What's happening when you work all day and somehow haven't finished a single thing.
By Kim Lester
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Someone walks into your room and says, "Can I ask you one quick question?"
The question really might be quick. You answer it. They leave. You turn back to your computer and think ........ Wait. What was I doing?
Or you're planning during planning period. Then you're answering an email. Then you're helping a student. Then you're responding to somebody at the door. And somehow you've been working the entire time but haven't finished the thing you sat down to do.
You feel scattered.
You feel frustrated.
You feel like you've been busy all day but accomplished nothing.
You're not imagining it, teachers. That feeling is real and it has a name.
It's called task-switching.
When something requires you to move your attention from one task to another, your mind has to shift to the new task and then reorient again when you come back. The shift itself costs something. Your brain has to stop working with one set of information, shift to something completely different, and then figure out where it was before.
So that quick question took thirty seconds. But the cost of switching your attention away from what you were doing and then back again took more than thirty seconds. Your brain had to do the work of stopping, shifting, and restarting.
Now here's where something interesting happens.
Teachers, we talk all the time about being great multitaskers. We say it like it's a strength. "I'm a great multitasker. I can handle anything." And it's true that you can handle a lot at once.
But when two things both require your attention, you're usually not actually giving both your full attention at the exact same time.
You're switching. Task switching.
From the lesson to the student at the door.
From planning to the phone call.
From the email back to planning.
From the assignment you're grading to answering a text.
From one thought back to the previous thought.
Every single one of those switches asks something of you.
Your brain has to stop. Shift. Reorient and that costs you mental energy. And it costs that energy every single time it happens.
So when you say, "I've been multitasking all day," what is actually true is, "I've been switching my attention all day."
And when you've been switching your attention for six straight hours, even the smallest interruption can feel enormous and one more switch can feel like one too many.
And you respond. Maybe you snap. Maybe you feel impatient. Maybe you want to be alone. And then you feel guilty about the way you responded to someone who was just asking a quick question.
But know that your response wasn't about the question.
It was about the hundred switches before it.
Teachers, this is where we need to notice and name what's actually happening.
This is a system problem, not a you problem. You're not weak. You're not bad at handling interruptions.
You've been switching between competing demands all day. Your brain is tired from all those switches. And one more switch, even a small one, is asking something of a system that's already given a lot.
Notice when your day has been one switch after another. Notice how many times you've had to find your way back to what you were doing. Notice the moment when one more interruption feels like one too many, even though the interruption itself is small.
Then name what actually happened.
"Instead of blaming yourself with, "Why am I so broken?" or "Why can't I focus?""
Name it: "I've been switching between competing demands all day."
Notice what's happening.
Name it for what it is, not for what you think it says about you.
Teacher, that's where understanding begins.
Once you understand task-switching, you can stop blaming yourself for the moment you snapped. You can recognize that it wasn't that one question. It was what came before that one question.
You can stop thinking there's something wrong with your focus and start recognizing that the number of switches is what's affecting you. You can start protecting what you actually need to protect: uninterrupted stretches of time where your attention can stay where you put it.
Not hours necessarily. Even ten uninterrupted minutes matters. Ten minutes where you can think about one thing without having to switch. Ten minutes where your brain can settle into a task. Ten minutes where one thought can actually lead to another thought without being interrupted.
That's not selfish. That's actually how your brain works best. And... you need this.
And this is what I really want you to focus on as we get close to the end of September and Stronger Than You Realize:
Being capable of switching your attention all day doesn't mean it costs you nothing.
Yes, you can do it. Yes, you handle it every single day. Yes, you're strong enough to do it.
But that strength isn't invisible. It's not free. And it's not nothing.
Some days your strength isn't just in what you finished. It's in how many times you had to find your way back. It's in how many switches you made and managed and recovered from and did it all again. It's in the fact that you came back from each switch and kept going.
Don't erase that part of the proof. Don't act like because you did it, it didn't cost you anything. Because you did it, and it did cost you something. And you did it anyway.
That's where Stronger Than You Realize lives. Not in never getting bothered. But in getting bothered a hundred times and finding your way back a hundred times and still showing up.
Give yourself the same care you give everyone else.
— Kim 🩷🌿
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If this resonated with you, there's a podcast created to support you and what you are experiencing at school. It is called Teaching Without Losing Yourself. TWLY explores what it actually takes to protect your attention and your focus in a system built around constant interruption.
Listen to our Podcasts: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2597035
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