Have you looked at your colleagues’ calendars lately? Or your own? Meeting blocks stacked on meeting blocks. Twenty browser tabs showing twenty different trains of thought. Backlogs that jump between initiatives faster than a toddler in a toy store.
Workers today are scattered. And it’s killing our ability to solve the complex problems that actually matter.
If you’re building something new for humans—especially something with dependencies outside your control—then the most meaningful parts of your work are complex. That requires creative, focused, collaborative effort. Yet our multitasking-packed environment actively undermines our ability to tackle these challenges effectively.
Here are three reasons why multitasking is the enemy of solving complex problems:
1. Context Switching Breaks Our Mental Models
Our brains can only hold so much context at once. You’ve probably felt that fog when someone interrupts you mid-thought and asks about something completely different. “Wait, what were we talking about again?”
Complex problem-solving works best when we build rich mental models that let us operate on larger chunks of information. Each context switch forces a partial reset of those models. Switch enough times, and you never build the comprehensive understanding needed to solve the problem in the first place.
2. Interrupted Collaboration Means Exponential Delays
“I’ll get back to you on that tomorrow” might seem harmless, but it’s not.
Complex problem-solving with more than one person requires real-time collaboration. Each wait time and long feedback loop doesn’t just add delay—it multiplies it. When five people each have to context-switch back into the problem space repeatedly, what could have been solved in a day of focused collaboration stretches into weeks.
3. Delayed Value & Feedback Slows Learning
Switching between multiple efforts doesn’t just make every task take longer—it dramatically extends the time between starting a problem and seeing whether your solution works.
That feedback loop is crucial. Without it, we can’t adjust and improve. Without it, problems don’t get solved. They fester.
So What Can We Do?
The good news is that you can reclaim your problem-solving power with a few practical changes:
- Batch work into increments of value. Get good at slicing complex work so you can complete meaningful chunks before switching to something else. This maintains momentum and provides faster feedback.
- Organize your schedule to separate meetings and focused work. Block chunks of time for deep work—and protect them fiercely. And remember, collaborating with others on focused work isn’t a “meeting” to be avoided; it’s part of the solution.
- Leave breadcrumbs for your future self. When you must switch contexts (and sometimes you must), develop the habit of documenting where you are, what you’ve tried, and what you were thinking next. This quick note taking exercise can take less than 2 minutes, but can save you hours in the future when you return to the task. Your future self will thank you when you return to the problem.
The companies and teams that learn to create space for solving complex problems will outperform those who continue to fragment their attention. Which will you be?
What strategies have you found helpful for maintaining focus on complex problems? We’d love to hear what’s working for you.
Need help balancing focus and agility in your work? We help our clients do just that at the individual, team, and organization levels. Contact us to discuss how to solve this tricky balance in your unique context.
Last updated