[unsated]

I found "dumping/serializing state" greatly helped me.

I got into a habit of writing down things that required continued work next day, at the end of my workday. Initially I started doing this because it would take too long to get back into the depth needed to be productive especially after a long weekend or context switching for a day or two due to something time critical. The most effective form of "state dump" being specifically what is the next thing I need to immediately work on given next opportunity.

Overtime I realized, this "checkpoint" allowed me naturally to evaluate how much time and energy I spent on something and be specific about the next thing that would move me towards the outcome I wanted. This focus would:

1/ put my mind at ease, because I know what's important was written down and I don't need to spend mental energy keeping the state alive in my mind.

2/ It would direct my thinking towards what is important to do next time around rather than thinking of interesting but nuanced thing that are actually low value in grand scheme of things.

3/ Often, narrowing down what's the next thing I need to do meant I had a solution next morning and would often experience high productivity in first few hours of the day.

ymmv.

[kimburgess]

Another advocate of this approach here. Define some form of time-boxing: 90 minutes, 3 hours, 1 day, 1 week, whatever. When this is up force a capture of current state, knowledge, assumptions and ideas, then walk away and intentionally drop context. When you return it’s a great spot to be self critical and reorientate towards what you’re actually trying to achieve. Think of it like async rubber-ducking.

If you continue to think about the problem space during that ‘off time’ (which you likely will) add the thought to some notes for review when you return.