Context switching
Every time a person moves from one task to an unrelated one, there is a cost: a period of reduced focus while attention reorients to the new context. This is true even when the switch feels quick or effortless, and the cost compounds as switches become more frequent through the day.
In a work setting, context switching is driven by fragmented calendars, interruptions from messaging tools, and a habit of keeping many open threads running at once. It is one of the main reasons a day with a reasonable number of hours can still feel unusually draining.
Sloane infers likely context switching from calendar structure, such as short gaps between unrelated meetings, and from team-tool metadata, such as message frequency and timing across different channels, without reading the content of any message.
The goal of flagging heavy context switching is not to eliminate it entirely, since some is unavoidable in most jobs, but to notice when it has become unusually high for a particular person and to suggest small, practical ways to protect at least one uninterrupted block in the day.
Related terms
- Calendar load, A measure of how demanding a person's schedule is, based on meeting density, back-to-back bookings and time actually left free, rather than headcount of meetings alone.
- Deep work, Extended, uninterrupted time spent on cognitively demanding tasks, generally requiring blocks of thirty minutes or more free from meetings and notifications.
- Meeting fragmentation, The extent to which a day's meetings are scattered in short, disconnected blocks rather than grouped together, leaving little usable time in between.