Context Switching Cost and the Maker's Schedule

Context Switching Cost and the Maker’s Schedule

The Hidden Tax on Engineering Productivity

You sit down to work on a complex system design problem. Twenty minutes in, your phone buzzes - a Slack message about tomorrow’s meeting. You respond. You return to your design doc. Another ten minutes pass. Calendar notification: standup in 5 minutes. You attend standup. Fifteen minutes later, you’re back at your desk, staring at the design doc, trying to remember where you were.

The morning is gone. You’ve “worked” for three hours but made twenty minutes of actual progress.

This isn’t a discipline problem. It’s a context switching cost problem.

What Is Context Switching Cost?

Context switching cost is the cognitive overhead of moving between different types of tasks or mental states. When you switch from deep technical work to a meeting, then to reviewing a PR, then back to technical work, you pay a “switching tax” each time.

Research from the University of California, Irvine found that it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully regain focus after an interruption. Not seconds. Not minutes. Nearly half an hour.

For knowledge workers, especially engineers working on complex problems, the cost is even higher:

• Working memory must be rebuilt: You need to reload the mental model of the system, the problem, the constraints
• Mental context is fragile: Deep technical work requires holding multiple abstractions simultaneously in your head
• Warm-up time is non-linear: The first 15-20 minutes of a session is just getting back to where you were

Studies estimate that knowledge workers lose 40% of their productive time to context switching and interruptions.

The Maker’s Schedule vs The Manager’s Schedule

Paul Graham famously articulated two different types of schedules:

Manager’s Schedule:

• Day divided into 30-minute or 1-hour blocks
• Switching between meetings, decisions, conversations
• Optimized for breadth: touch many things, coordinate people, make decisions
• Context switching is the job

Maker’s Schedule:

• Day divided into half-day blocks minimum
• Long, uninterrupted periods for deep work
• Optimized for depth: build complex mental models, solve hard problems
• Context switching destroys productivity

The problem: Most engineers’ calendars look like manager schedules, but their work demands maker schedules.

The Science: Why Context Switching Hurts So Much

Attention Residue Theory

Research by Sophie Leroy at the University of Minnesota introduced the concept of “attention residue.” When you switch tasks, part of your attention remains stuck on the previous task. You’re not fully present on the new task because your brain is still processing the old one.

The effect is worse for:

• Unfinished tasks: Your brain keeps background-processing the incomplete work
• Complex tasks: More mental load = more residue left behind
• High-stakes tasks: Emotional investment creates stronger residue

Cognitive Load Theory

Your working memory has limited capacity - typically 4-7 items. Complex technical work loads your working memory to capacity. When you switch contexts:

1. Current mental model must be “written out” (saved)
2. New mental model must be “loaded in”
3. Process has overhead - it’s lossy and slow

Each switch reduces your effective working memory capacity.

Neurological Evidence

fMRI studies show that multitasking and frequent task switching:

• Increases cortisol (stress hormone) production
• Reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex (executive function)
• Activates the brain’s “novelty seeking” reward system

You’re literally chemically motivated to context switch, even though it makes you less effective.

Measuring Your Own Context Switching Cost

Before optimizing, measure. For one week, track:

• Time to depth: How long from sitting down until you’re fully focused?
• Interruptions: Count every Slack ping, meeting, email check
• Recovery time: After an interruption, how long until you’re productive again?
• Deep work blocks: How many uninterrupted 2+ hour blocks did you have?

Most engineers are shocked by the data. The typical pattern:

• 0-1 deep work blocks per week
• 15-30 interruptions per day
• 15-25 minutes average recovery time
• 3-4 hours of “fake work” - time spent working but not producing value

Implementing a Maker’s Schedule: Practical Strategies

1. Schedule Your Deep Work First

Most engineers schedule meetings, then hope to find time for deep work in the gaps. Reverse this:

• Block 4-hour minimum chunks for deep work in your calendar
• Make them recurring: “Focused Work - Do Not Schedule”
• Treat them as non-negotiable as customer meetings
• Schedule them during your peak cognitive hours

Example schedule:

• Monday/Wednesday/Friday: 9am-1pm = Deep work blocks
• Tuesday/Thursday: Meeting days (batch all meetings)

2. Implement “Office Hours” for Interruptions

Instead of being available all day:

• Set specific times when you’re interruptible: “Available for questions 2-3pm and 4-5pm”
• Put this in your Slack status and calendar
• Train your team to batch questions for office hours
• For urgent issues, define “urgent” clearly (production down = urgent, code review = not urgent)

3. Batch Similar Tasks

Context switching between different task types is costlier than switching within similar tasks:

• Code review time: Review all PRs in a single 30-minute block
• Email/Slack time: Check 2-3x per day, not continuously
• Meeting time: Batch meetings on specific days or in specific time blocks
• Administrative work: Batch expense reports, planning docs, etc.

4. Use the “Park on a Downslope” Technique

Hemingway famously stopped writing mid-sentence so he’d know where to start the next day. Apply this to technical work:

• End deep work sessions with a clear “next step” note
• Don’t finish everything - leave something easy to start with
• Write a 2-minute summary: “Where I am, what’s next, open questions”

This reduces warm-up time from 20+ minutes to 5 minutes.

5. Protect the First Hour

The first hour of your day sets the tone. Don’t:

• Check Slack immediately
• Read emails first thing
• Attend early morning meetings

Do:

• Start with your hardest technical problem
• Work for 60-90 minutes before any communication
• Use the fresh mental state for deep thinking

6. Create Rituals to Reduce Switching Cost

Rituals help your brain transition between contexts:

Starting deep work:

• Same location (desk, coffee shop, specific room)
• Same music or silence
• Same beverage
• Clear desk, close unnecessary apps

Ending deep work:

• 5-minute journal: what did I accomplish, what’s next
• Clear working memory by externalizing it
• Physical transition: walk, stretch, change location

Rituals reduce the cognitive load of switching by making it automatic.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Pitfall 1: Guilt About Being “Unavailable”

Mindset shift: Responsiveness is not productivity. Delivering high-quality work is productivity.

Set expectations: “I check Slack during office hours. For urgent issues, call me.”

Most “urgent” things aren’t. The few that are will find you.

Pitfall 2: Meetings in the Middle of the Day

A single 30-minute meeting at 11am destroys both your morning and afternoon deep work blocks. You have 90 minutes before (not enough) and 90 minutes after lunch (fragmented).

Solution: Push meetings to the beginning or end of the day. Advocate for “meeting-free mornings” or “meeting-free afternoons.”

Pitfall 3: Multitasking During Meetings

If a meeting doesn’t need your full attention, decline it. If you must attend, don’t try to code during it. You’ll do both poorly.

Solution: Before accepting a meeting, ask: “What decisions need my input?” If none, send a delegate or request async updates.

Pitfall 4: Reactive Communication

Treating Slack/email like a real-time obligation creates constant context switching.

Solution: Communication SLAs based on channel:

• Production emergency: Immediate (phone call)
• Blocker: 2-hour response time
• Question: 4-hour response time
• FYI: Daily response time

Communicate these SLAs to your team.

Measuring Success

After implementing maker’s schedule strategies, track improvements:

• Deep work hours per week: Target 15-20 hours (up from typical 2-5)
• Time to depth: Target under 10 minutes (down from 20-30)
• Meeting percentage: Target under 30% of work week (down from 50-60%)
• Output quality: Self-assess complexity of problems solved

The goal isn’t to eliminate all context switching - collaboration and communication matter. The goal is to protect enough continuous time for the work that requires it.

For Staff Engineers Specifically

As you become more senior, you’ll get pulled into more meetings, decisions, and strategic work. The maker’s schedule becomes even more critical:

1. Block time aggressively: Your calendar will fill up if you don’t defend it
2. Delegate synchronous work: Can someone else attend that meeting?
3. Model the behavior: Protect your team’s deep work time too
4. Communicate the why: Help stakeholders understand maker time vs. manager time
5. Choose your leverage: Some context switches (mentoring, unblocking others) are high-leverage. Most aren’t.

The Bottom Line

Context switching is the silent killer of engineering productivity. You can’t eliminate it, but you can dramatically reduce it through intentional schedule design.

The key insight: Your calendar is a tool, not a burden. It should serve your work, not dictate it.

Start small:

• Block one 4-hour deep work session next week
• Measure your interruptions for 3 days
• Batch one category of tasks (meetings, code reviews, emails)

Engineering is fundamentally a maker discipline. Protect your maker time like you’d protect production uptime - because it’s just as critical to your ability to deliver.