How do you recover from a context switch?

Question

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.Are there any techniques or solutions you use to help recover from a context switch or get back to flow after a break?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".Thoughts?

jleyank · Accepted Answer

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 all the time.

onion2k · Answer

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 seem to work for things like documentation and planning.