Multitasking is not just a professional habit. Indeed, for many women, juggling meetings, emails, domestic tasks and personal projects has a real neurological and cognitive cost.
However, this phenomenon remains largely under-analyzed in the media. Among other consequences, reduced creativity, impacted performance and risk of burn-out, women often pay the invisible price of multitasking.
Multitasking and mental load: worrying scientific data
Neuroscience is beginning to confirm what many feel on a daily basis: indeed, the human brain is not designed to perform several complex tasks simultaneously.
Additionally, each attention switch between tasks consumes cognitive energy and reduces overall performance.
A Stanford University study showed that constant multitasking can decrease working memory, increase stress, and increase mental fatigue.
For women, who often carry the mental burden of home in addition to their career, the impact is twofold.
Why are women particularly affected?
1. The double day
Women spend on average more time than men on domestic and parental tasks, in addition to their professional activity.
Thus, they experience constant multitasking, which constantly demands cognitive and emotional resources.
2. The pressure to perform
In a demanding professional environment, women feel additional pressure to perform, be visible and impeccable.
As a result, this requirement combined with multitasking increases stress. Cognitive fatigue thus becomes a hindrance to creativity and innovation.
3. The phenomenon of “switching cost”
Each task change reduces efficiency, the so-called cognitive cost of switching. However, for women, the multiplicity of roles amplifies this cost: work, family, community involvement, side-projects.
The little-known impacts on women’s careers
→ Decrease in performance and creativity
Permanent multitasking reduces the ability to concentrate in depth, essential for:
- solve complex problems
- innovate
- produce strategic work
→ Increased risk of burnout
Prolonged cognitive fatigue, combined with emotional load, promotes:
- mental exhaustion
- chronic stress
- sleep disorders
- physical symptoms (headaches, muscle tension, digestive problems)
→ Slowed careers
Multitasking women can find themselves stuck in their career paths:
How to limit the cognitive cost of multitasking
1. Prioritize and segment
Therefore, it is important to define critical tasks, plan dedicated time slots and avoid unnecessary interruptions.
2. Disconnect intelligently
- Block moments without emails or notifications
- Preserve deep concentration ranges
3. Share the mental load
In addition, involve colleagues, partners or loved ones in the distribution of tasks to reduce cognitive pressure.
4. Integrate Recovery Rituals
5. Negotiate your pace at work
For female employees, flexible teleworking, chosen part-time or the delegation of certain tasks are concrete levers.
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Multitasking is not a badge of competence: it is a source of fatigue and a brake on potential.
Therefore, companies must integrate cognitive load into their HR policies. Women can learn to protect their mental energyin particular by prioritizing and distributing their activities strategically.
By better understanding the cognitive cost of mental load, society can finally transform multitasking from constraint into a conscious and valued choice, thus paving the way for more sustainable, creative and fulfilling female careers.
