Why are small distractions impacting my day so much?
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Question
During the pandemic, at least the premier institutes of my country are operating in work from home mode. Since this lessens the physical activity of going around labs and classrooms daily I tried to setup a fixed timetable and working environment for myself to do learning and research and was successful in doing so.
But over time, I observed the following phenomenon
Utilizing the day (fruitfully) to full extent if and only if there is no distraction. Distractions include very small tasks including meeting colleagues outside home and spending few minutes with them. Phone conversations with supervisor etc.
I am surprised to learn that my whole day becomes under-utilized if distraction happens during early parts of my day. And I am not in a position to know the exact reason behind it. Ideally, I need to break only a few minutes from my timetable and can utilize the remaining time. To my surprise, it is not happening. Either I am spending my time randomly or I am unable to properly concentrate on my work. This phenomenon generally did not happen or happened only to a very minute extent during non-pandemic days.
Is this phenomenon normal or do I need to completely prevent/avoid distractions?
Answer
The issue you're experiencing is the problem of context switching. Multitasking can result in a 40% productivity cost, make tasks take 50% longer, and increase errors. After an interruption it can take ~25 minutes to regain focus. (It's hard to find good citations for these numbers, unfortunately.)
The solution to your problem is to guard your time.
- Determine what priority you should assign to what you need to do. Consider using the Ivy Lee method.
- Turn off buzzers, ringers, alert sounds, and dialog messages. These interrupt periods of focus. Leaving alerts on implicitly places others' prioritization of your time above your own. If you don't manage your devices they will manage you.
- Consider using something like the Pomodoro technique or similar strategies to interleave focused time with breaks and outside communication. While scheduling a whole day might be hard, committing to doing something without interruption for 30 minutes is something you must be able to do to get anything done.
- Try to understand where your tasks fall in the time management quadrants and value/prioritize them accordingly:
