Hey Reader

One of the biggest challenges I face when it comes to getting stuff done are side quests 😅

(No jokes, I've been on 3 and counting since writing that first sentence. If you were curious, the side quests were cancelling an online membership, making a Google Drive folder to share pictures with my friends, and scrolling on Instagram 🤦‍♀️)

Some side quests are very obviously not helping me (looking at you, IG!) while others don't seem to be quite so bad.

Cancelling that membership? That's going to save me money.

Making that folder? My friends have been waiting on those pictures for weeks.

But outside of the fact that they are obviously distracting me from something I should be working on, there's also something worse that needs to be acknowledged.

The context switching tax.

Context switching, or changing between different tasks and things, can kill our focus and drain our energy.

Before I accidentally let myself slip into another side quest, let's have a look 👀

The idea - The context switching tax

Whenever we switch from one task to another, our brains pay a cost.

This "tax" is called cognitive residue or attention residue. This is where thoughts from a previous task linger in the mind, causing a loss of focus and reduced productivity when switching to a new activity.

What looks like quickly jumping into a new browser window to look something up or replying to a message that just came in can have consequences that go beyond the 30 seconds it took to do the tiny task.

It might not seem like a big deal, but the effects of attention residue can actually last up to 20 minutes with each change, causing a big loss in our focus, mental energy, and thus productivity.

A one-time context switch? That's not ideal. Over the course of a full day though, this can leave us feeling drained.

If our days come with a lot of context switching, we can end up feeling like we're constantly busy, but also may not have all that much to show towards the stuff that really mattered.

That work that we should have done, or wanted to do not only kept getting interrupted, but even when we were working on it, every interruption made our next 20-or-so minutes ineffective.

Reducing the context switching tax

Fully eliminating context switching isn't super realistic, but there are still things we can do to lessen it!

Task Batching

Group "like" tasks together so that they can be worked on during the same period of time. They could be similar based on the tools or materials you need to use, the type of work, the location, or more. The higher the similarity of the tasks, the less the effects of cognitive residue will be!

Focus Time

If your biggest side quest instigator are notifications, shut them off! Use the "do not disturb" features on your devices to give you a break from the pop-ups, banners and chimes that are trying to switch your focus. A lot of modern devices will have custom settings you can use to turn focus time on automatically. One less thing to remember!

Transition Resets

Cognitive residue is especially problematic when changing between tasks that are complex or require us to hold multiple ideas in mind. If you're going to be changing between two mentally demanding tasks, give your brain a moment to transition. Rather than jumping straight into the next thing, do a "transition ritual" like close your browser tabs, standing up, stretching, or something else that gives your brain a little reset.

Task Parking Lot

One reason side quests derail me as much as they do is because I worry I won't remember to do the thing later 😅 To help with this, I could use a task parking lot to safely capture the thought rather than immediately acting on it. This would just be a list specifically for those random thoughts and tasks that pop up. Yes, I could always add those to my daily task list, but I usually like to keep that for just the things I actually want to do rather than things which might just be busy work.

Currently excited about

Okay yeah, I got sucked into another side quest, but this one is so pretty! 😝

Archer & Olive (a.k.a. one of my favourite stationery brands) released their summer collection this week, so I needed to make a shopping list 😂 The fairy house design is pretty dang cute 🧚‍♀️

If you wanted to have a snoop, and possibly grab some goodies for yourself, just hit the button below! Remember you can use code JashiiCorrin10 at checkout to save yourself 10% off if you'd like; we love savings! 🥳

Let's take action

If you find yourself susceptible to context switching, try out one of the strategies we talked about!

• Task batching
• Focus time
• Transition resets
• Task parking lot

If you've got any other strategies to combat context switching and cognitive residue though, I'd love to hear them! Hit reply and let me know about your tactics 😄

Until next time!

- Jess