I am guessing that like me, you believe in the importance of deep work. And because of that, you too are in a never-ending battle against context-shifting.
We know it costs us precious cognitive energy and time.
In part one of this two-article series I pointed out that we can choose to love interruptions. Instead of resisting changes in our day, we can ride the wave of unexpected demands like a surfer—with curiosity, excitement and even equanimity!
But we are still left with the need to produce excellent work—for which we must focus. And if context-shifting is cognitively so costly that we can’t get focused fast enough, loving interruptions isn’t enough.
It feels like a lost cause.
At work, people schedule into your calendar, wrecking your flow. Or, in your home office, the electrician needs you –despite your intention to finish a report.
And if the European team schedules during your favorite deep work time of day, what can you do?
You may be a productivity maven. Me too! I use time blocking, have no alerts, defend hours for concentration—the whole enchilada. But even if you do all of that, new, dissimilar activities still arrive and require task-shifting—with their attendant cognitive costs.
And so, we chide ourselves for succumbing to another shift in context!
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if we could context-shift easily?
Many of us have created complex methodologies for our work just to avoid those challenging shifts.
But they’re unavoidable.
So, maybe we should just get better at switching tasks rather than futilely fighting them.
My Harried Client
I started thinking about this on a call with a client. As a product lead at one of the MAANG companies, her days are non-stop task-switching.
She has a shocking number of direct reports and runs over a dozen separate programs. Although much of her work requires sustained focus—strategizing, planning, and problem-solving—most every day is booked up with short meetings, group work sessions and one-on-ones. Every 20-30 minutes the context shifts.
To achieve deep work, she needs to either quit her job –or master context shifting.
And it occurred to me that that was true all of us.
Context shifting is inevitable. Why aren’t we working on mastering it? [Click to tweet this thought]
A Hopeless Canon
I looked for data to answer my two big questions.
- Can we improve at context shifting?
- If so, how?
The data were hard to find because every search engine and AI chatbot answered the same way: Context shifting is BAD!
I hadn’t even asked that!! I just wanted to get better at it.
But the “experts” are emphatic—and resigned to our ineptitude at context-shifting.
They’re wrong.
Cognitive Flexibility
Efficient context shifting requires a specific skill. Cognitive flexibility.
That is the ability to switch from one kind of task to another (and maintain quality).
It turns out that we control many of the factors that affect our own cognitive flexibility.
For example, having a routine ways of performing a task makes it easier to switch and focus on that task.
Also, we can focus way faster when we know what the next task is. In other words, surprise tasks throw us.
Despite claims to the contrary –we can reduce the cost of context shifting.
These are the things that impact our cognitive flexibility:
o Exercise, Sport, or Tai Chi.
o Mental health (or lack of depression).
o A choice of which tasks you do.
o Routine task approaches.
o Practice at context shifting.
o Knowing what’s next.
o Training Interventions.
This research gives us the foundation to improve!
The lowest-hanging fruit are these:
- Exercise.
- Seize upon whatever control you have about when to do any given task.
- If you are clinically depressed, get help.
But assuming you already have those handled, here are some additional steps you can take to become a faster focuser.
First, Be Present
When we switch to a new task the brain goes through a kind of reorientation. It scouts for references, conversations, or data, and essentially does a recap to get into the new task.
It’s a lot like warming up. We warm up our bodies for sport, our voices for acting, and even the audience for stand-up comedian.
Is there a way to warm-up faster?
Yes.
Paradoxically, it starts with being fully focused the first time.
Imagine you have been working on a deck for a board meeting. You are about halfway through but must leave for a bunch of other duties. It may be days before you get back to it. You have a choice:
- You can simply work on the deck up to the last second and then run out of the office and go to an appointment, or,
- You can give yourself 2 minutes and write a brief note—even within the document.
The note should say just enough to bring your mind back to that moment; the momentary recollection of what you just did, and the anticipation of what you plan to do next.
If you write that note, you do two things.
First, you deepen your connection to the current task. It’s now entrenched in your memory.
And second, you’re pre-context-shifting. When you come back after 4 days of unrelated work, your note—and the memory of writing it—will recreate that moment. You have short-circuited the warm-up.
You can get the same impact without even writing the note: Just deliberately review what you’ve done and plan to do next.
It is a small act of being fully present –and it prepares you to return later.
This also applies to meetings. Take notes – or have an AI take notes. Review the notes after the meeting and then again immediately before the next meeting. Request the same of the other attendees and send them the notes.
You will all focus faster, and the meeting can start without rehashing the last conversation. Meetings are so much better when you don’t waste time getting orientated.
Routinize Tasks
As I mentioned above, having a routine approach to regular tasks reduces the cognitive cost.
For example, say you write a blog. Use the same approach to writing every time.
In other words, create a process and follow it.
It may include how you store ideas, where you keep research, and what kind of software you use to write. But whatever that constellation of steps—commit to one that works for you.
I have a writing routine that includes how and where I store ideas, where I put research links and notes about them and where I write the first draft. The routine is so familiar that at any time or location I can grab a few minutes to write. By simply opening the note for a current writing project, I am instantly back in that mindset. Focused. The routine shifts my brain into context.
Awareness is Preparedness
Don’t let new tasks sneak up on you. Review your calendar at the end of the day for tomorrow –and again in the morning and throughout the day. If you know the sequence of tasks for the day, your brain will work on preparation in the background. You can be fully present in whatever task you’re doing.
These interventions will help you focus faster and reduce the cost of context shifting. Plus, the more you practice, the faster you will become.
A bonus!
Not only will you be more efficient at work –but context shifts increases creativity.
So go for it! Watch TV while doing your toenails. Or go from coding to PTA to a webinar to playing the piano. These are all ways to build your quick-focus muscle, and to spark new ideas.
Context Shifts Happen
I’m not suggesting you give up on time blocking or defending hours for deep work. But the world demands that we constantly task-shift. In other words, the train is already going in that direction.
You can dig your heels in and burn your soles off in the hope of stopping the train.
Or you can hop on and become a master of focusing faster.
