Ask IH: How do you avoid context switching?
I find myself switching to email and emailing myself all the time instead of switching to a given app to try to avoid breaking flow. As a side note: One thing I really hate having to deal with is my laziness later on when I have to organize it. Usually it's todos, links for later, notes, ideas, etc.
I'm currently building Hitsnag.com which has email shortcuts into anywhere in the main apps I use like Notion.so and Trello so I can just send the info where it will eventually end up ahead of time.
I'm trying to make it where it's in any messaging platform you can send from too with a lot more apps.
How do you personally avoid context switching?
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That's a tough one. Context switching is a big problem that goes unnoticed most of the time because it's hard to understand how difficult it is to get back "in the zone" and how much it affects our productivity.
If you use Slack 30 min a day in one go is not as bad as checking it 10 times for 3 mins. And both are the same total time.
And because you're asking, I'm also building timeivy.com an app that helps you understand, among other things, how many times during the day you switch between app. Being aware is the first step to changing things.
Nice! Does it also work with tracking how often you pick up your phone?
I have tried many strategies. My current strategy of avoiding context switching works extremely well for me:
Closing Mail, Slack, and other tools that try to steal my attention.
Capture new ideas, notes, or todos:
Pen and paper and just write them down. It's nice and easy and prevents me from having to think about where I want to sort it now. I just write it down and move on. I then always sit down for 15 minutes in the evening and then calmly think about what things are important and whether I want to keep them or not. These are questions I don't want to worry about when I'm just concentrating on my work. And another big advantage: I don't clutter myself with useless todos and links.
I also used to email myself links to interesting articles for a while. And I have to admit that I usually didn't click on the links later because they weren't that interesting after all. They were interesting for the moment.