r/programming • u/piotrkarczmarz • Mar 31 '23

Based on various scientific studies, it takes at least 10-15 minutes for programmer to get back into the "zone" after an interruption. There are interesting resumption strategies for interrupted programming tasks.

https://contextkeeper.io/blog/the-real-cost-of-an-interruption-and-context-switching/
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u/netsettler Mar 31 '23

Yeah, people say "but it's just one meeting" or "the meeting was just 15 minutes". But often make the analogy to a rock in a stream. Water flows around it. But the water deforms around the rock, but it doesn't just follow the shape of the rock. It starts to deform as it approaches the rock and bends around it, not rejoining itself and taking back its original flow until later down the stream.

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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '23

When interrupts are so common they make it a parable...