Context Switching

"In its simplest form context switching is jumping between various, unrelated tasks.[1]". That article describes the impact further "People can't actually do more than one task at a time. Instead we switch tasks. So the term that is used in the research is 'task switching'."

Types of Context Switching

Classic multitasking: Trying to perform more than one task at a time.

Rapid task switching: Going from one task to another in quick succession.

Interrupted task switching: Having to switch from one task to another, before the first task is complete; the mother of all time sucks.[2]

Unskillful multitasking is inefficient. Starting and stopping a task in the middle and then coming back to it requires ramp up and ramp down[3].

Why Does this Happen

The primary cause from observations is a lack of an initiation protocol for work and projects that have significant Level of Effort (LOE). In addition, an overabundance of job responsibilities on a single person can lead to excessive context switching.

An additional possible cause is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)[[4]].

Lastly, lack of clear accountability and organizational structure may cause requests to occur in a matrix type method AKA Organizational Thrashing. This is where requests are duplicated across different teams, sourced from multiple directions and a lack of clear accountability causes everyone to attempt to solve the issue simultaneously. When coupled with lack of a Project Initiation process, can result in organizational thrashing.

Where computers thrash when they rapidly exchanging data in memory for data on disk, organizational thrashing is a similar phenomenon.

Impact

According to Psychology Today, one can lose up to 40% productivity if one multi-tasks[5].

Staffing - There is some research that excessive context switching can lower the human IQ by as many as 15 points[[6]]. In observations, organizational thrashing leads to a heavy workload without progress in completing tasks.

Shelfware, or tools and investments which are un(der)utilized.

Process - Without an effective Project initiation process, processes fail as human resources Context Switch while attempting to balance competing priorities.

Additional Resources

Author Greg McKeown's book Essentialism[[7]] details many of these concepts.