The Multitasking Lie: Why Doing More at Once Gets Less Done

Right now, as I record this, I've got a laptop open and two other screens running, all going at the same time. I teach focus for a living. And this week, I am the problem I'm about to warn you about.

Welcome to The Real Jason Duncan Podcast. Today's episode is a Wednesday Special Edition. Every week I write a newsletter called What's Real? where I expose the lies most people believe and reveal the truths they were never taught. And every Wednesday, I bring that week's edition to you in audio, right here. Because the most dangerous lies don't look like lies. They look like golden cages. They look like success. The most successful people are the most deceived, because the lies that trap them look like achievements. That's what this whole show is about. On Mondays I sit down with somebody who believed one of those lies and discovered the truth the hard way. Wednesdays, like today, I bring you the Wednesday Special Edition. Either way, the mission is the same. Go to therealjasonduncan.com/articles and subscribe for free to get the What's Real? newsletter delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning before this episode drops. That's therealjasonduncan.com/articles - link is in the show notes. This week's post is called "The Multitasking Lie: Why Doing More at Once Gets Less Done."

So I need to confess something before I teach you anything.

Right now, as I write the article this episode is based on, my laptop is open with Claude Code running on a few different projects. Over on my desktop, I've got two more AI tools going. And I have been jumping between all of them, all day long. If you looked over my shoulder, you'd think I was some kind of high-output machine.

I'm not. I'm doing all of it worse than I would do any single one of those things alone. And the worst part is, I know it. I teach focus for a living. And here I sit, breaking my own rules. Because these AI tools have made it so easy to run five things at once that it actually feels like leverage.

But here's the thing. The lie isn't that multitasking exists. Of course it exists. I'm doing it right now. The lie is that it works. Because running five things at once feels like you're getting more done. And the truth is the exact opposite.

Let me tell you what's really happening inside your head. Your brain cannot do two demanding things at the same time. It just can't. What it does instead is switch. Fast. Back and forth between them. And every single time it switches, it pays a little tax. A few seconds of reorienting. A little bit of what you were holding in your head, just gone. Do that a few times, and it feels productive. Do it all day, and you end up like I've been this week. Busy from morning to night, and not really sure what actually got finished.

So back in two thousand nine, some researchers at Stanford studied heavy multitaskers. And going in, they expected these people to be good at it. I mean, all that practice juggling information, that had to build some kind of skill, right? Wrong. It was the opposite. The heavy multitaskers were worse at filtering out distractions. Worse at holding things in memory. And worst of all, they were worse at the one thing you'd assume they'd have completely mastered. Switching between tasks. The people who switched constantly were the worst switchers in the room. One of the researchers had a line for it. He said they were "suckers for irrelevancy."

And it gets worse. Because the scattered thinking showed up even when they weren't multitasking. You sit a heavy multitasker down to do one single thing, and their brain still works worse than the person who never juggles. The habit had literally rewired them.

There's an old saying that nails this. "The man who chases two rabbits catches neither." And most entrepreneurs aren't just chasing two rabbits. They're tending a whole yard full of rabbit pens, with a little attention sprinkled across a dozen different things. And in the end? Almost nothing gets caught. That's me this week. Pens everywhere. Rabbits running loose.

Now let me be honest about the new wrinkle, because it's the reason I got sucked back in. These AI tools I use are genuinely incredible. They're real leverage. I'm not going to pretend I'd give them up, and I wouldn't tell you to either. But they've removed the last little bit of friction that used to force me to focus. It used to be that doing three things meant physically starting and stopping three things, and that effort kept me somewhat honest. Now I can spin up three parallel workstreams in about ten seconds. And the temptation to run all of them at once is enormous.

The tool is not the problem. The tool is a gift. The problem is the total absence of any boundary around how I use it.

And that right there is the golden cage. Because running five things at once feels like being a high-capacity operator. Like the AI is multiplying you. And that feeling? That's the gold. But the cage is that you're doing all of it worse, keeping less of it in your head, and slowly training your brain to crave the switching, until real, deep focus starts to feel unbearable. The gold is the lie. Busy is not the same as effective.

So let me tell you what I do when I catch myself living this lie. And what I'm recommitting to this week, right alongside you.

It's a system I built called the 10-Block Weekly Method. And it's stupidly simple. Five workdays. Two blocks a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Ten blocks total for the whole week. Each block gets one theme, and one purpose. Related work batched together. Writing with writing. Calls with calls. Admin with admin. Hard edges on both sides, so when the block ends, that focus ends, and the next one begins. And at least two or three blocks a week, you mark them Do Not Disturb. Notifications off. Door closed. One thing only.

The magic isn't in the blocks. It's in the permission it gives you to stop switching. Because when you're in that block, you're allowed to ignore everything else. Because everything else has its own block coming. That's what kills the rabbit problem. One rabbit at a time. Inside the fence you built for it.

Now, I'm usually good at this. But I have not got it mastered. And this week is proof. Some days I feel like I'm chasing fifty-three rabbits at once. But every time I drift back into the mess, this system is the thing that pulls me out. And it'll do the same for you. If you want it, I put the whole thing, including a template you can print out and use, at therealjasonduncan.com/ten-block. That's therealjasonduncan.com, slash, the number one zero, then the word block.

There's a proverb that fits this perfectly. Proverbs, chapter four, verse twenty-five. "Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you." Now, Solomon wasn't writing about laptops and AI tools. But he understood the human tendency to look everywhere at once. Eyes forward. Gaze straight ahead. One thing in front of you at a time. That's the same conclusion those researchers reached three thousand years later. And it's the thing I have to keep relearning.

So that's what's real this week. You're not getting more done by doing more at once. You're just doing all of it worse. Pick one rabbit. Chase it. Catch it.

And if you want to talk through where your focus is actually leaking, and what it's quietly costing your business, head over to therealjasonduncan.com/talk and book a call with me directly. That link's in the show notes too.

I'll talk to you next Wednesday.

The gold is the lie. As always, I am your host, The Real Jason Duncan, and Jesus is King.

EPISODE TITLE: The Multitasking Lie: Why Doing More Gets Less Done

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:

Multitasking feels like productivity, especially now that AI tools make it easy to run five things at once. In this Wednesday Special Edition, Jason confesses that he still falls for it, then breaks down exactly why it doesn't work.

He walks through the Stanford research proving that heavy multitaskers are actually the worst at multitasking, and that the damage follows them even when they finally sit down to focus on one thing. He gets honest about how AI has removed the last bit of friction that used to force him to concentrate, and he hands you the simple system he built to climb back out: the 10-Block Weekly Method.

If you read this on your phone with three other apps open, this episode is talking to you.

Grab the free 10-Block template at therealjasonduncan.com/10block. Want to talk through where your focus is leaking? Book a call at therealjasonduncan.com/talk.

New episodes every Wednesday.