As a company deeply fascinated by how we achieve productivity, this experimental year has been a rich opportunity to uncover insights. The dramatic change in lifestyle has impacted every area of work, from how we collaborate to how we empathize.

Despite more meetings, more emails, and more challenges, engineering teams are achieving more than ever in 2020.

If Slack notifications, emails, and meeting reminders pulled you into different tasks more than once while reading this article, you’re a strong candidate for a reduction in context switching. This improvement has long-lasting benefits. At the end of the day, every step we take to reduce context switching helps prevent dreaded burnout.

There’s no way around it: you can only work so much until you burn out. Perhaps due to the business mantra of “infinite growth,” organizations often expect that employees will work at their maximum capacity. Forever. However, high performance is not a static state—it’s cyclical, requiring alternating seasons of rest.