If you spend any amount of time reading productivity advice, you’ll quickly encounter one of the internet’s favorite commandments:
“Multitasking is bad.”
The advice usually sounds something like this:
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Eliminate distractions.
- Close unnecessary tabs.
- Turn off notifications.
- Finish one task before starting another.
And for many people, that’s probably excellent advice.
But lately, I’ve realized something.
I almost never work with fewer than three visible screens.
Often four.
And it’s not because I’m distracted.
It’s because I’m waiting.
My Work Doesn’t Happen in a Straight Line
At any given moment, I might have:
- A client project open.
- LaunchPad360 running in another window.
- Claude implementing a feature.
- Email on a second monitor.
- Research articles open.
- Notes and documentation visible.
- ChatGPT helping me think through a problem.
From the outside, it probably looks chaotic.
But there is a pattern.
Very little of my work happens in a straight line.
Most of it happens in cycles.
I ask a question.
I wait for an answer.
I submit code changes.
I wait for implementation.
I send an email.
I wait for a response.
I start a report.
I wait for data.
I test a feature.
I wait for the application to update.
There are pauses everywhere.
The Real Productivity Trick
The productivity gurus assume multitasking means trying to do multiple things at the same time.
That’s not what I’m doing.
What I’m actually doing is filling waiting time.
While Claude is implementing a feature, I can work on a client project.
While waiting for client feedback, I can write a knowledge base article.
While waiting for a meeting, I can review analytics.
While waiting for a deployment, I can answer emails.
Each project has natural pauses.
The challenge isn’t avoiding context switching.
The challenge is making good use of those pauses.
The Hidden Cost of Running Multiple Businesses
Over the years, I’ve realized that my biggest challenge isn’t finding work.
It’s remembering everything that is already in motion.
A client needs content.
A feature needs testing.
An article needs editing.
A partner needs a response.
A task needs follow-up.
A customer needs support.
Every one of those items is sitting somewhere in a waiting state.
The more businesses, projects, and clients you manage, the less your job becomes “doing the work” and the more it becomes “keeping track of the work.”
That’s a very different problem.
Why LaunchPad360 Exists
The funny thing is that this realization helps explain why I’m building LaunchPad360.
Many of the features I’m creating aren’t there because they’re trendy.
They’re there because they solve problems I run into every day.
I need:
- Quick access to information.
- Searchable knowledge.
- Centralized documents.
- Customer records.
- Tasks.
- Notes.
- Dashboards.
- Assets.
- Relationships between all of those things.
Not because I enjoy organizing data.
Because I need a way to survive managing dozens of moving pieces at once.
The software I’m building is, in many ways, the software I’ve always needed.
Maybe Multitasking Isn’t the Problem
Perhaps multitasking deserves its bad reputation when you’re trying to do multiple deep-thinking tasks simultaneously.
But many business owners aren’t facing that problem.
They’re facing a different one.
They’re coordinating dozens of active projects, conversations, decisions, and responsibilities.
The danger isn’t context switching.
The danger is forgetting.
For me, multiple screens aren’t a productivity hack.
They’re a reflection of reality.
Because when you’re building a business, serving clients, creating content, developing software, and planning what’s next all at the same time, the goal isn’t to eliminate complexity.
The goal is to build systems that help you manage it.