Would you smoke weed in a video meeting? Multitasking causes the same cognitive drop. Here’s what to do about it

Among educated, modern workers, few habits are as ubiquitous as multitasking, the apparent process of handling more than one task or activity at the same time. I say “apparent,” because there’s compelling scientific evidence suggesting that multitasking is mostly about task switching, or jumping back and forth between different activities or areas of attentional focus. 

So, while we may “feel” that we are being productive by doing many things at once, we are mostly dividing our finite attentional resources between different task, spreading ourselves too thin intellectually. 

As I illustrate in my latest book, the economic costs of this are monumental. Around 60% to 75% of workers report to being distracted at work, which, in the U.S. alone, amounts to around a $650 billion in lost productivity (15 times higher than the cost of turnover, absenteeism, and wellness).

Research shows that even brief mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40% of someone’s productive time, the equivalent of dropping 10 IQ points from our cognitive performance—about as debilitating as smoking weed, minus the subjective experience of feeling more creative (often, unmatched by objective achievements). 

Multitasking is particularly prevalent during videoconference meetings (e.g., Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, etc.), which explains why many people prefer to be off camera, and why many workers are excited by the ability to send their avatars to attend meetings on their behalf, having AI not just record, transcribe, and summarize the meetings, but also participate as if they were there. 

Perhaps the future of videoconferences will have every employee sending their AI or virtual avatar to attend on their behalf, speaking to other AI assistants, while we find alternative activities that captivate our full attention—not watching YouTube, Netflix, or TikTok videos, but something that actually adds value to our employer?

In the meantime, here are a few considerations about the perils of multitasking, especially during conference calls:

People report lower knowledge and information retention after multitasking in calls.
Multitasking during calls can induce stress and Zoom fatigue.
Up to 80% of workers admit to multitasking or zoning out while on video calls (the real number is probably higher, since negative habits are usually underreported).
Morning meetings are more likely to elicit multitasking than afternoon meetings—presumably because people have more energy to tackle their actual to-do list, which they prioritize over meetings.
Other people will be able to tell whether you are multitasking just the way you can (unless they are too busy multitasking). 
Organizations typically spend between 7% and 15% of their budget on meetings, with a poor return on this investment. Although there is an art and science to running effective meetings, it is more likely the exception than the norm in real-world organizations.
Shorter, smaller, infrequent, later, in-person, action-oriented meetings are more likely to prevent multitasking than the reverse.
If you have nothing to say, if there are no actions, if there are too many people, and if you have nothing to learn, you may as well skip the meeting rather than multitask, as you shouldn’t have been at the meeting in the first place. Assume that if a meeting takes place and the majority of people attending don’t realize whether you were there at all, then you shouldn’t have attended in the first place.
If your reason to attend the meeting is to pretend that you care, or engage in the performative aspects of job performance that pertain “productivity theater,” then you may as well make an effort to pretend to care about the meetings, which would involve not multitasking.
Failure to measure output, and an obsession over quantifying and monitoring input, contributes to meeting overload, which in turn contributes to multitasking during meetings. 

To build a culture of engagement and productivity, leaders must reassess their approach to meetings and task management. It’s imperative to foster an environment where deep work is valued over the illusion of busyness.

Solutions include:

Restructuring meetings to ensure they are necessary, goal-oriented, and inclusive only to those directly involved
Encouraging breaks between tasks to reduce cognitive load and provide training on effective workload management
Leveraging technology to automate routine tasks, freeing up human intellect for complex problem-solving

Personal responsibility plays a vital role. Professionals must cultivate the discipline to focus and the courage to communicate when a meeting is redundant.