Reloading mental models

“It takes 23 minutes to recover after interruption.”

Most developers have heard of this study, and cite it when they complain about meetings.

The issue is being knocked out a flow state, causing the mental spinning plates to crash down.

I wonder what this means then, for picking-up a side-project after not seeing it for ages? If it takes 23 minutes to resume, what is it for something you’ve not actually started on? And, how can we improve that load time?

I ask as someone who likes to work on a side-project from time to time.

Some points from searching, thinking, and asking people how they keep threads alive:

Notes The internet recommends keeping notes. Very obvious advice, what would be a lot nicer, is HOW and/or WHAT to keep in these notes. I do write notes, and my life got a lot better when I just brain-dumped thoughts, concerns, regular commands etc. The more I put in, the less I worried about structure, the more useful my notes became.

Failing test “AT the end of the day I write a failing test” - this is nice advice, and a lot more specific than “write notes”.

Protect your cognitive load I will need to expand on this, but, here’s the main one:

If you’re starting a new side-project and your goal isn’t to learn a new framework, then, don’t choose a new framework. You need to make things as easy as possible for yourself.

Music? Leftfield idea I had while thinking about this. Could data-sonification / music help? See Sonesthesia