The Cost of Context Switching (And Why Controla Was Built to Stop It)

May 22

Introduction

You’ve probably felt it before — that mental whiplash when you're writing a doc, get a Slack ping, jump into a thread, check your inbox, get distracted by a calendar invite, and then... forget what you were doing.

That’s context switching. And it's costing your team more than you think.

What Is Context Switching, Really?

Context switching happens when you move between different tasks, tools, or modes of thinking without finishing what you started. In modern work, this is constant: from email to chat to PM tools to file sharing to meetings — all within the same hour.

Each switch adds cognitive load. You lose time reorienting yourself. You break your flow. According to some studies, it can take over 20 minutes to regain focus after a disruption.

Multiply that by a team of 10 people, five days a week, and the cost is staggering.

Why Work Feels Scattered

It’s not your team’s fault. Most workflows today are scattered by design. We’ve layered more tools onto our processes, thinking that each one will help — but now we’re just toggling between tabs, syncing across platforms, and trying to remember where the action is.

The result? Things slip. Decisions stall. People burn out.

Controla: One Place, One Focus

Controla is built to solve this problem at the root.

Instead of asking your team to jump between tools to figure out what’s next, Controla pulls actions to one clear place. Approvals, feedback requests, reminders, status updates — all collected and presented only when they’re relevant to you.

You don’t have to search for what needs doing. It’s right in front of you.

This reduces context switching and preserves your team’s focus — the single most important ingredient for great work.

Conclusion

If you want your team to work better, don’t just give them more tools. Give them fewer interruptions. Fewer pivots. More flow.

Controla helps your team stay focused by making the path forward clear — no hunting, no toggling, no guessing.

Less switching. More doing.

Agnes Onne