If your team is constantly in motion but not seeing meaningful progress, it might not be a workload issue. It might be a focus issue.
More specifically: it might be context switching.
- Studies show that context switching can reduce productivity by up to 40%.
- It takes an average of 9.5 minutes to refocus after switching between apps.
- The typical employee toggles between tasks so frequently, they lose nearly 4 hours per week just reorienting themselves.
That’s almost 5 working weeks per year, gone. Not to client work, not to strategy, but to mental reset time.
For CS teams, the impact is even greater.
Because Customer Success is a blend of proactive and reactive work. You’re helping customers, managing renewals, collaborating cross-functionally. And all of that requires deep focus.
But when your CSM is pulled into 6 meetings, 4 fire drills, 2 tool updates, and 12 Slack threads before lunch, that focus? Gone.
The result?
- CSMs feel like they’re always working, but never finishing
- Strategic projects get pushed to the side
- Quality drops, follow-through suffers, and burnout creeps in
As a leader, this isn’t just a productivity problem. It’s a performance risk.
How to Spot Context Switching on Your Team
Here are some signs it’s showing up:
- CSMs are constantly saying “I’m behind,” “I’m catching up,” or “I haven’t gotten to that yet”
- You see a flurry of customer touchpoints, but no progress on account goals
- Deadlines keep slipping, not from lack of effort, but from too many things happening at once
- Strategic initiatives stall because your team is stuck in reactive mode
- There’s no time for deep work—everything’s in quick bursts
What You Can Do as a CS Leader
Here’s how to help your team minimize context switchingand protect their focus:
1. Audit the Interruptions
You can’t fix what you don’t see.
Start by identifying:
- How many internal meetings are your CSMs pulled into weekly?
- How often are they responding to pings in Slack or email?
- How many tools do they need to check to do their job?
You’ll likely find they’re bouncing between 10+ systems and 5+ conversations just to get through the day.
Pro tip: Ask your team to do a 1-day time audit. You’ll be shocked at where their attention is going.
2. Group Similar Work Together
The most effective way to reduce context switching? Batching.
Encourage your team to time-block similar tasks: ✔️ Do all onboarding prep in the morning ✔️ Handle support escalations after lunch ✔️ Block time for renewals on Friday
This reduces mental setup time and allows them to go deeper into the task at hand.
As a leader, model this too. For example: block admin time, strategy time, and 1:1s into distinct clusters on your calendar.
3. Reduce Unnecessary Meetings
Every unnecessary meeting is a productivity tax.
If it’s not critical, turn it into: ✉️ An async update 📄 A shared doc 🎥 A Loom video 💬 A Slack thread
This doesn’t mean cutting communication. It means designing communication intentionally.
4. Establish Deep Work Blocks
Give your team protected focus time. No meetings. No Slack. No context switching.
Start with just 2–3 hours per week. That’s it. Over time, build a culture that values “maker time” just as much as meetings.
Personally, I like to reserve Monday mornings or Friday afternoons for this. It sets the tone for the week or gives me space to wrap things up without noise.
5. Centralize Information
If your CSMs are switching tabs, tools, and Slack threads just to answer one customer question, you’re bleeding time.
Invest in documentation and central sources of truth: 📌 Playbooks 📌 Customer data 📌 Renewal and escalation processes 📌 Account context
If it lives in someone’s head or 8 different Slack channels or 5 different dashboard, it’s slowing your team down.
Better systems = better focus.
6. Protect Strategic Time
Not everything your team does is urgent. But a lot of it is important.
Make sure they’re not so reactive that they can’t do the strategic work that actually drives impact.
This means: 🧠 Blocking time for account reviews and success plans 🔕 Setting aside quiet hours 📅 Building in deep work days
Because the goal of reducing context switching isn’t just more productivity. It’s more meaningful work.
Busy ≠ Effective
We’ve glamorized being busy in CS. Back-to-back meetings. Constant responsiveness. Working late to “catch up.”
But that’s not scale. That’s survival.
If we want to build high-performing CS teams, we need to create the space to think deeply, act strategically, and deliver real outcomes.
That starts with minimizing context switching.
Because your team doesn’t need more time. They need fewer distractions.
Want Help Improving Team Focus & Execution?
Let’s audit your current CS structure and operating cadence, and identify where your team is losing momentum. We’ll figure out what to streamline, what to delegate, and how to create space for what actually matters.
👉 Book a free consultation call here.