You’re unlikely to finish this article. I may have diverted your attention to another tab in your browser. Or a notification from a coworker.
Our workdays increasingly represent a Herculean struggle between emails, messages, and news alerts on one side and our dwindling attention on the other. With the added pressures of working from home, the average work day can feel like a never-ending whirlwind.
Context switching refers to the all-too-familiar experience of switching between screens, apps, and tasks in response to interruptions. And there’s a reason — well, several reasons — why getting things done is so tricky when context switching is your daily reality.
While our technology can handle context switches seamlessly, our human brains cannot. Every time we are interrupted in the middle of a task, we pay a tax on our time and attention.
What exactly is context switching?
When we switch apps, our computers shunt processing power from one request to another, putting the first on hold until we return to it.
While our technology can handle context switches seamlessly, our human brains cannot. Every time we are interrupted in the middle of a task, we pay a tax on our time and attention.
When you’re working on a report, you tap the notification to see if there’s anything important. You’ve switched from your report to your inbox. It’s a request for data from your boss. It’s not a big deal because she won’t need it until the end of the week. You mark it as unread to return to your report.
The interruption was only about five minutes long. However, as you return to your report, a portion of your attention is drawn to the email. This is known as attention residue, making finishing the report more difficult. Interruptions have the following effect, according to Sophie LeRoy, a researcher at the University of Minnesota and an expert in human attention:
“People who experience attention residue after switching tasks are more likely to perform poorly on the next task.” The worse the performance, the thicker the residue.”
That means that the cost of checking your email wasn’t just the five minutes it took away from your report; you also paid an attention tax on lost time and productivity, which is no less real but much more difficult to quantify. That’s just the cost of switching contexts. The modern knowledge worker spends their entire day juggling many tasks, programs, screens, and tabs. According to a Microsoft study:
“The more time spent on email and face-to-face interaction, as well as the total number of screen switches, the less productive people feel at the end of the day.”
The more your attention is divided, the more difficult it is to focus on any one thing, creating a vicious cycle that results in mental exhaustion and little to show for it.
Why do we switch contexts?
Context switching depletes our attention and productivity, but it’s become so natural to us that we often don’t realize we’re doing it. Why is it so difficult to concentrate?
Our digital tools are intended to cause disruption.
Digital technology has rapidly transformed the way we work and live, and our use of social media, team communication, and other apps has increased dramatically. According to Bain and Harvard Business Review, the average number of apps used per business increased by 43 percent between 2015 and 2018. According to Dropbox, this has resulted in a “complexity explosion”:
“With each new tool or service we add, we create a new network of collaborators and notifications, which introduces new complexities and interdependencies.”
Our technology is designed to interrupt us by default, with features such as notifications and unread message symbols. According to Recode:
“The problem is that sending a message is far easier than figuring out how to get fewer messages or discovering and enabling the software’s various options that could make you more productive.”
According to Rescue Time, most workers can’t go 6 minutes without checking email or instant messages. Even if we don’t respond, seeing a new text or missed call diverts our attention to the point where we struggle to focus on the task at hand, according to Florida State University researchers. According to a study published in the Journal of the Association of Consumer Research, simply having the phone in the same room, even if we’re not looking at it, depletes our cognitive resources.
The cost we pay for each context switching
We context switch because our environments encourage it and it keeps us informed. But at what price?
- Kills Productivity
When we switch contexts, our brains receive multiple stimuli simultaneously. As a result, there is a “response selection bottleneck,” which slows thought and decision-making. Refocusing after being distracted from a task can take up to 23 minutes. Even “brief mental blocks” caused by switching can consume up to 40% of a person’s productive time.
- Impedes Cognitive Function
Every time we switch contexts to check a new message or chat, we overload our brains with information — those report statistics, the wording of that email, the latest social media news — on top of whatever you’re already dealing with. However, our “working memory storage capacity,” or the amount of information we can hold in our heads at one time, is quite limited. - Diminishes Attention
One of our most valuable resources is our attention. However, it is heavily taxed when we switch between multiple interfaces, or when our mind is in a state of “gray chaotic indiscriminateness,” which means our attention is divided and we struggle “to integrate fragmented information into cohesive task structures that make sense.” - Depletes Energy
Our brains simply cannot keep up with the pace of our phones. Going between multiple screens and apps gives us a rush of adrenaline and stress hormones, but we crash and lose energy after a while. We have no space to restore and renew if we are constantly in this mode. - Confuses Priorities
The stress of juggling multiple tasks causes our focus to narrow to what is directly in front of us. We default to working on more immediate, low-value tasks, such as responding to emails as they come in, because we have less capacity to step back, strategize, and focus on higher priorities. We also go into “survival mode,” where our instinct is to do something — anything — to compensate for our stress. In our depleted capacity, however, we seek the low-hanging fruit — again, those emails that we can easily send — rather than writing a report or reading an article, which requires more time and thought.
Techniques for avoiding context switching
Preventing context switching has many advantages. Whether you are finishing work earlier so that it does not interfere with our leisure time or entering the zone of deep work or flow that allows us to do our best work, bringing ourselves a little more calm in a noisy world. Here are nine concrete strategies to help you get through the day:
- Capture tasks in a place other than your head.
Simply thinking about another task divides our attention and makes it difficult to focus on what is in front of us at the time. The problem is that our brains are hardwired to focus on incomplete or interrupted tasks, known as the Zeigarnik Effect. However, studies show that simply planning to complete a task later helps reduce repetitive thoughts about the task.
Designate a place to add and organize your tasks that isn’t in your head: a to-do list on paper or a digital task manager. By capturing tasks to return to later, you can free up your attention to focus on your immediate work rather than remembering what you need to do later. - Have a go-to framework for task setting priorities.
Choosing one thing to focus on at a time begins with deciding what that thing will be. However, when your priorities are unclear, deciding what to do can become a distraction in and of itself. Get clear on what’s important to you by using a go-to framework that you can use over and over to decide what to prioritize.
- Make a list of your tasks and schedule your time accordingly.
Once you’ve decided what you’re going to focus on, you’ll need a daily structure to keep you on track. You may not be able to eliminate context switching from your day, but the following strategies will help you reduce the number of times you must shift your attention:
- Task batching is the process of grouping and performing similar tasks at the same time. For example, instead of bouncing back and forth between work and your inbox all day, answer all your emails simultaneously.
- Time blocking is the practice of dividing your day into blocks such as “meetings,” “email,” and “deep work.” This method takes task batching a step further by requiring you to physically block off time on your calendar for a specific task or group of tasks and only those tasks.
- Theme days: Designating specific days of the week for specific types of tasks. This more extreme form of task batching and time blocking allows you to focus on specific types of work on specific days while deferring other types of work that do not fit with the day’s theme.
- Setting a time limit on how much time you spend on a task is known as time boxing. Time boxing, like time blocking, requires you to set aside blocks of time for specific tasks. The twist is that you must complete the assigned task within the time limit. The time constraint instills a sense of urgency, which sharpens your focus.
- The Pomodoro method is setting a timer while working on a single task and taking frequent breaks. This time boxing variation requires 25 minutes of focused work on a single, clearly defined task, followed by a 5-minute break, with a longer 30-minute break after every four focused sessions.
- Take frequent screen-free breaks.
When we’re battling distractions to finish a project, it’s easy to believe that working a little harder will finally get us there. Breaks allow our overworked brains to rest and recharge. Pushing yourself to work on something that requires concentration when you are tired or hungry has diminishing returns.
- A distraction audit can help you become more aware.
The first step toward breaking a habit is becoming aware that you are doing it. Simply noticing a distraction awakens the unconscious. Keep a journal for a week. Every time you become distracted, write down the time and the source of the distraction. Making a list of distractions will help you become more aware of the triggers that cause you to interrupt yourself, such as fatigue, boredom, or stress. If something tempts you to interrupt yourself, you can take a break or get a snack instead of opening Twitter.
- Remove as many distractions as possible ahead of time.
Even if you only intend to read one email, it’s difficult not to get sucked deeper into your inbox once you’ve opened it. Concentrate on one task, screen, app, and window at a time, and eliminate what causes you to switch contexts in the first place — buzzes and screen notifications, as well as too many tabs in your web browser.
- Your digital life should be decluttered and streamlined.
We have to dig around to figure out what we need to do when we have too many apps to switch between, which leads to context switching. When our digital spaces become cluttered, it takes up space in our minds as well. Reduce the number of screens and apps you have to deal with and get distracted by by decluttering and streamlining:
- Declutter your digital life by reviewing and consolidating your apps and deleting what you don’t need.
- Set up a system to move emails and chats that need to be followed up on to a task manager app, so you’re not using your inbox or team communication tools as your to-do list.
- Connect your to-do app to multiple task sources: Use an integration tool to manage emails, notes, tasks, and support tickets all at once.
- Consolidate notifications: To streamline your accounts, apps, and workflows, combine all of your email accounts, team communication tools, and workflows into a single app.
- Resist the urge to respond immediately.
It’s human nature to want to respond to things as soon as they arrive. You don’t want to stymie things, and it’s nice to have one less message in your inbox. However, you may be sending the message that people should always expect a prompt response from you, which may result in more emails and context switches.
It is critical to strike a balance between responding to the needs of others and doing your own work. Limit the number of times you check email to teach people not to expect immediate responses. You can even set up an email auto-reply that establishes expectations, letting people know that they should not expect an immediate response.
- Encourage deliberate, asynchronous communication.
Contribute to reducing the amount of context switching required by others. Consider how frequently you send emails or chat. Concentrate on the quality of your communications rather than the speed with which they are delivered. If you take the time to understand an issue, put it into context, and write well, it will almost certainly be dealt with faster. Furthermore, limiting your communication will have a negative impact on you.
Don’t forget to have some self-compassion in your efforts to avoid context switching. While it may appear to be a personal failing, it is something that all of us who live and work in digital environments and interruption-heavy work cultures experience, especially those who work from home and care for children or other family members right now. And don’t forget that through our own actions, each of us can model a calmer, more focused, and fully present way of working and living for our colleagues, friends, and family.
Here at MaddLogic, we have a responsibility to present business owners with a variety of mindful tools that empower rather than distract, we can help you integrate apps in your emails to improve the workflow processes and track essential emails and action items from meeting notes. And find the perfect tool for deep work in a team setting. We believe that this will foster focus and limit interruptions. Until we’ve reached that point, hopefully, these strategies above will help you avoid context switching in your own life and permit you to set your undivided attention on what matters to you.
Just in case you’re interested in staying at the top of your game and maximizing your employees’ performance, MaddLogic is here! We are excited to get you started and you can start this conversation by sending us a message or scheduling a meeting with us on this link https://www.calendly.com/maddlogicllc