Stop Spinning Your Wheels - How to Break the Multitasking Habit
You know that moment when you look up at 4:37pm, you have 21 tabs open, everything's half-finished, and you have no idea what you actually accomplished today? That's multitasking—and it's probably the reason you feel so exhausted and unaccomplished at the end of the day.
In this episode, I'm breaking down seven secrets to stop multitasking so you can finally finish what you start and feel satisfied at the end of your day.
These lessons come straight from what I teach inside Chaos Detox—because sustainable productivity starts with mind management before time management.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How multitasking is destroying your productivity and attention span
Why checking email first thing derails your entire day
The night-before habit that eliminates morning chaos (00:06:10)
How batching similar tasks reduces decision fatigue and mental switching (00:08:05)
Why you need dedicated learning time instead of scattered content grazing (00:10:44)
What a hard stop does for your focus and nervous system (00:12:08)
Why your schedule needs regular reevaluation—and how often to do it (00:14:25)
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CLICK HERE → 7 Secrets to Stop Multitasking
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Full Episode Transcript
(37) Stop Spinning Your Wheels: How to Break the Multitasking Habit
[00:00:00] You know that moment when you look up at 4:37 PM you have 21 tabs open, everything's half finished, and you have no idea what you actually accomplished today. That's multitasking, and it's probably the reason you feel so exhausted and unaccomplished. At the end of the day, welcome to Ditch the Chaos. I'm Cara Chace, and this is your space to figure out how to run your life and business without running yourself into the ground.
[00:00:26] Today I'm giving you seven secrets to stop multitasking so you can stop having 15 unfinished tasks at the end of your day.
[00:00:35] Let me paint you a picture, and I know you've lived this one. You sit down to work maybe on one of your more ambitious days, you even wrote your to-do list the night before you start easing into your day with a quick email scan while that first cup of coffee hits.
[00:00:50] Or maybe you're a third cup if you're like me, and before you know it, you're halfway through your inbox knee deep in some random blog posts. Someone linked in a newsletter, [00:01:00] responding to client messages, and oh look, social media is pinging you on your phone and nothing on that to-do list is done. Then the tabs start multiplying 21 browser tabs Later.
[00:01:11] You're bouncing between articles, half read ideas, notes you left yourself last week in five different, important tasks. You take a break because you're feeling scattered. Maybe you switch to something offline, creating graphics, mapping out that ebook you've been thinking about, and then more notifications, ping, ping, ping, email, Facebook, text.
[00:01:33] You look up and it's four or 5:00 PM and you need to think about dinner. You never made it to the gym. You didn't get that walk-in and everything. Literally, everything is half done. Well, crap. Does this sound familiar? I've been there some days. I'm still there. And here's what I need you to hear. There's nothing wrong with you.
[00:01:53] You're not failing at focus. You're not bad at productivity. You're a capable, busy as all get out, woman trying to [00:02:00] survive in a system that wasn't built for your brain or your life. Multitasking feels like a survival skill, but it's actually wrecking your productivity, destroying your attention span, and honestly robbing you of any sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, which is what we need to feel satisfied at the end of the day, even if every single thing wasn't checked off, research shows multitasking reduces productivity by up to 40%.
[00:02:26] You're not getting more done. You're spreading yourself so thin that nothing gets finished well. So today I'm gonna walk you through seven Secrets to Break outta the Multitasking Spiral so you can actually feel like you're getting traction again. Let's get to it. Okay. Secret number one, stop checking your email first thing in the morning.
[00:02:47] Here's the thing about checking email right away. It feels productive. It tricks your brain into thinking you're getting ahead. Look at me. I'm already working. I'm on it. But what's actually happening is you're starting your day with everyone [00:03:00] else's priorities. You tell yourself, you'll just check just a quick scan, but instead you get pulled into links, replies, decisions, micro tasks that feel urgent, but are important, and suddenly the entire first hour of your day or more is gone.
[00:03:17] Now, full disclosure, I do actually look at my inbox when I start my workday. But only for two things. Client emails or I've made a sale emails. I don't open any other kind of email, and if I don't see one of those two things, I close my inbox. This is something that can take practice and discipline though, so maybe wait until you've broken this habit, if that's a problem for you.
[00:03:40] When you check email first, you lose sight of what you need to accomplish. You get sucked into a rabbit hole of quick to-dos that make you feel busy, but don't move your actual priorities forward so you're not leading your day, you're reacting to other people's needs before your own brain even fully wakes up.
[00:03:59] So [00:04:00] here's what I want you to do instead. Protect your mornings. Like your sanity depends on it, because it kind of does. Set a morning buffer. Wait at least 30 to 60 minutes before you even look at your inbox, and I mean, after you sit down at your desk, I don't even mean when you open your eyes in the morning.
[00:04:19] Instead, start with your most important priority of your day and work on that for the first hour. You can also use time blocks for email schedule dedicated check-ins, like 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM instead of constantly refreshing your inbox or having that tab open all day long. And if you're worried about client expectations, communicate your boundaries.
[00:04:42] Set an autoresponder. Let them know that you check email at specific times. Most people will respect that, and the ones who don't, well, that's really good information about the kind of client they are. Your most productive hours shouldn't be spent putting out someone else's fires. [00:05:00] Okay, onto secret number two.
[00:05:03] Give your brain a chance to wake up. If you start working while your brain is still in that morning, fog, multitasking is almost guaranteed. A foggy brain grabs for stimulation, novelty, quick hits of dopamine, which is exactly how you end up bouncing between five different tasks or sucked into social media before you've even finished your coffee.
[00:05:26] So if you don't have time for some elaborate hour, long morning routine, and really most of us don't, you do need a transition. Give your brain a moment to come online before you throw it into the deep end. This could look like stretching for five minutes, stepping outside with your coffee for that gorgeous morning light and fresh air, drinking a glass of water before your coffee.
[00:05:49] This is one of those things that I know I should do. But yeah, I don't journal for one page or five minutes or just sitting quietly for five deep breaths before [00:06:00] you look at a screen. The point is not perfection. The point is giving yourself a hot minute, a moment where you're not asking your brain to perform or consume before it's even awake.
[00:06:10] You'll be amazed at how much less scattered you feel if you do this. Okay, secret number three, write your to-do list the night before. This is a big one for not having to think so hard first thing in the morning because those priority decisions have been made and the mental clutter was already brain dump to the night before, so you don't have to remember where you were with all those half done tasks and open loops, if you wake up without a plan, your day becomes one long, reactive wave and you're just hanging on for the ride.
[00:06:43] You grab at low hanging tasks because they feel easy. You drift into multitasking because you don't actually know what today is for writing your to-do list the night before eliminates that problem. You wake up with a roadmap, you know what matters. You're not starting from zero trying to [00:07:00] figure out where to focus.
[00:07:01] Here's a really key point though. Your brain dump is not the same as your to-do list. Your to-do list is the prioritized list of what can reasonably get done for the day. Choose two to three truly important tasks, and that's it. The things that if you get them done and nothing else, you'll still feel like today was a win.
[00:07:22] Everything else goes on a secondary list, like a nice to get to, but not required list. You can look at it if you have extra time, but you're not carrying guilt or mental bandwidth about any of those tasks. At least not today. And make each task specific, not vague.
[00:07:38] Instead of work on project, you write, draft the intro in two sections of a blog post. Instead of create social media posts, you write batch Instagram captions for the next week. Specificity eliminates indecision, and indecision is what leads to multitasking. [00:08:00] When you don't know exactly what to do, you do a little bit of everything and you finish nothing.
[00:08:05] So tonight, before you go to bed, take five minutes, brain dump what's in your head, and then write down the two to three priorities for tomorrow. Make them specific and then let yourself rest knowing you have a plan. Secret number four, batch similar tasks for efficiency. Okay. Switching from writing to email to client calls to creating graphics.
[00:08:28] It's brutal on your brain. Every switch costs energy. Every switch resets your focus, and every switch increases the chance that half your task stay half done. And this is where batching comes in. Your brain loves sameness. When you keep the type of work consistent, your productivity skyrockets because you're not forcing yourself to lose all of that brain power constantly shifting gears.
[00:08:56] So instead of bouncing between different types of work all day, you group [00:09:00] similar tasks together. Maybe it's processing all your emails in one session, scheduling all your social media posts in one block of time. Writing all your content on one particular day of the week, you handle all of your admin tasks together.
[00:09:17] Here's what this might look like in real life. Maybe Mondays are for content creation. You write your blog posts or you record your podcast episodes, or you draft your newsletters. All of that type of creating happens on Monday, maybe Tuesdays are for client work calls, projects, deliverables, all focused on serving your clients.
[00:09:37] Wednesdays are for admin, invoicing, scheduling, systems work, email cleanup. You get the idea. Now, does this mean your schedule has to be rigid? Absolutely not. Because life happens, kids get sick. Emergencies pop up, you adjust. But having themes for your days or at a minimum batching similar tasks together within a day reduces that [00:10:00] constant mental switching that exhausts you.
[00:10:02] And this is actually one of the core pieces I teach inside my course. Chaos Detox. We build out your ideal work week using theme days so you're not constantly context switching because when you know what type of work each day is for you eliminate so much decision fatigue and multitasking before it even starts.
[00:10:20] And if you need help organizing with this, pick a tool notion, Asana, Trello, Google Calendar. It doesn't matter which one, just pick something that lets you group your tasks logically together so you can see at a glance what needs to happen when, so you don't have to constantly decide. Batching is one of those strategies that sounds simple, but it makes a massive difference once you actually implement it.
[00:10:44] Okay. Secret number five, set dedicated time for learning and growth. Here's the thing about consuming content. Even when it's interesting, it only feels productive. You're reading blogs, you're [00:11:00] watching YouTube videos, you're listening to podcasts, you're clicking through newsletters.
[00:11:04] You're learning, right? You're growing your business. Except if you're doing all of this in between other tasks scattered throughout your day, all you're actually doing is creating more overwhelm and open loops. You're not learning, you're grazing. You end the day with 15 half read articles bookmarked, three podcast episodes, half listened to, and zero clarity on what you're supposed to do with any of it.
[00:11:28] So instead, create a contained space for learning. Maybe it's 30 to 60 minutes once per week, or if you're in the middle of a course, maybe it's one lesson per day. You pick one thing, a course module, a book chapter, a podcast episode, and you finish it. You take notes, you write down one or two action items.
[00:11:48] You'll apply at the right time, and then you move on. No more passive scattered consumption that derails your workday. Learning becomes intentional. It has a [00:12:00] place, and it doesn't bleed into the time you're supposed to be executing because here's what I've learned. Most of us don't need more information.
[00:12:08] We need to apply what we already know. Secret number six, establish a hard stop time for work, or as I like to call it, stop. This one is non-negotiable. Without a hard stop time, your workday creeps into all the time cracks and fills every available space. You procrastinate because you can do it. Tonight, you lose focus because you're mentally bargaining with yourself.
[00:12:35] I don't have to finish this now. I can work later while I'm sitting at the kids' activities waiting to pick them up. But when you decide I'm done at 6:00 PM or whatever time works for you, you force your brain to prioritize. You've put your work in a container, you create boundaries around work mode and real life mode between being on and getting to rest.
[00:12:57] Now, I know what you're thinking, Cara. I run a [00:13:00] business, I have clients. I work from home. I can't just turn off at 6:00 PM and I hear you, but the reality is working endlessly doesn't make you more productive. It makes you burned out and resentful. Ask me how I know. So you get to decide what your hard stop looks like.
[00:13:16] Maybe it's 6:00 PM, maybe it's 2:00 PM. Maybe it's different on different days because you have a different schedule every day, but you need one. You need to know when you sit down for work, when you are going to be done, and when that time comes, have a shut down routine. Close the laptop. Move any unfinished task to tomorrow's list.
[00:13:38] Turn off notifications. Physically walk away from your workspace. Your brain needs closure, a signal that work is over and you're allowed to be off duty. A hard stop creates that. For me, slacking on my office shutdown routine is the hardest habit for me to be consistent with because I have a short workday due to homeschooling and [00:14:00] being the family chauffeur.
[00:14:01] But it's also the number one way that scattered, multitasking creeps in for me when I sit down to work at my desk and it's cluttered with notes stacks of to-dos, like the dentist bill and the cards to go in the mail, and my browser is still open with all the tabs I was working on yesterday. It is so hard to get started with the kind of clarity and focus that I know full well will make my day better.
[00:14:25] And finally, secret number seven, reevaluate your schedule regularly. Here's my confession. When I put strict routines and time blocks into my schedule, it gets stale real quick. The reminders become noise. I start ignoring them like every other popup. And I used to think that meant I was failing at structure, that I just wasn't disciplined enough.
[00:14:47] But what I've learned is schedules aren't supposed to be permanent. You're a human being with seasons, with family, with shifting priorities with kids whose needs change with energy levels that [00:15:00] fluctuate. A schedule that works beautifully in March might be totally useless in July. So instead of assuming your systems are failing, you start assuming they need constant recalibration.
[00:15:12] About every calendar season, I reassess my own ideal work week. I look at my batching. I ask myself, what's working? What feels stale, what needs to shift? And then I adjust. Maybe I move my content day from Monday to Wednesday because my brain's been foggy on Mondays lately, maybe I realize client calls on Fridays are draining me, so I move them to Tuesdays.
[00:15:34] Maybe I drop a batching strategy that sounded good on paper, but never worked for me in real practice. The point is flexibility is not chaos. Flexibility is adaptation and leading instead of reacting.
[00:15:47] Your schedule is designed to serve you, not the other way around. So give yourself permission to tweak things regularly. Try something new, let go of what's not working anymore. It's not failure, it's being human [00:16:00] and it's being mindful.
[00:16:02] So what do we do with all of this? We just covered seven secrets to stop multitasking, and I know that can feel like a lot. So let me make this really simple for you with your reset and reclaim action step for the week. Choose one area where you multitask the most.
[00:16:20] Maybe it's emails, maybe it's your to-do list. Maybe it's batching or learning or not having a hard stop at the end of the day and set one specific boundary around it. Maybe it's, I won't check email before 10:00 AM. Or I will write tomorrow's top three tasks before bed tonight, or I will close my laptop at 7:00 PM no exceptions.
[00:16:41] Write it down. Put it where you'll see it. And for the next seven days, protect that one boundary. Like your week depends on it. That's it. Just start there. Okay, quick recap of the seven secrets to stop multitasking. Stop checking your email first thing in the morning. Give your brain a chance to wake up before you [00:17:00] ask it to focus.
[00:17:01] Write your to-do list the night before. Batch your similar tasks together, schedule in your learning time. Set a hard stop for the end of your workday, and reevaluate your schedule every season or whenever it makes sense for you. Pick one. That's all you need. If this resonated, I'd love to have you join the Productivity Rebellion.
[00:17:23] It's my free monthly guide for women who refused to choose between success and sanity. Once a month, you'll get a strategy that fits your chaotic life. Real stories from my month, not Instagram. Perfect advice, and the chance to ask me anything. I answer subscriber questions on the show. Think of it as your monthly reset. When you're tired of holding everything together with duct tape and coffee. You can sign up for free at carachace.com and ps. If you're ready to stop white knuckling your way through every week, check out Chaos Detox is my weekly planning method for high achieving woman dealing with burnout.[00:18:00]
[00:18:00] Learn more at carachace.com/chaos-detox. Thanks for listening. If this helped leave a review, it helps other women entrepreneurs find the show. I'm Cara Chace reminding you to keep questioning the rules and making your own.
