You’re working wrong: 3 major mistakes
Every day we try to work better: we juggle multiple tasks at once, sit in noisy open spaces, and brainstorm ideas as a team in meetings. It seems like the right thing to do. But research says otherwise: habits we consider productive actually steal our time, energy, and good ideas. The habit of doing everything at once is especially deceptive — it creates a feeling of busyness but doesn’t help us get more done. Let’s break down the three most common mistakes and how to work smarter.
Why multitasking makes us slower
We take pride in being able to do several things at once: answering emails, listening to a conference call, and scrolling through a report at the same time. It seems like the more we practice, the better we get. But the uncomfortable truth is: the more often a person spreads themselves thin, the worse they perform.
The thing is, the human brain can’t truly do two things simultaneously — not the way a computer can. All we’re capable of is rapidly switching between tasks. And each switch comes at a cost: the brain needs time to “get back into” the task, remember where it left off, and filter out the irrelevant. It’s no surprise that multitasking exhausts the brain quite significantly.
Research has shown that people who constantly jump between tasks and tabs later have trouble focusing even when they need to. Simply put, the habit of perpetual multitasking doesn’t train the brain — it destabilizes its concentration.
What can you do about it? Nothing revolutionary:
- Pick one task and bring it to a logical stopping point
- Close unnecessary tabs and turn off notifications while you’re working on something important
- Clear your desk of clutter — visual mess also interferes with concentration.
The advice may seem boring, but it works.
Open offices kill communication rather than foster it
Open offices without walls and partitions became a trend. Management loves to explain it beautifully: supposedly, when everyone sits together, people communicate more, exchange ideas, and collectively drive the company forward. The logic seems sound. But in reality, it’s not like that at all.
Harvard scientists studied two companies that switched to open floor plans and equipped employees with special sensors to measure how often they communicated face-to-face. The result was surprising: face-to-face interaction dropped by roughly 70%. Instead of chatting across the table, people actually withdrew and retreated into written communication — email and messaging apps.
In open offices, people more often hide behind headphones than talk
This makes more sense than it might seem at first glance. When there’s constant noise, phone calls, and people walking around you, the only way to concentrate is to barricade yourself with headphones and pretend you’re in your own cocoon. Unpredictable noise is especially disruptive to concentration. So open spaces don’t bring people closer — they force people to defend themselves.
And this isn’t an isolated finding. A large review of studies showed that working in open offices is associated with increased stress, poorer well-being, and decreased job satisfaction. Economically, such offices are advantageous — fewer walls, more people per square meter. But employees pay for it with their comfort and health.
If you can’t influence the office layout, simple things help:
- Noise-canceling headphones,
- Agreeing on “quiet hours” with your team,
- If possible, working from a meeting room when you need full concentration.
Group brainstorming works worse than brainstorming alone
How many meetings in the style of “let’s throw around ideas together” have you endured? Group brainstorming is considered a proven way to come up with something brilliant. In reality, it’s the opposite, and this has been known for a very long time.
As far back as the late 1950s, it was discovered that people come up with more ideas alone than in a group. This was later confirmed again and again: when everyone thinks independently and the results are then combined, there are more ideas and they’re more interesting.
Ideas come more easily in solitude than in a noisy meeting
Why is that? In a group, we involuntarily hold ourselves back. While one person is speaking, the rest are forced to listen and stay silent. On top of that, there’s the fear of saying something stupid in front of colleagues, and the tendency to agree with whoever spoke first or loudest. As a result, the group format suppresses creative thinking rather than igniting it.
Maybe video calls save the situation? Also no. A study showed that brainstorming over video produces fewer ideas than meeting in person. The screen seems to narrow attention and prevent thoughts from wandering in different directions — which is exactly what’s needed for fresh ideas. It’s no coincidence that mild boredom sometimes helps the brain find unexpected solutions.
The solution is simple: first, let everyone think on their own and write down their ideas — and only then have the team gather to discuss everything and choose the best options. This approach combines the benefits of individual work and group discussion.
How to work smarter: ditching multitasking, noisy offices, and group brainstorms
If you put it all together, you get a surprisingly pleasant picture: working more effectively doesn’t mean working more and louder. Three key pieces of advice are:
- Don’t spread yourself thin: do one thing at a time and remove distractions
- Protect your concentration from office noise by any means available
- Come up with ideas on your own first, and discuss them later
The most interesting thing here is that many of these findings have been known to scientists for decades, yet office habits have barely changed. So if you’ve long felt that the open office wears you out and meetings eat up time without any benefit — you were right. Science is on your side.
