There’s nothing like being in the zone at work: your ‘deep work mode’ Slack status is on and you’re tearing through your tasks, ticking things off your to-do list and completely focused on getting things done. But then a distraction – a doorbell, phone call or well-meaning colleague coming for a chat – jolts you out of your flow state, and suddenly it’s an uphill battle to get back on track.

The psychological name for it is ‘context switching’, but think about it like mentally changing channels. However, every time you switch gears from one task to another, you’re not just changing tasks, you’re rewiring your brain’s focus and attention, which can have some unfortunate knock-on effects. 

According to a study titled The Cost Of Interrupted Work, while about 82% of all interrupted work is resumed on the same day, it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to a task after flow is broken. Nearly 30 minutes for every Instagram scroll, vampire task, email check and water-cooler chat – and that’s not even taking ‘resumption lag’ into account, the mental reboot time it takes to gather your wits and dive back into your original task.

Clearly, a lot of time can be lost to the odd break in flow, however this shouldn’t demonise the idea of taking breaks. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Taking much-needed and deserved (intentional) breaks throughout the working day is one thing, but getting distracted (involuntarily) is another. After all, studies suggest that taking microbreaks of 10 minutes or less is associated with reduced fatigue and increased vigour.

So while multitasking may feel like a hack for getting more done in a day, it can make it harder to truly commit to one task, impacting not just productivity but the quality of your work. So when you can, avoid side tasks and minimise any distractions, but remember that it’s OK if some days are less productive than others. 

Images: Getty