Businesses are moving faster than ever, but many still struggle to improve performance in measurable ways. According to Shaqeem Akbar-Downey, a marketing and advertising management professional who also mentors youth athletes, the problem is not always effort—it is direction. He warns about the 'busy work trap,' where teams confuse motion with progress.
Research from the American Psychological Association shows that multitasking and constant task switching can reduce productivity by as much as 40 per cent. Another study from the University of California, Irvine, found that workers can take more than 20 minutes to fully regain focus after interruptions. Despite these findings, many businesses continue operating in environments built around constant reaction.
Akbar-Downey points to a business owner who reviewed a full workday with staff after noticing a decline in performance. 'We realised we had spent hours replying to messages and discussing ideas,' he explains. 'At the end of the day, almost none of the core work had actually been completed.' The issue was not laziness but fragmented focus.
Busy work creates the appearance of momentum through fast replies, endless updates, and constant meetings. However, visible activity often replaces meaningful execution. Akbar-Downey draws parallels to sports training: 'In youth sports, you see players running around constantly but avoiding the drills that actually improve performance. Businesses do the same thing. Teams stay active but avoid the deeper work that requires concentration.'
Constant task switching is a major cause of sloppy execution. A campaign manager recently described reviewing marketing performance while simultaneously responding to multiple conversations, leading to missed details and incorrect information sent to clients. 'Everybody felt productive because they were moving fast,' Akbar-Downey says. 'But speed without structure usually creates more cleanup later.' He believes many businesses now operate in a permanent state of urgency, where every issue feels equally important, destroying focus.
To combat this, Akbar-Downey recommends protecting uninterrupted work blocks each day, reducing unnecessary internal communication, tracking completed outcomes instead of visible activity, building repeatable systems for reviews and follow-up, and stopping changes before processes have time to work. One team he observed introduced fixed review periods each morning before calls and meetings began. 'Within weeks, mistakes dropped because people finally had time to think properly,' he says.
Research from Stanford University has shown that productivity declines sharply once people consistently work excessive hours, with error rates rising while accuracy drops. Akbar-Downey believes many businesses have mistaken exhaustion for commitment. 'Hustle culture made people think constant pressure equals performance,' he says. 'Usually it just creates sloppy work.' Instead, stable routines create stronger long-term results.
As businesses continue to operate in fast-moving environments, the pressure to remain constantly active has increased. Akbar-Downey believes that companies that learn to protect, focus, and structure will gain a major advantage. 'Most performance problems don't start because people lack talent,' he says. 'They start because systems break down under distraction.' His advice is simple: focus less on looking busy and more on building repeatable systems that hold up under pressure.
