Embedded Files
The Busy Paradox
A Bridges to Bloom Film
Coming out on October 10, 2026
Overview
Ask any high school kid and they will tell you something like: "I'm too busy today". But are they? Our research team was contemplating on this research idea and decided to use a survey to get a rough diagnosis. In our survey, we asked students about their study habits and their daily lives as students. 90% of students said they feel somewhat to always feeling busy, but only 40% actually felt productive. Something doesn’t add up. We proposed up to three reasons why students feel this way.
Multitasking
Homework, texting, emailing, a quick video break, music, back to homework. Unlike popular belief, multitasking does not increase efficiency but drastically lowers productivity because our brains were simply not designed for it. Every time you switch tasks, your brain goes through two mental steps. First, there’s goal shifting, which is mentally preparing yourself to switch objectives. Then, there’s rule activation, which is turning off the rules of the previous tasks and turning on the rules for the upcoming task. For example, if you are doing biology homework and then switch to math, you have to disregard all the principles for bio and “turn on” the rules for math. If you are texting while studying, your brain “turns on” the procedures for writing a text message and “turns off” the rules and terms needed for studying. It only takes a moment. But when this is repeated dozens of times, those moments and lost time adds up.
A study done in the 1990s found that hen people had to switch between two task, they were significantly slower at completing the task compared to task-repeat trials. This is due to the mental adjustment to the new task and carry over effect from the past activity. But does constantly switching tasks actually change how our brain works?
To find out, Stanford psychologist, Anthony Wagner and his team in Stanford spilt students into two groups of light multitaskers and heavy multitaskers. Participants were asked to focus only on two red rectangles while ignoring distracting blue ones. Each configuration was flashed twice, and the participants had to determine whether the red rectangles in the second frame were in a different position than in the first frame. The low multitaskers had no problem. The heavy multitaskers couldn’t. They were repeatedly pulled away from information that didn’t matter. Wagner’s findings suggest that chronic multitasking doesn't just slow us down in the moment but fundamentally alters how our brains process information. By constantly exposing ourselves to multiple streams of stimuli, we train our minds to be easily distracted. We this in today’s society especially with a record high usage of social media and short form content. Every time we split our focus, we are forcing our brains through the exact same exhausting cycle of goal-shifting and rule-activation. Over time, this erodes our capacity for deep, sustained focus, making it increasingly difficult to filter out irrelevant data even when we are trying to concentrate on a single, important task. This may explain why so many students feel busy all the time. Not because they're working harder, but because they're constantly paying the mental cost of switching between tasks. Students who are heavy multitaskers feel busy due to the effort spent changing gears than actually moving forward.
Procrastination
Most people think procrastination is simple. You’re lazy. You don’t have discipline. All you need to do is try harder. But psychologists have found something more complex. It’s built into human nature to avoid threats and when someone is placed with a large scale task, they view it as a threat and tend to do anything to stay away from the task. When a task feels overwhelming, boring, frustrating, or threatening to our self-image, avoiding it creates a small burst of relief. For a moment, the stress disappears. And thats where the trap begins. Our survey highlighted this well with ¾ students admitting to regularly delay assignments. Overtime, this cycle can lead to higher stress, poorer sleep, more anxiety, depression, lower academic performance, and lower overall well being. That may be the real reason so many students say they’re “always busy.” Not because they’re constantly working but because they’re constantly carrying the burden of unfinished work in their minds. 70% of students in our survey told us they think about unfinished assignments while they’re supposed to be relaxing. And that mental weight makes free time feel undeserved, creates more guilt, and makes starting the work even harder. In other words, students can continually feel busy even while making very little actual progress.
Brain Fog
Sometimes the problem isn’t distractions or procrastination. Brain fog isn’t a medical condition but a collective of cognitive symptoms. Trouble concentrating, slower thinking, forgetfulness, and mental exhaustion. Most people who experience brain fog know something is off. They know they can think more clearly and sharper, which adds to frustration. That frustration only makes focusing even harder. So what causes it? Poor sleep, increased stress, skipped meals, hours of screen time, little exercise, poor diet, or overuse to stimulants. The results were hard to ignore. Only 15% of students reported getting the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. These habits chip away at the brain’s ability to think clearly until focusing starts to feel like plowing through mud. When your brain feels slower everything takes longer. Reading takes longer. Writing takes longer. Studying takes longer. So that is why many students report spending hours locked in their rooms and feel like they barely moved in progress. Even though they keep their room neat and restrain themselves from falling into distractions. By now, a pattern begins to emerge. Multitasking constantly interrupts our attention. Procrastination keeps unfinished work alive in our minds. Brain fog slows the thinking needed to make progress. Individually, each one makes us less productive. Together they create the feeling that we've been busy all day without having much to show for it.
Solutions
Stop fighting yourself
Ironically, the first step isn’t to work harder. It’s stoping the cycle of self-critism. Research suggests the guilt fuels procrastination. The more we beat ourselves up, the harder it is to start.
Make the task smaller
Again, our brain naturally avoids threats. A large scale assignment can feel like one. Many students rely on waiting for motivation to hit them, but that usually never works. Which is why it’s important to break it down a task and build momentum.
Reduce cognitive overload
Modern life constantly asks our brains to remember more. Assignments. Practice. Messages. Deadlines. Psychologist Lowri Dowthwaite-Walsh argues that writing tasks down is freeing your brain from remembering everything.
Prioritize Tasks
Not every task deserves your attention. The Eisenhower Matrix separates what's: I
Important and urgent
Important but not urgent
Urgent but not important
Neither
Make focus easier
Many productivity apps promise better focus and productivity. But research says something different. Simply having your phone nearby can reduce cognitive capacity.
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