When you only have an hour after work, it’s tempting to squeeze everything into it: answer a few emails, check sales, glance at social media, then “get to” the real work. By the time you get there, the hour is mostly gone, and what’s left feels scattered.
That feeling has a name in psychology research: switching costs.
What the Research Says About Switching
The American Psychological Association summarizes decades of studies on task switching. In experiments by Joshua Rubinstein, Jeffrey Evans and David Meyer, people lost time every time they switched between tasks, and the loss grew as the tasks got more complex or unfamiliar. Earlier work by Robert Rogers and Stephen Monsell found that switching slowed people down even when they knew exactly when the switch was coming.
Each individual switch may cost only a fraction of a second. But Meyer has said that the mental blocks created by shifting between tasks can cost as much as 40 percent of someone’s productive time. That’s an estimate, not a precise measurement for your evenings, but the direction is clear: the more you bounce, the less real work gets done.
Building a business is full of complex, unfamiliar tasks. Writing a sales page or setting up an email sequence is exactly the kind of work where switching hurts most.
How to Protect One Focused Session
You don’t need a perfect routine. You need one block of time where you do one thing.
- Decide the single task before you sit down. “Write the first draft of the opt-in page” is a task. “Work on the business” is not.
- Close everything else. Email, social media and your sales dashboard can wait 45 minutes.
- Put your phone in another room or turn on a focus mode.
- Keep a “later” note next to you. When a thought pops up (“I need to update the price”), write it down and keep going.
- Batch the small stuff. Answer emails and check numbers in a separate, shorter block, ideally after the focused one.
Leave Yourself a Clear Restart Point
The APA summary also notes that real-world switching involves remembering where you left off. When your work session ends, take 60 seconds to write one line: what you did and the very next step. Tomorrow you start there instead of spending ten minutes figuring out where you were.
Be Realistic About Your Life
Some evenings, a kid needs help with homework or a work message can’t wait. That’s not failure. The goal isn’t zero interruptions; it’s not adding interruptions you chose yourself. One protected session, a few times a week, adds up faster than many scattered ones.
Do This Today
Pick one task for your next work session and write it on a sticky note. Set a 45-minute timer, close every tab that isn’t needed for that task, and put your phone out of reach until the timer ends.
More on Totally Relentless
- Time Blocking Around a Day Job: A Practical Weekly Plan
- If-Then Plans: A Research-Backed Way to Follow Through After Your Day Job
- Consistency Over Motivation: How Side-Business Habits Actually Form
