Is multitasking bad for your brain? What research shows

Your brain mostly doesn’t multitask: it switches, and each switch has a cost. Here’s what the research says about focus, memory and the rare people who are good at it.

By the Daily Recall team · Updated October 3, 2026 · 8 sources

Answering email during a meeting, scrolling while watching TV, texting at a red light: multitasking feels efficient. Research says it usually isn’t. For anything that needs real attention, the brain doesn’t run tasks in parallel. It switches between them, and every switch has a price.

What really happens: task switching

In a classic 2001 study, Joshua Rubinstein, David Meyer and David Evans had people switch between different kinds of tasks and measured the cost. Every switch took extra time, and the cost grew with the complexity of the tasks. Your brain has to drop one set of rules, load another, and refocus, a bit like closing one app and opening another.

The bottleneck is working memory, the small mental workspace where you hold what you’re dealing with right now. It can only hold a few things at once, so juggling two demanding tasks means constantly swapping their contents in and out.

Attention residue

Business-school researcher Sophie Leroy coined the term attention residue: when you switch tasks, part of your mind stays on the last one. If you check a stressful email and go back to a report, some of your attention is still on the email. The more unfinished the first task, the stickier the residue.

Are heavy multitaskers worse at focusing?

In a well-known 2009 Stanford study, Eyal Ophir, Clifford Nass and Anthony Wagner compared heavy and light media multitaskers. The heavy multitaskers were more distracted by irrelevant information and slower at switching tasks, the opposite of what you’d expect if practice made them better.

The picture has become more nuanced since. Several replication attempts found weaker or inconsistent effects, and a 2017 meta-analysis found the link shrank after correcting for publication bias. In a 2018 review, Wagner himself said the data don’t unambiguously show that media multitasking causes worse attention and memory.

Multitasking and memory

A 2020 study in Nature by Kevin Madore, Anthony Wagner and colleagues measured attention lapses using brain waves and pupil size. When people’s attention lapsed just before they tried to learn or recall something, they were more likely to forget it. And heavier media multitaskers were more prone to those lapses. The takeaway: whatever the cause, divided attention at the moment of learning means weaker memories. It’s one reason students who study with their phones nearby remember less.

Supertaskers: the 2.5%

In a 2010 study, Jason Watson and David Strayer had 200 people drive a simulator while doing a demanding phone task involving memory and math. For most people, braking was 20% slower, following distance grew 30%, and memory dropped 11%. Only 2.5%, about 1 in 40, showed no drop at all. Most people who believe they’re great multitaskers are in the other 97.5%.

Phones and driving

In a 2006 simulator study by Strayer’s team, drivers talking on a phone were as impaired as drivers at the legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08%. They braked more slowly, and had three rear-end collisions where the drunk drivers had none. Hands-free phones were just as distracting as handheld ones, because the problem is divided attention, not your hands. Don’t use your phone while driving.

How to multitask less

Batch similar tasks, such as answering all your messages at set times instead of as they arrive.
Close the loop before switching: finish a task or write down exactly where you left off. That reduces attention residue.
Remove the temptation: notifications off, phone in another room. See attention span.
Pair tasks wisely: one automatic task (walking, folding laundry) plus one thinking task is fine. Two thinking tasks isn’t.

Try it yourself

This quick word test needs your full attention: is each word new, or one you’ve already seen? Try it once focused, then again while half-watching something else, and compare.

The daily Words game is the full version, and a nice short practice in giving one thing your complete attention.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

Can the human brain multitask?

For simple, automatic tasks, like walking while talking, yes. For tasks that need attention, the brain mostly switches rapidly between them, and each switch costs time and accuracy.

Is multitasking bad for your brain?

There’s no good evidence it causes lasting damage. But it reliably makes performance worse in the moment, and heavy media multitaskers tend to have more attention lapses, which are linked to forgetting.

What are supertaskers?

People who can do two demanding tasks at once with no drop in performance. In a 2010 driving-simulator study, only about 2.5% of people, roughly 1 in 40, qualified.

Is talking on the phone while driving as bad as drunk driving?

In a 2006 simulator study, drivers on a phone were as impaired as drivers at the legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08%, and hands-free phones were just as distracting as handheld ones.

What is attention residue?

A term coined by researcher Sophie Leroy: when you switch tasks, part of your attention stays stuck on the previous one, which makes you worse at the new one.

Keep reading

Average attention span→What is working memory? How it works and how to test yours→What causes brain fog? Common causes and how to clear it→