reflecting on the so-called virtues of multitasking, the choice is yours—struggle with constant fragmentation or find peace of mind by focusing on one task at a time.