The Upside of Context Switching

Why Should I Care?

We always hear about the downside of context switching – almost always tied to trying to multitask. Our brains pay a certain cost of switching from one thing to another. Often, we’re willing to pay the small price of missing a few sentences of a TV show while we’re reading an email or posting on social media. But the cost becomes too high when we have to go back and do things over because we weren’t paying full attention to the task at hand, or worse, make a wrong decision that can’t be undone. That’s the bad.

But a member of my peer advisory board reminded me this week of the good kind of context switching, and the upside can be quite positive when it’s done well.

Good Context Switching

Julie Herres, CEO of GreenOak Accounting, told me that she likes getting out of the office and coming to our Vistage meetings each month because it encourages her to step away from all of the day-to-day issues and think about the big picture and decisions that are still off in the future. Taking it further, she said:

"Any executive who can't take a day a month away from their business, they are not a leader."

And to paraphrase her further explanation:

If you can’t get away, you’re a slave to your business. You're not delegating well. You don't have systems in place. You are working in a business that cannot scale.

Julie’s comments reminded me of James Clear’s advice in Atomic Habits. He actually wrote a whole chapter on it: 6. Motivation is Overrated; Environment Often Matters More. There he shares a sort of “life hack” where you use an environment for only one purpose, and in that context create one or more cues for the habits that help you towards that goal. For example, bed is for sleeping. Don’t watch TV or play on your phone in bed so that the environment of your bed cues you to relax and go to sleep. James also talks about designing your environment to be distraction free. So, get junk food out of sight so you’re not tempted or cued to eat it all the time.

Creating Context for Strategic Thinking

Our monthly Vistage executive peer advisory meetings work in exactly these ways. Firstly, we have a meeting with other top executives that are thinking about issues at the same level. We talk about big decisions, global trends, organizational design, strategies, and other major issues. Being in the context of that group of people cues your brain to start thinking at that level. Secondly, we meet in a board room, away from laptops and other the distractions of work or home so we can focus on the important issues at hand and not the coworkers at the door or on instant messaging.

By switching context into a focused environment where you have to think strategically and talk about high-level issues with others, you build a good habit of stepping away from working “in your business” and instead work “on your business” for at least one day a month. And of course, this can give you the clarity you need to set better priorities and focus on the most important things the other days of the month.

And that is actually how Vistage pays for itself in time and money. It helps you work on the most important things in your business (and life), so you have more time to get the most valuable things done. You'll almost certainly save more time and make back more money than invested.

More Information

If you like this topic, I highly recommend that you check out the following:

• Attend the Vistage special on Atomic Habits with James Clear.
• Read or listen to Atomic Habits by James Clear.
• Contact me for more Information about my executive peer advisory boards.