Managing Context Switching

There is some debate on the productivity effects of context switching and whether or not it is an overall negative experience. This debate is unrelated to the content of this post. This article makes the assumption that context switching is occurring and aims to explore how you can best manage this experience.

Planning

Before jumping into the work, it’s best to take some time to plan and prioritize it. Allocate time for each context you’ll be working in. It’s important to have a few blocks of uninterrupted time where you can be heads down in your work; though as most of you know meetings are inevitable. To help mitigate more jarring interruptions, try, where possible, to schedule meetings adjacent to their context block. It becomes a much smoother transition when you jump into a meeting related to what you’re already working on rather than an entirely unrelated subject.

Prioritization

It is important to have an understanding of how you will prioritize work across the various contexts you’ll be working in. You’ll need to be aware of all deadlines and expectations for your projects, as well as the level of effort, and then decide the best path for completion. This really comes down to your own personal philosophy and understanding how you best work. Some tasks may be more difficult initially while others may be easier but still have a much longer time requirement. Understand what works for you so that you can best optimize your workday.

Note Taking

Taking notes is a very helpful tool to utilize when context switching. These notes can be as thorough or as brief as you desire. Essentially, they are just meant to act as a bookmark for your current progress. Give your notes just the right amount of context that you know you personally need to jump back into the task and quickly get up to speed from where you last left off.

Breaks

Breaks during your work are obviously essential in general, but I believe them to be even more so when dividing your attention between different tasks. Making an effort to schedule breaks between your work when possible can provide a helpful reset and allow you to maintain your desired level of productivity.

Conclusion

Context switching, while not always ideal, seems to be largely inevitable. It’s something you’ll likely have to do at some point and learning how to best navigate it is an essential skill. The above tips are just some general ideas to get you in the right direction but it’s important to tailor or upgrade them to be more suitable for your own workflow. The most important thing to do is to take the time to understand yourself, how you best work, and how you can implement strategies to make your work as productive as possible in a situation where it might be limited.