The Math of Why You Can't Focus at Work

Summary

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 it. In this post, I’ll show you what interruption-driven work looks like when you model it with math. Three simple parameters determine whether your day is productive or a write-off. We’ll simulate hundreds of days and build a map of the entire parameter space so you can see exactly where you are and what happens when you change. One Day in Detail Let’s start by drawing what one of those “lost days” actually looks like. FocusInterruptionRecovery Penaltyλ = 2/hrδ = 20mFocusInterruptionRecovery Penaltyλ = 2/hrδ = 20m0h1h2h3h4h5h6h7h8hRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20mRecovery Penalty: 30m (Cascaded: 3 interruptions)30mRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20mRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20mRecovery Penalty: 35m (Cascaded: 3 interruptions)35mRecovery Penalty: 22m (Cascaded: 2 interruptions)22mRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20mRecovery Penalty: 50m (Cascaded: 5 interruptions)50mRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20mRecovery Penalty: 4m (Cannot focus)Focus Block: 81m81mFocus Block: 57m57mFocus Block: 26m26mFocus Block: 9mFocus Block: 25m25mFocus Block: 2mFocus Block: 18m18mFocus Block: 6mFocus Block: 8mFocus Block: 6m9 am10 am11 am12 pm13 pm14 pm15 pm16 pm17 pmRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20m gapRecovery Penalty: 30m (Cascaded: 3 interruptions)30m gapRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20m gapRecovery Penalty: 20m (Cannot focus)20m gapRecovery Penalty: 35m (C...