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I shall not be interrupted

I shall not be interrupted

Context switching

Chandan Karkera
March 2nd, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

After reading this post, you’ll learn:

What is context switching
Why you should know about it.
How you can avoid context switching.

Imagine this - you're focusing on a project. Your get a new mail. You open it & when reading it, you get a slack message.

Your boss is asking you for a status update. You try to return to your project. Your phone buzzes - your school whatsapp group is planning a reunion.

You're back in your school days, remembering the good times.

Before you know it, 30 minutes have passed. And now you find it difficult to focus back on your project.

Sounds familiar? This is called context - switching.

Meaning, you keep jumping from one task to another.

But why should you know about this?

Per research, every time you're interrupted, it takes ~23 minutes to focus back to the task.

They also found that after 20 minutes of interruptions, people reported higher:

Stress
Pressure
Frustration

Think about that for a minute. Every interruption which breaks your focus = 23 minutes wasted. So an 8 hour workday can get hozed by less than 20 notifications 😟

Another study found that knowledge workers switch between applications an average of 1,200 times per day (or ~ 4 hours per week).

Imagine - 10% of you time only to switch between applications!!

Now that we know about the effects, this is what happens when we don't stop context - switching:

Health goes for a toss.
Productivity is nonexistent.
Days, months, years are wasted.

How you can use this knowledge to your advantage:

The message is clear - if we chose the default mode, we're not going anywhere. So, we need to be fierce when it comes to protecting our time and focus. Here are some good strategies which have helped me a lot:

First, the basics.

For your phone:

First, audit your notifications. Which apps are notifying you the most? Can you delete those apps? If not:

Remove all notifications. Whatsapp, Insta, twitter, everything. I use my phone like a phone - only calls and sometimes SMS notify me. It’s even better if you can delete all these apps and use them when needed from your laptop.
Use airplane mode. This is the best productivity "app". When you're not notified, you won't context - switch.
Keep your phone out of sight. Even if you use silent mode, you can still see your screen. So, don't be best friends with your phone always.

For your computer / laptop:

First audit why you're switching between applications. I bet the answer is notifications. Find the applications you use a lot / have on always. Then:

Turn off all notifications. e.g. for your mailbox and slack / teams chat. I bet this is contributing to 80 % of your notifications.
Exit the applications. Open them only 2 /3 times a day. Does you job need you to reply within an hour of receiving a mail / message? Chances are, maybe not. Exit the applications, and schedule email or message check times in your calendar.
At all other times, you can focus on actual work.

Once this is set up, you can explore and use these techniques to get more work done in less time.

Pomodoro technique.

Here you pick one task, work on it for 25 minutes, take a break, work for another 25 minutes and repeat.

I’ve written more about it here.

Batching

It means, group similar tasks together. Complete them in batches.

I’ve written more about it here.

Timeboxing

Timeboxing simply means to block your calendar for a fixed time to work on 1 task. I’ve written more about it here.

I hope this concept helps you become more productive, reduce stress and frustration. I am building my focus from ~ 30 minutes to my aim which is 90 minutes. These strategies have helped me a lot.

If you found this helpful, share with someone who will benefit.