Task Switching vs. Context Switching

Tasks that require a similar type of attention, use similar parts of your brain, are best combined.

Imagine you have five errands to run during the week while writing a 10-page proposal due Monday. Do you dash out after lunch each day/few hours to take care of one of them, come back and write, do another bit of writing. Of course not! Wouldn’t it make more sense to run all your errands at once, maybe on a Saturday or Sunday. When you cluster similar tasks together, you become more efficient.

I’ve talked in the past about how Task-Switching has a cost, it leaves an attention residue. It takes time for the mind to regain focus after an interruption. Context-Switching has even a higher cost than Task Switching. When you do both Task-Switching and Context-Switching is it like double taxation.

Schedule separate clusters of time to minimize Context-Switching. You’ll still pay task-switching fees, but you’ll cut your context-switching fees way down. Take a break after each cluster to allow the fog to clear, and you’ll be ready to tackle the next cluster.

Let’s say you want to email your administrative assistant, finish a quarterly report, and pick up your kid from school. Those tasks are totally unrelated. Emailing your admin assistant is a simple task, while your quarterly report requires deep work. And picking your kid up is a different mental and physical context altogether.

FACTS:

When we switch tasks or contexts, we pay a fee in the form of attention residue.
Context-switching fees are higher than task-switching fees.
This is because tasks from the same context use the same part of the brain.
You can avoid the double taxation by clustering tasks of the same context into “slots”.

Set a 30-min block to “Clear Email”. The only thing you’ll do during that time is email. Now you can work your task list one context block at a time. Each time you finish a block, you’ll get a little hit of dopamine.

Other examples of grouping tasks by context could be:

going through several applications for a new job position;
brainstorming the brand name and writing the marketing copy for it;
Marking up 2 different proposals.

SOLUTIONS:

Task lists are not ideal, but if you use a task list, at least break the tasks down similar contexts.
Schedule time blocks based on context (research, writing, etc.).
Advanced: build habits, routines and rituals for switching contexts.

“Staring at a task list… where it's 15 different unrelated things,

is literally inhuman in the sense that it does not match

the way the human brain works.”

– Cal Newport,

bestselling author, attention management expert,

and Georgetown professor