Is multitasking holding you back?

Think you're good at multitasking? Think again.  

Every day, leaders jump between emails, performance reviews, strategy meetings, budgets and external relation issues. It feels productive, but each mental shift comes with a hidden cost.

Researchers call it the "Switch Tax": a drop in performance that occurs when people move between different types of work. In extreme cases, workers may switch between applications and tasks more than 1,200 times a day, and every transition can reduce focus, accuracy and decision quality.

As Haskayne researcher Dr. Yiwen Jin, PhD explains, “A manager shifting from one financial report to another incurs a small tax. But shifting from a budget spreadsheet (analytical mode) to a sensitive personnel conversation (empathetic mode) costs considerably more.”

In a groundbreaking study, Jin and his colleagues analyzed 13 years of data from more than 300,000 organ transplant surgeries performed by 982 surgeons. They compared outcomes when surgeons performed similar back-to-back operations versus when the same surgeon performed two different types of organ transplants in a row.

The results were clear.  

Patients were 14.8% more likely to die within a year when the type of transplant was different than the surgeon’s previous operation compared with the average mortality rate. The cost of such switching erases much of the advantage gained through years of expertise, even for the most experienced surgeons.    

If task switching can erode the effectiveness of highly-trained surgeons, imagine the toll it is taking on performance and decision-making in your organization. 

Three ways to mitigate the switch tax

1. Multitasking is a performance risk, not a productivity strategy
Frequent context changes drain focus and slow us down, reducing accuracy, decision quality and performance. Experience helps, but even top performers aren’t immune to the burden of constantly shifting mental gears.  

“To mitigate the Switch Tax,” Jin suggests, “Consciously maintain mental transition time between tasks, and structure schedules to reduce unnecessary switching. Giving experts longer stretches of focused time can generate measurable performance gains.”

2. Cross-training provides mental protection 
The study showed surgeons with more balanced expertise in both liver and kidney transplants paid a much smaller Switch Tax than those who focused primarily on a single specialty.

“In many organizations,” says Jin, “specialization is seen as the path to efficiency, but generalist employees with broader experience develop more flexible mental frameworks, making them more resilient in dynamic work environments.” 

3. AI can make things better ... and worse  
AI tools can automate low-level routines so humans to handle more complex problems. But those mundane tasks serve as a buffer for people switching between periods of more cognitively demanding work. Without that built-in interlude, the risk of failure spikes.  

On the other hand, knowing the causes and costs of the Switch Tax, organizations can lean on AI for more effective algorithmic scheduling. Instead of asking AI to optimize the time in your calendar, ask it to optimize performance by batching similar tasks together, with mental recovery time also taken into account.

Jin also recommends using AI to generate a brief summary of the task you’re working on before moving on to the next, saying “it can help you mentally prepare for the switch and act as a low-cost mental stretching routine.”  

For leaders, the takeaway is clear: improving performance isn't always about working faster. Sometimes it's about designing work that allows our human brains to focus on one thing at a time.