Multitasking in meetings: the myth that destroys your focus

If in your last meeting you wrote an email while "listening," you weren't multitasking: you were doing high-frequency task switching. The distinction matters because the cost compounds.

The evidence

• Stanford (Nass, 2009): chronic multitaskers are worse at filtering irrelevant information than non-multitaskers.
• APA (Rubinstein, 2001): switching tasks reduces productivity by up to 40%.
• MIT (Miller, 2018): when you think you're doing two things, you're actually alternating, and each time reloading the context.

In meetings, this translates to missing critical transitions: the moment someone shifts topics, the subtle objection, the question that opens a decision.

The vicious cycle

1. The meeting bores you or you add no value.
2. You open Slack in another tab.
3. You miss the part where you got assigned something.
4. You ask afterwards for it to be repeated.
5. Your colleagues stop inviting you to the ones that matter.

What changes with recording

When you know the conversation is being recorded and summarized automatically, you can afford to pay full attention. If your mind drifts, you know the system doesn't. If you need a specific decision, you can ask the chat afterwards.

It's counterintuitive, but the net effect is that you're more present, not less.

A simple rule

If you're in a meeting where you can't close Slack, you shouldn't be in that meeting. If you have to be, record and delegate the notes. What isn't an option is the "half-present" version. That one always costs the most.