I’ve been getting headaches switching between physical and virtual spaces these days, and I’m convinced it’s primarily because of context-switching. Pavlov would see me like a dog, constantly reacting to pings rather than focusing on what I’m currently working on.
Even the workplace feels like it wants you to focus on so many things, expecting that you become equally productive with them all. If you are not ruthless about creating an ordered list of priority tasks and instead succumb to the pressure of mixing urgent and important, then no wonder you feel tired every day.
Most of us have probably experienced attending a webinar while creating a presentation for a meeting the next hour or even scrolling through social media while “listening” to the speaker attentively. Once the webinar is over, you wouldn’t mind if you barely remember anything at all, and you might justify it with how virtual attendance is what matters.
To what extent will we be okay with multitasking in virtual spaces? And up to what cost?
Habitually engaging with context-switching keeps me from thinking deeply. How about you?
jessa 