Almost all discussions on deep work and flow, end in some version of "we should minimise context switching". I am wondering if in addition to designing our work to minimise context switches, we should also develop techniques (or solutions) to help recover from a context switch.<p>Are there any techniques or solutions you use to help recover from a context switch or get back to flow after a break?<p>I have no training in neuroscience and my layman analysis tells me this is essentially a problem of reclaiming the working memory or to put simply, it is a ~10 word answer to "what was I doing".<p>Thoughts?
I keep a notebook that lets me (hopefully) reestablish context when given a date. This means I use it for scribble, planning, reipminders, summaries and code changes. All in one place and on paper in a very nice engineering spiral notebook as I have never found anything digital that is as flexible and robust as pen and paper. When I had to do summaries of my time, I just looked over the last week. And it sits at my right hand <i>all</i> the time.
The author Ernest Hemmingway recommended stopping writing halfway through a sentence in order to be able to pick up where you left off more easily. I've tried this with code and it doesn't work for me, but it does <i>seem</i> to work for things like documentation and planning.