Transitions
Getting back into it after someone interrupts you
Updated August 2026 · 4 min read
Short version
- An interruption doesn't just pause the work — it evicts the mental setup, and rebuilding it is the real cost.
- A ten-second “bookmark” before you answer — where you are, what comes next — saves the rebuild.
- Coming back is a fixed ritual: read the bookmark, redo the last tiny action, take the smallest next step.
The thirty-second knock, the thirty-minute cost
Someone asks a quick question. You answer in twenty seconds — then stare at the screen for ten minutes, trying to remember what you were doing.
The interruption did not cost thirty seconds; the reload did. Your brain was holding a fragile structure of where-you-were and what-came-next, and the knock cleared it.
This is not a focus problem or a politeness problem. It is how context gets stored: temporarily, and nowhere else.
Bookmark your brain before you answer
You usually get a one-second warning — footsteps, your name, a notification preview. That second is enough to leave yourself a note.
- Say the next step out loud: “I was about to send the invoice.”
- Scribble one ugly word on paper — “invoice,” not a sentence.
- Leave the cursor or document exactly where the next action lives.
The note does not need to be tidy or complete. It only needs to point at the next move.
Ten seconds of bookmarking beats ten minutes of archaeology.
Run the re-entry ritual
Back at the desk, don't wait to feel ready — run a fixed reload sequence, same order every time.
- Read the bookmark first, before anything else.
- Redo the last small action once: reread the last paragraph, retype the last line.
- Then take the smallest next step, even clumsily.
Redoing the last step is the on-ramp. It hands your brain the context it lost, instead of asking it to invent the context again.
Most days the whole reload takes under a minute, because the bookmark did the heavy lifting earlier.
Lower the knock rate
Bookmarks are damage control; fewer knocks is prevention. You are allowed to run both at once.
- Headphones on means “mid-something” — make that deal explicit with housemates or colleagues.
- Batch messages into set windows where you can.
You don't owe anyone an instant answer either. “Give me ten seconds” is a complete sentence, and it buys exactly enough time to leave the bookmark.
Every avoided reload is time handed back to the actual work. And to the people interrupting you, who get a calmer answer anyway.
Do this now
