Can't Seem To Get Anything Done? You Need To Try The 90-Minute Rule

<div><img src="https://img.huffingtonpost.com/asset/69120998150000d7439c2bd3.jpg?ops=scalefit_630_noupscale" alt="" data-caption="" data-credit-link-back="" data-credit="Nitat Termmee via Getty Images" /></div><div class="content-list-component text"><p>Between checking emails, responding to Slack messages, flitting between 20 different tabs (spreadsheets, Google docs, you name it) and occasionally being distracted by notifications flashing up on my phone; it’s perhaps no wonder I get to the end of each day thinking: <em>what did I actually achieve?</em></p><p>And chances are I’m not alone. We’re in the age of extreme multitasking, trying to get a billion things done at any given time, but there’s one slight hiccup in that our <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7075496/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brains are actually incapable of completing more than one task at a time.</a></p><p>And when the brain does have to switch between different tasks, it can cause something called a switch cost or switch tax, which the <a href="https://neuroleadership.com/your-brain-at-work/the-myth-of-multitasking" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NeuroLeadership Institute</a> describes as “a delay that happens when the brain stores information related to an abandoned task and redirects its attention to a new one”.</p><p>Understandably, all this multitasking – which our brain can’t handle – isn’t good for us. <a href="https://www.brownhealth.org/be-well/multitasking-and-how-it-affects-your-brain-health#:~:text=What%20our%20brains%20are%20doing,when%20we%20are%20not%20multitasking." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brown University Health</a> said it can temporarily increase stress lev