Too Many Tabs Open: Why Constant Task Switching Leaves Leaders Exhausted
We have more control over interruptions than we think
“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”
Lately I have been in conversations with other business women where we all observe that we have too many tabs open in our brains. By this I mean how the days feel. It is also how I have literally been working. On any given day, my screen has a long row of open tabs: email accounts for the different parts of my work, Teams, LinkedIn, and whatever I was writing an hour ago.
I had not thought much about those tabs until I caught myself waiting for an AI tool to answer a question. I waited perhaps thirty seconds. Rather than pausing and staying in that task for the time it took to get the answer I wanted, I clicked on another inbox, found a new problem, replied to it, and came back to an answer I had to shift gears again to read.
I became aware of tension pain in my temples and prickles behind my eyes. I realised I had been working like this most of the day and I’d been operating like this most of my days for a while. No wonder I’m feeling deeply tired.
I was in the habit of interrupting my own work, and I did it because the tabs were open, easily accessible and one click away.
AI intensifies work
We were told AI tools would give us time back. Earlier this year the software company Glean surveyed 6,000 workers, and 43 per cent of the Australians said they felt worn out by the AI tools they use at work.
Two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Aruna Ranganathan and Xingqi Maggie Ye, may have found one reason. They spent eight months watching how people at a technology company used AI. Employees sent requests to AI during meetings and breaks and took on more work, often without anyone asking them to. As they note, AI tools haven’t reduced the work, they’ve intensified it. We tend to take on a broader scope of tasks and extend work into more hours of the day. They found that AI made “doing more” feel possible and accessible.
That is exactly what I was doing. I have many more short waits in my day, and I was using every one of them to switch to something else to get more done.
We interrupt ourselves more than we realise
When I led teams, I used to assume other people caused my interruptions. Gloria Mark has studied attention at work for more than twenty years, and she found that people interrupt themselves almost as often as other people interrupt them.
That made me look at the small gaps in my day, not just while sitting at the computer, but also when commuting or taking a walk. I used to spend this time taking a few deep breaths or looking at the sky. Now I use it to send a message, fill out a survey or finish one more small task.
I think the habit of seeing every moment as a pocket of productive time to get something done is part of why so many leaders tell me they are exhausted at the end of a day even when it was a fairly ordinary day without anything big happening.
We can change more than we think
Angela Duckworth became known for writing about grit. In a recent podcast she said that willpower is an unreliable way to change what we do, and that we do better when we change what is around us. Putting your phone in another room while you concentrate is one example of changing our situation rather than relying on willpower alone. It’s the same reason I put my exercise clothes beside my bed before I go to sleep.
I had done the opposite with my screen and all the tabs. I had been setting it up so that switching took one click. So, knowing that, I have stopped trying to resist the urge to switch and started making it harder to do.
Here is what I am trying:
Close the tabs I am not using before I start work that needs deeper thought.
When I ask AI a question, wait for the answer. Use the thirty seconds to just breathe or pause and think of nothing. This will give me a micro break to restore energy and help me stay on task.
Evaluate the urgency. Does checking my email really need to happen right now?
I think the leaders I coach, and I, have more control over our days than we give ourselves credit for. Adaptive Stability gives you the flexibility to actively decide when to shift your attention, and closing a few tabs is a small way to practise it.
A leader who does this is likely to have more mental capacity left for the decisions that need her judgement and for the people at home at the end of the day. Her team may also see that model and do the same.
How many tabs (literal and figurative) do you have open right now, and which could you close to help you concentrate on the task that matters?
