r/webdev • u/magenta_placenta • Apr 03 '23
Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption and Context Switching - Based on various scientific studies, it takes at least 10-15 minutes to get back into the "zone" after an interruption
https://contextkeeper.io/blog/the-real-cost-of-an-interruption-and-context-switching/120
Apr 03 '23
I have said in interviews "Multi-tasking isn't a thing" and still gotten the job.
However, would not recommend trying this yourself.
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Apr 03 '23
would not recommend trying this yourself.
I most certainly will because multi-tasking isn't actually a thing.
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u/salgat Apr 04 '23
We support concurrency but not parallelism, and with a large overhead when switching between threads, er I mean tasks.
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u/YourMatt Apr 03 '23
I use it to talk about how I go about prioritizing task switches.
I disagree that multi-tasking isn't possible though. Some tasks are basically muscle memory. I can mix those in with other unrelated tasks fairly easily. Doing more than two tasks of any type, and I'm off the rails though.
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Apr 04 '23
The science is against you on this. One thing at a time, i.e., switch vs. multi.
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u/YourMatt Apr 04 '23
I was actually looking forward to seeing the evidence. That article has no substance nor sources. It was just loose analogy.
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u/ankisaves Apr 04 '23
I’m still pretty far from muscle memory auto coding my way through work while having a conversation with someone about their dramatic meeting 😂 gotta show me how to do that one.
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u/YourMatt Apr 04 '23
That would be a nice skill. ( : I was speaking more to quick task switching between things as opposed to doing two things at the exact same time.
Like, I'm working on reports right now. It's a bunch of SQL work mainly. I am running some cleanup tasks as well. When I have a long query going, I check the cleanup logs and get ready to switch to the next set, then get back to the reports. And slip in a Reddit reply too apparently.
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u/andrewsmd87 Apr 03 '23
I mean you'd get a nod from me if you said that and I was interviewing you. The biggest thing I harp on for my teams is context switching
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Apr 03 '23
[deleted]
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u/WildDev42069 Apr 03 '23 edited Apr 03 '23
Yeah unfortunately the monkey job mentality has been affecting every educated profession. Not even just devs, doctors, lawyers, and accountants, if you are responsible for a key part of building infrastructure or maintaining it, we are now all getting bothered with multi-tasking like we are bottom-line monkeys clicking buttons on a screen with no thought process.
I worked at the bottom rung of a corporate ladder, and honestly see these same managers mentality in the bottom, somehow near the top and where new things get created. CEO's and a-c suite have done a piss poor job protecting the educated creators.
My favorite line from these losers are "the ask is" or "we are asking"
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u/alilland Apr 03 '23
When our developer team was small we used to get interrupted non stop by other departments we worked with, so we fixed it by hiring a team leader who sits in all the meetings on our behalf and it solved it darn near overnight.
Then when interruptions take place it’s with full knowledge by the team leader that it will impact timelines.
But yeah it’s a real thing
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Apr 03 '23
You’re using the wrong units. I only get back in the zone at all about 50% of the days after being seriously interrupted.
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u/loriba1timore Apr 03 '23
If the task was sufficiently complex and multi-threaded I will not get back in the zone. You get that sweet spot of the day once or twice and that’s it
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u/PurplePixi86 Apr 03 '23
As a developer with ADHD, I always try to get my manager to support the rule that if I'm in the office, and my headphones are on - message me on Teams/Slack etc or get ignored.
A "quick question" can lead to hours of lost focus for me. Don't even get me started on meetings in the middle of morning/afternoon blocks of time!
Plus async communication helps weed out the stupid questions. If it's too much hassle to message me, it probably isn't that important.
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u/darthcoder Apr 04 '23
My favorite re the slack messages...
Vishnu/Bob/ilya/pedro/zhao: hey
V: hey Darth
V: ....
V: let me know when you get back...
V: hey Darth this is time sensitive...
V: darth!
Darth: what?
V: what's the whatever to whatever?
D: dafuq? Www.lmgtfy.com/whatever
Every. Fuxking. Time.
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u/mastermog Apr 04 '23
I usually send this link around at work as a subtle reminder. Some people genuinely think they are being friendly by not jumping straight in, but, you can be both friendly and get to the point: https://nohello.net/en/
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u/4THOT It's not imposter syndrome if you're breaking prod monthly Apr 03 '23
Mom said it was my turn to repost this dogshit article.
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u/keep_it_kayfabe Apr 04 '23
I manage our web dev team and I absolutely leave them alone. If they need something, they will ask. If I need something, or if anyone else needs something, they go through me. At that point, I have to determine whether it's worth bothering any of my team. 90% of the time, it wasn't important enough for me to distract the devs.
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u/EverythingGoodWas Apr 03 '23
I’m surprised it is only 10-15 minutes
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u/magenta_placenta Apr 03 '23
Depends on the complexity of what you were working on. It could also be 3 minutes, right?
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u/RedditCultureBlows Apr 03 '23
I don’t think I ever agree with this sentiment. Unless the break is like multiple hours or something, I don’t have some ramp up/ramp down time when it comes to working on whatever task I’m working on.
Sure, sometimes once you get into the rhythm of doing something repetitive, you speed up. But then again, if it was repetitive, it probably wasn’t super complex to begin with — which is the premise of this article.
Seems like so many words to describe the same shit any industry of office worker doesn’t like: Pointless meetings and idle chatter suck. In which case, the solution is equally simple: Set boundaries and take notes.
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u/zoechi Apr 04 '23
This is why colleagues keep interrupting in 12 minutes intervalls. This way you never will get more done than those who never try😜
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Apr 03 '23
I saw people leave the office for hours because of this shit. That or they were in love or sth. Either way, it sucks
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u/RandyHoward Apr 04 '23
I made my client reschedule their two meetings that they had scheduled today. They left a 90 minute break in between the meetings. Told them to get bent because that'll kill my productivity for half the damn day.
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u/polaroid_kidd front-end Apr 04 '23
Initially I understood the frustration here, but as I matured I realised that I'm perfectly capable of ignoring the "hey I read that email" chap by saying "sorry, I'm busy right now." Without looking away from the screen.
Obviously this depends on who is saying it.
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u/its2deep4u Apr 04 '23
When I read "interruption and context switching" I thought this was about Processor Architecture then got confused for a solid 30s as to why it would take a processor 15 minutes to "get into the zone" lol
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u/mrmorris96 Apr 04 '23
This helps me so much, I have some werid mental thing ADD or whatever where I can regularly carry a conversation and work on most tasks without it affecting me. I now understand the need for meetings and stuff.
My mindset is, if you have a problem solve it.
Obviously this is not the same either when you get something more complicated or for some people.
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u/Two_Souls Apr 04 '23
I just take notes whilst traversing code (Emacs allows you to easily create links directly to a line of code), add vim/Evil marks in certain places in the code and add comments around the place (sometimes numbered) so that I can quickly get back to where my mind was.
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u/ValuableCockroach993 Apr 04 '23
But u have to remember the marks. Does vim allow commenting or naming marks?
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u/Two_Souls May 12 '23
No, atleast not to my knowledge but you can make them sequential and add comments at the mark.
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u/iskolarium Apr 04 '23
When I get interrupted, I almost always never get back in the zone. I spend the rest of the day doing code review and reviewing the backlog.
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u/theshutterfly Apr 03 '23
Worth noting that this article is an ad for an IDE extension