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attention
You lose time with every shift in focus.
A 2001 study found that task-switching costs result in significant drops in efficiency when moving between different types of mental work.
The brain requires time to reorganize its rules for a new task, a process called 'switch cost'. Even if the switch takes less than a second, frequent changes add up to hours of lost productivity over a week. You are not a multitasker; you are a rapid switcher.
Constant context switching is a hidden tax on your time.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001, Journal of Experimental Psychology
- What the check found
- The study (Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans, 2001) exists and established the existence of 'switch costs,' but the specific translation into 'hours of lost productivity' is a common interpretative extrapolation, not a primary result.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.