Trying to do a lot of things at once is supposed to be a sign that you’re smart and productive. But new research shows that multitasking—doing more than one task at a time—has very big drawbacks. First, your brain can’t actually multitask. What it does is switch from one task to the other, back and forth, back and forth. The problem? Your brain doesn’t perform as well when it is constantly distracted this way. It’s likely that the quality and efficiency of your work will suffer. For the vast majority of people, it’s actually quicker for them to do tasks sequentially—plus they’re less likely to make mistakes. A small percentage of people are actually good multitaskers—their brains are capable of handling more than one task at a time—but you’d be wise not to count yourself among them. In fact, one study showed that people who thought they were good at multitasking were actually the worst at it. Another study showed that people trying to deal with several tasks at once had significantly more problems paying attention and remembering information than those who did one task at a time. Habitual multitaskers actually train their brains to be less efficient. They have trouble organizing thoughts and focusing on what is important. As a consequence, they end up being slower, cumulatively, than those who do one thing at a time. Give your brain a break by giving up your multitasking ways!