4 solves for context-switching

(2 min read) If you struggle with switching between projects and mindsets throughout the day, you might find these tips from Creator Maayan Gordon helpful!

Maayan Gordon is constantly shifting between business and creative; for her, content is a vehicle to acquire consulting clients.

Balancing between the two is a challenge for many Creators, but Maayan has figured out systems and tactics to make it work.

Let’s get into it!

Creating content on LinkedIn and elsewhere is Maayan’s main source of both credibility and client discovery; as such, she finds herself context switching between creative and business-thinking quite often.

Here’s the thing about context switching - it kills productivity and creates burnout. I’m not making that up - it’s science!

You lose 20% of cognitive capacity switching back and forth between two functions e.g. content creation and consulting…and, as we all know, thinking is tiring, so this leads to exhaustion (and burnout) as well.

Some work, however, requires context switching - and being a Creator who monetizes through consulting is one of them.

Content —> Consulting is currently my business model, and context switching is one of the biggest challenges I struggle with. I was very curious how Maayan handles it.

She shared four (4) tactics that work for her to minimize either stuck in one project or having trouble adjusting to another:

1. Go outside

When I have really good Zoom meetings or I do a podcast…it's very hard to do focused, sitting-at-my-desk analytical work right after I have that kind of hyped energy.

So, I'll go outside and spend five minutes outside, because naturally, just by shifting my environment and being in a different space, I don't feel like I have to force that mental change.

1. Read something unrelated

Literally reading three pages of a book will do it for me, because when I'm reading, I have to focus on the words. It's again, just completely different brain pattern processing.

1. Create time capacity with ChatGPT

A lot of mental creative time is spent searching through what I'd call the blank space in our mind, trying to find something to bounce off of or pivot in the right direction.

Instead of searching through that blank space, I can immediately bounce an idea off ChatGPT to reach the next closer stepping stone.

1. Cycle business and creative work in 2-week “seasons”

I might go really hard on meetings for two weeks, and then intentionally push any meetings that people want to schedule with me two weeks out after that, so I have space to do all the other things I'd like to, that I didn't get to do in those two weeks of heavy meetings.

I find that to be incredible for an incubation period. When we take in a ton of new information or meet a lot of new people, our brain needs time and space to process all that new information and integrate it.

Thanks for reading! This is an abridged version of a more in-depth breakdown of Maayan's business. If you're interested in learning how here audience, revenue, and operating stacks break down, check out the full article here and subscribe for free!