Mark: A recent study found the average office worker switches between different apps and windows 566 times a day. Michelle: Whoa. That can't be right. That’s more than once a minute for an eight-hour day. Mark: It’s true. And at just a few seconds of lost focus per switch, that's not just a distraction—it's a massive, hidden tax on your attention that costs companies millions in lost productivity. And it's a tax we all pay, every single day, without even realizing it. Michelle: A hidden tax. I like that. It feels exactly right. You don't see the money leaving your account, but you're definitely poorer for it at the end of the day. Mark: That hidden tax is exactly what we're dissecting today through Dave Crenshaw's classic book, The Myth of Multitasking: How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done. Michelle: I love this one. And what's fascinating about Crenshaw is that he didn't just cook this up in a lab as some productivity guru. He was diagnosed with what he calls "off-the-charts" ADHD, so this entire system was born from his own personal, high-stakes battle for focus. Mark: Exactly. He had to build the tools to save his own career, and that's what makes the book so practical and resonant. It’s not just theory; it’s a survival guide written from the trenches.

Michelle: And he starts the book by painting a picture of those trenches. The fictional company, GreenGarb, feels so real. It's successful on paper, but the office is pure chaos. Phones ringing, people rushing, the CEO is drowning. It feels like every startup I've ever read about. Mark: It's a state of what he calls "productive chaos," which is a perfect description. Everyone is busy, but nothing important is getting done on time. The CEO, Helen, brings in a consultant, Phil, to fix it. And Helen, like most of us, proudly declares that her greatest skill is multitasking. Michelle: Of course she does. It's a badge of honor in corporate culture, right? "I can juggle a million things at once." It's practically a required skill on job descriptions. Mark: And Phil, the consultant, looks at her and essentially says, "That's your whole problem." He argues that multitasking is a lie. To prove it, he runs this brilliant, simple exercise that anyone can do. First, he asks Helen to take a piece of paper and write the sentence: "Multitasking is worse than a lie." Michelle: Okay, a bit on the nose, but I'm with you. Mark: After she writes the sentence, he has her write the numbers 1 through 27 right below it. She does the whole thing in about 34 seconds. Simple, focused work. Michelle: Right. One task, then the next. Easy. Mark: Then comes the twist. He gives her a fresh sheet of paper and says, "Now, I want you to do the exact same thing, but you have to alternate. Write the first letter, 'M,' then the first number, '1.' Then the second letter, 'U,' then the second number, '2.' And so on." Michelle: Oh, no. That sounds agonizing. My brain hurts just thinking about it. You'd have to constantly stop, remember which letter you were on, then remember which number, then switch back... it sounds like a recipe for a headache. Mark: It's a recipe for disaster. It takes her 80 seconds—more than double the time. And when she's done, the handwriting is a mess, and she's made several errors. Phil just looks at her and says, "That's the cost of switching." Michelle: Wow. That’s such a powerful way to make a point. You don't just tell her, you make her feel the inefficiency. Mark: That's the core of the book. What we call multitasking is a fiction. The brain can't do two cognitively demanding things at once. What we're actually doing is what Crenshaw calls "switchtasking." And every single switch, no matter how small, incurs a cost. A little tax on your time and your mental energy. Michelle: But wait, isn't this a bit of an artificial test? My job, and most people's jobs today, require me to jump between Slack, email, and a Google Doc. I don't have a choice. It's not like I'm choosing to write letters and numbers in the most difficult way possible. Mark: That's a fair challenge, and Crenshaw addresses it. He says the world absolutely forces this on us. The point of the exercise isn't to say "never switch tasks." The point is to make us feel the cost that we've been ignoring. It's about making that invisible tax visible. Because once you see it, you can start asking, "How can I design my day to pay this tax as little as possible?" Michelle: Okay, I get that. It’s about awareness. You can't solve a problem you don't know you have. And we've all been conditioned to think of this constant switching as a strength, not a weakness. Mark: Precisely. And that weakness doesn't just show up on a timesheet. The book argues it shows up in a much more damaging place: our relationships.

Michelle: Right, the productivity cost is clear. It's inefficient, it's sloppy. But the book takes this a step further, and this is the part that really hit me. The real damage isn't just about time and errors. Mark: Exactly. The deeper cost is human. Crenshaw, through Phil, tells this gut-punch of a story about an intern at the company named Jason. Jason is young, enthusiastic, and he's finally finished a project he's incredibly proud of. He goes over to his supervisor, Tracy, practically bouncing with excitement. Michelle: I can picture it. He's looking for that validation, that "great job" moment. Mark: He is. And he starts explaining his work, but Tracy is staring at her computer screen, typing an email. She's nodding along, saying "uh-huh, uh-huh," but she never makes eye contact. Her focus is clearly split. Then, her phone buzzes. Without a word to Jason, she picks it up and walks away, leaving him standing there mid-sentence. Michelle: Ugh, that is just brutal. And so painfully common. Giving someone that partial, distracted attention is almost worse than giving them no attention at all. It's a complete dismissal. Mark: The book describes Jason's reaction perfectly. His shoulders slump. The excitement drains from his face. He just turns and walks back to his desk, completely dejected. Michelle: I think we've all been on both sides of that interaction. We've all been Jason, feeling invisible. And if we're honest, we've all been Tracy, thinking we could handle a "quick question" while finishing an email, and failing miserably at both. Mark: And that's Crenshaw's profound point. When you switchtask on a thing, like a report, you lose efficiency. But when you switchtask on a person, you lose trust. You are sending them a clear, non-verbal message: "You are not as important as this email. You are not worthy of my full attention." Michelle: It's not just inefficient; it's a form of disrespect. It erodes relationships. You see it at work, you see it with friends who are scrolling through their phone while you're talking, you see it at the family dinner table. Mark: It's everywhere. The book argues that this is the true, hidden catastrophe of the multitasking myth. We think we're being hyper-productive, but we're actually making the people around us feel devalued and disconnected. And that creates a toxic culture, whether it's in an office or a home. Michelle: So the problem is much bigger than just personal productivity. It's a cultural issue. Which means the solution has to be cultural, too. It can't just be about one person trying harder to focus. Mark: You've nailed it. And that's where the book pivots from diagnosis to prescription. It's not about willpower. It's about systems.

Mark: So we've established it's inefficient and it's disrespectful. The big question the book then tackles is, what do we do about it? And the answer is surprisingly systemic, not just about personal discipline. Michelle: Which is a relief, because my personal discipline can be… variable. Mark: (laughs) Haven't we all been there. Phil, the consultant, observes why people are constantly interrupting Helen. It's not because they're rude or disorganized. He notices they hesitate before leaving her office, trying to rack their brains for anything else they might need to ask. Michelle: Oh, I know that feeling. It's like, "I finally have her attention, I better get everything in now because I don't know when I'll get another chance." Mark: Exactly! The root cause of the interruptions is uncertainty. Employees interrupt because they live in a state of anxiety, never knowing when they'll have a reliable moment to connect with their manager. So they seize any opportunity they can, creating a culture of constant, reactive interruptions. Michelle: And the solution, paradoxically, is more meetings, right? Which sounds like every employee's nightmare. Mark: It does, but it's a clever reframe. Not more meetings, but predictable ones. Phil suggests Helen schedule a daily, 15-minute, standing huddle with Sally, her most frequent interrupter. Same time, every day. No exceptions. Michelle: So Sally knows that at 10 a.m. tomorrow, she has a guaranteed slot with Helen. Mark: Yes. And that knowledge changes everything. By creating a reliable 'when,' you remove Sally's anxiety. She no longer needs to interrupt for every little thing because she knows she has a dedicated time to batch her questions. The interruptions plummet. Michelle: That's brilliant. You're not just treating the symptom, which is the interruption. You're curing the disease, which is the uncertainty. Mark: It's a systemic fix. The book also talks about creating "shop hours." Just like a retail store has opening and closing times, you can set clear hours for when you're available for interruptions. Maybe from 2 to 4 p.m., your door is open. Outside of that, it's for emergencies only. It gives a clear expectation to everyone. Michelle: And it empowers you to protect your own focus time. You're not being rude by saying "not now," because you've already provided a clear "when." You're just asking people to respect the system that's designed to help everyone. Mark: It all comes down to replacing a culture of chaotic reactivity with a culture of predictable structure. You build systems that make focus the default, not a constant, exhausting battle.

Michelle: So this whole book, which on the surface seems like a simple time-management guide, is actually a blueprint for building a culture of focus and respect. Mark: That's the perfect way to put it. It’s a journey. It starts with a personal revelation—recognizing the lie of multitasking for what it is. Michelle: Then it moves to an emotional understanding of its human cost—how it damages the connections with the people we care about. Mark: And finally, it lands on a practical, systemic solution: building systems of certainty to protect everyone's attention. It’s not about trying harder; it’s about designing a smarter environment. Michelle: It’s interesting how the book’s reception has been so varied. Some readers find it almost too simple, while others call it life-changing. I think that's because the core idea is simple, but living it out is incredibly hard in our modern world. Mark: I agree. And the most powerful first step Crenshaw suggests is just to observe. For one hour of your workday, just notice every time you switch tasks. Don't judge it, don't try to fix it. Just count. Make that invisible tax visible to yourself. That awareness is the start of everything. Michelle: I'm going to try that this afternoon, though I'm a little scared of what the final number will be. We'd love to hear your own multitasking horror stories or focus wins. Find us on our socials and share. What's the one interruption that drives you the most crazy? Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.