Think Thursday: Your Brain Wasn't Meant to Multitask

Think Thursday: Your Brain Wasn't Meant to Multitask

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This short Think Thursday episode from The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast zooms in on something most people do all day without thinking: so-called multitasking. Mindful drinking and behaviour change coach Molly Watts breaks down why your brain feels fried after a day of bouncing between emails, messages, social media and to-do lists – even if you’ve barely left your chair.

Molly explains that what many proudly call multitasking is actually rapid task switching, and your brain pays for every switch. Drawing on research from Sophie Leroy, she shares the idea of "attention residue", where "a portion of our attention stays behind, almost like leaving footprints in wet cement" whenever you jump from one task to another. That leftover attention piles up, leaving you mentally exhausted and strangely unaccomplished.

She talks through how the prefrontal cortex and working memory act like a small desk with limited space. Keep loading it with new tasks, and things start falling off the edge. Add modern tech into the mix – the "endless novelty machine" of pings, tabs and notifications – and it’s easy to see why many people feel scattered or broken.

Molly reassures you that "your brain may be simply responding exactly the way it was designed to respond" in a world that changed faster than our wiring. For anyone changing their drinking, this matters. A tired, overloaded brain is far more likely to default to old habits, including pouring a drink to "switch off".

Molly offers a simple experiment: pick one task and give it 20 uninterrupted minutes, no extra tabs, no quick checks, and just notice how your mind responds. If your attention is "one of the most valuable" things you own, how might your life – and your relationship with alcohol – shift if you started protecting it on purpose?