How many tasks are down on your to-do list today? If it's enough to make you feel slightly ill, then you're not alone.

Recent figures from the government's Health and Safety Executive show that women aged 25-45 suffer more from work-related stress, anxiety and depression than men.

One key factor fuelling the levels? Workload. And when you factor in the way our working days have evolved (ability to check emails from bed; an expectation to respond to emails in minutes) it's not surprising.

Both on and off the clock, time is precious resource and learning how to manage it, is more imporant than ever.

Enter Caroline Webb, an executive career coach who was previously a partner at management consultancy firm McKinsey and an economist at the Bank of England.

Her most recent gig? Calling nonsense on our ineffective workday habits – and providing do-able alternatives – in her new book How to Have a Good Day: Think Bigger, Feel Better and Transform Your Working Life.

Multitasking is making you stressed

Webb is adamant: multitasking – the modus operandi for the busy professional woman – is making us unhappy and ineffective.

But what's the problem with me trying to hit a deadline, firefight an inbox, answer phone calls and respond to colleagues' queries as promptly as possible, all within the same hour? Simply, my brain (and yours) cannot handle doing more than one of these at once.

'Neuroscience shows us that our conscious brain can actually only do one thing at a time,' Webb explains. 'So when we think we're multitasking, we're actually asking our brain to switch attention rapidly from one thing to the next.'

Think of it like a HIIT class: hopping from circuit to circuit torches calories and fatigues your muscles in minutes. The same is true in your brain; each of those switches takes up precious mental energy, causing your brain to burn out pretty quickly.

'So it's not your imagination if you feel stressed and fragile and overstretched trying to get everything done at once because it really is too much to be asking our brains to do,' she says.

What to do about it?

Webb believes many women – through determination, a distaste for saying no and perhaps an internalisation of the 'women are good at multitasking' line (unfounded, FYI) – manage to juggle our our way through.

But while we can't take an axe to the unmanageable extras on our list – we can take control of them. Webb's strategy? Batch tasking.

What is batch tasking?

Essentially, it's taking your to-do list and dividing it up in a way that's more easily digestible for our brains.

'Your working memory can only hold three or four pieces of information in your mind,' says Webb. 'But these can be chunks of information, not specific tasks.'

'Say I look at my to-do list and there's 14 things on it. If I can divide them into three or four big chunks I'll feel instantly calmer,' she says.

For example, list those key emails you need to nail together, then do the same with writing, researching and planning jobs.

'This helps you be more efficient in moving through the list, because your brain is not switching from one mode to another, from email to research to writing – so it's easier for you to stay focused,' explains Webb.

Give your brain space

If you manage to carve out time for one type of activity, make it deep, uninterrupted thinking.

'Because we're online all time, it's become unfamiliar to be totally immersed – and it's hard too, when people are now able to interrupt you constantly,' says Webb.

Daunted by prospect of going offline while you dive into an important report for your boss? Remember, focus isn't a privilege, it's essential. Oh, and start small.

'Close down your emails and turn your phone off for five or ten minutes and notice how it feels to just focus on what you're doing. When you're done, pat yourself on the back and build up from there.'

When training your brain, as with your body, it's important to celebrate success. One idea: new post its. Webb recommends listing your daily batched tasks on one.

The logic being that the less space you have to start off with, the less likely you are to fill it with stress-inducing extras.

Alongside this daily visual cue, keep a long list online. Amendable, shareable, and always there to pick back up from in all that spare time you have. Joking!

From Women's Health UK

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io