Let’s stop the madness. Let’s stop thinking of multitasking as some kind of badge of honour. It’s not. We’re conditioned to believe that the more we do at once, the harder the worker we are, the farther we’ll get ahead, the more time we’ll have at the end of the day. In reality, multitasking prevents us from realizing our full potential and getting the job done.

Multitasking spreads our energy and effort too thin, we mess up more often, and the work we do get done isn’t nearly as good as if we had focused on one thing. We waste more time having to do things over because we messed up the first time.

So let’s stop this absurd notion that we need to constantly add to our already full plates. Stop wasting time and energy multitasking. This learned behaviour isn’t easy to unlearn. It took me months to learn how to let go. Here are my top tips for how I learned to stop multitasking

Learn how to say NO

How many times has your boss asked you to add just one more task to your workload when you already know you don’t have enough hours in your workday? Why do they keep asking you to do more? Well maybe it’s because you don’t say no! By explaining what’s on your plate already, and respectfully saying no to their request, you let your boss know to stop piling on the work. What happens if they insist? Well, go through your workload together and see what can be offloaded or reprioritized.

Prioritize your tasks

Goal setting single handedly changed my life personally as well as professionally. Setting long term and short term goals helps you decide which of your tasks to prioritize and which can wait. It also helps you decide which tasks to say no to because they don’t serve your goals.

Start with your biggest project

We all know that feeling when we finish a big task. The task you want to put off, that makes you sick just thinking about it. But it’s also what’s most important for you to complete. We often start multitasking because we don’t want to touch that big task, so we fill the time with things that aren’t as important. Well, stop that! It’s not going away. Start your workday by tackling your biggest, most dreaded tasks first. Get it out of the way. Finish it and look forward to tasks that bring you more joy. Remember how good it feels to finish that dreaded task? Well, make that feeling last longer by finishing it earlier.

Stop wasting time on emails

There are tasks that are important and need to get done ASAP, then there are tasks that can wait and really only serve the here and now. I call these the ultimate time wasters. These are things you’ll never get rid of, take up your valuable time, and don’t make an impact on the bigger picture. Checking your emails is the biggest time waster there is. How often do you check your emails because you’re putting off starting an important task? How much time do you spend replying to emails that don’t impact your day? Do you veer off track because you’re busy dealing with things people ask of you in an email? 90% of the time, these email time wasters are not essential to your workday.

If you think about it, you’re helping someone else get their work done, but you’re not getting your own work done. The solution here is probably the hardest one of the bunch. Don’t check your email until noon, and don’t check it more than twice a day. Anything more and you’re just filling your day with tasks that don’t serve your purpose.

It takes time to unlearn a bad habit. Stopping multitasking isn’t easy. The concept challenges what we’ve been taught to believe our entire work lives. But until you start to challenge these assumptions, and take conscious action over your own work day, you’ll be sacrificing your own success and productivity. So do yourself a favour and focus on completing one task at a time. Do one thing and do it well. That my friends is the key to productivity.