--- title: Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption... description: Interruptions and context switching have a significant impact on a programmer's productivity. It takes time to get back into the 'zone' after an interruption,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-interrupted-the-real-cost-of-interruption-and-context-switching-6eo0s34xy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption and Context Switching | daily.dev og:description: Interruptions and context switching have a significant impact on a programmer's productivity. It takes time to get back into the 'zone' after an interruption,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-interrupted-the-real-cost-of-interruption-and-context-switching-6eo0s34xy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/6Eo0S34Xy.png og:image:alt: Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption and Context Switching og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption and Context Switching **[Community Picks](https://daily.dev/sources/community)** · 6 min read · 12 upvotes · 3 comments ## Summary Interruptions and context switching have a significant impact on a programmer's productivity. It takes time to get back into the 'zone' after an interruption, and the process of switching between tasks can be mentally challenging. However, there are strategies and techniques to minimize these effects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@eyoung** · 0 upvotes > Really good discussion on the real issues around context switching, thanks! **@michaeljgarbade** · 0 upvotes > Interesting take on working memory! I would suggest switching off all distractions to stay focused on a task **@cloudshock** · 0 upvotes > Lots of detail in this article. Context switching is a productivity drag and I'm glad folks like Piotr are thinking about and building tools to help mitigate the costs. Also, shout out to the John Carmack monitor! :) --- Tags: [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-interrupted-the-real-cost-of-interruption-and-context-switching-6eo0s34xy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Programmer Interrupted: The Real Cost of Interruption and Context Switching","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-interrupted-the-real-cost-of-interruption-and-context-switching-6eo0s34xy","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/programmer-interrupted-the-real-cost-of-interruption-and-context-switching-6eo0s34xy"},"datePublished":"2023-04-06T09:28:13.621Z","dateModified":"2024-04-13T18:26:27.505Z","description":"Interruptions and context switching have a significant impact on a programmer's productivity. 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I would suggest switching off all distractions to stay focused on a task","datePublished":"2023-04-11T10:06:57.305Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/6Eo0S34Xy#c-W5Nezm397","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Michael Garbade","url":"https://daily.dev/michaeljgarbade","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AGNmyxYKTfdObuWounAweGSiEnrys6qScstFOnMAU3bQ=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Lots of detail in this article. Context switching is a productivity drag and I’m glad folks like Piotr are thinking about and building tools to help mitigate the costs. Also, shout out to the John Carmack monitor! :)","datePublished":"2023-04-17T12:51:25.768Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/6Eo0S34Xy#c-i1wRWJv8Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"cloudshock.dev","url":"https://daily.dev/cloudshock","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--WQFzRiGA--/f_auto/v1753297233/avatars/avatar_IkggSoPl7cfNHlTZhnuZD?_a=BAMClqZW0"}}]} ```