The Math of Why You Can't Focus at Work | Off by One
Interruptions, recovery time, and task size: three numbers that determine if you'll get real work done. Interactive visualizations show the math behind bad days.
Introduction When was the last time you had a good day of work? The kind where you got into flow and stayed there long enough to think deeply about a problem? Paul Graham wrote about this in 2009: a single meeting can wreck an entire half-day for someone who needs uninterrupted time to build something. Sixteen years later, we’ve added Slack, Teams, always-on video calls, and a culture of instant responsiveness. The problem has gotten worse, with the pandemic turning things to 11 but the conversation stays frustratingly vague. We know focus is dying. We can’t say how bad it is or what would fix
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