Early in my carrier I was trying to do as much as possible in a shorter period of time. It is a common pitfall for engineers and non-engineers. But the more complex is the mechanism and tools we need to work with the bigger is the impact of negative context switching. At the end of the day it’s exhaustion, not productivity.

Human brain is single-threaded. We can’t process multiple ideas in our conscious mind at the same time. Moreover it is not enough to process just the idea. We must “load” into our working memory idea and the context of the idea.

The context is the chain of associations that helps us to reason, connect items we’re processing one to each other. All together builds an understanding and comprehension of the reality. What is happening, why it is happening. It is required to achieve anything. Otherwise we’re naturally afraid of unknown. Most of the time we unconsciously avoid it.

As you see we can not start thinking about breakfast, then jump on to how to build a server cluster, then get back to coding new feature. This bloats the context. I imagine impulses in our neuron network is getting lost trying to follow too many routes, I’m unsure it’s scientific, though.

Why it is not working? According to experiments one interruption for engineers may cost around 30 minutes of productive time. How this happens?

When we are thinking about the feature we are implementing - we are keeping a lot of information in our context. Once we are asked about different feature, update, event - we have to switch the context. We can’t recall the answer immediately, because our thinking is using chain mechanisms. So we are bringing the context that replaces the existing one, we are providing an answer and getting back to current task.

This is the moment when there is a very high chance of giving up on the task. Because initial context must be restored. It is effort, and our brain consumes glucose (the energy) in high amounts when working intense. It is both: stress and load. And it is natural for our body to conserve the energy, rather to spend it. Therefore it requires discipline to get back to the work in such circumstances.

The same reason (energy conservation) work for our mind not being fully involved and interested in current task. In this case we are scanning reality to find distraction for ourselves. Because that thing looks better, more important etc. We find the reason later.

How to avoid it? First of all - pick the effort correctly. When it’s too complex - we can’t even dive in because we have no idea where to start. If it’s too simple - it seems boring. When it’s understandable yet challenging - there is a high chance of getting into the flow state.

As a second comes discipline. Pomodoro, eat the frog, know your “why” - there are many techniques and frameworks. Start doing. And keep the pace. One frog - every day. Or 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest (I hate it to be honest). For people obsessed with their goals and work there is one hard thing, that’s worth to mention. Pace is not only about the work. It is also about the rest. If you can’t focus back on your new feature - isn’t it the time for high quality rest?