Effects of Multi-Tasking on Productivity

This graph hits hard: the more tasks you juggle, the less time you actually spend on any of them. Once you start adding more than two things to your to-do list at once, productivity drops fast.

Marketing Analysis

In marketing, multitasking looks like managing five campaigns, seven social channels, and writing three emails... all at once. Each context switch burns precious focus time. The graph shows it clearly — doing one or two things well beats trying to do everything poorly.

Why It Works

• Focused work compounds — switching breaks that compounding effect
• Every task change comes with a setup cost (mental reload time)
• The brain’s attention bandwidth is limited
• Simplicity sells: clear priorities drive clearer messages

Examples

• Apple focuses on a few flagship products — and dominates margins
• Basecamp runs one core app — and writes bestselling books on focus
• Warren Buffett says “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.”