Ask HN: Do you think switching between apps hurts your productivity?

Switching apps isn't the root problem, switching contexts is.

If tools are well-integrated and mentally compartmentalized (e.g., Slack for fast input, Notion for synthesis, Jira for logistics), switching shouldn't feel painful. But when decisions get scattered and nothing enforces consolidation, yeah, it becomes chaos by slow erosion.

Ironically, the more we try to unify everything into one tool, the worse the mental clutter gets. The problem isn't that we have too many tools, it's that we try to make each one do more than it's supposed to.

So, It's not app switching that kills productivity. It's app misusing.

Of course it does.

There is no silver bullet.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Silver_Bullet

But there is Zawiski’s Law.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Zawinski#Zawinski's_La...

And the reward for good work is more work.

https://youtube.com/shorts/SUu1R0Sdfy8?si=ZrXy7uYRMV08WNP3

Good luck.

My contrarian view is that if someone wants to get stuff done, they will get it done or find a way to get it done. Or else there will always be one excuse or another. Of course, there might be some legitimate blockers or onorous processes, but you don’t need a reason to do stuff and one can come up with thousands of reasons to not do.