Running Three Programs Without Losing Your Mind

When I got promoted, the most common advice I received was "you need to learn to context switch." That advice is wrong. Context switching is the enemy. What you need is a system that minimizes it.

The Problem with Context Switching

Every time you switch between programs, there is a cognitive reload cost. You need to remember where things stand, what decisions are pending, and who is waiting on what. If you are switching between three programs ten times a day, you are spending more time reloading context than actually making decisions.

My System

I batch my programs into time blocks. Monday mornings are Program A — the $7M account. Monday afternoons are Program B. Tuesday mornings are Program C. Each program gets a dedicated deep-work block where I review status, make decisions, and handle escalations.

The rest of the week is for cross-program work: stakeholder updates, capacity planning, one-on-ones with leads, and the inevitable fires that enterprise delivery always produces.

Every program has a single-page dashboard I check each morning. Status, risks, upcoming milestones, and open decisions. The Engineering Intelligence Platform feeds these dashboards automatically. If something is red, I know about it before my first meeting.

The Non-Negotiables

Three things I protect aggressively. First, my overlap window with offshore teams. Those two hours each morning are sacred — no other meetings. Second, my Friday afternoon review block where I prep for the following week. Third, my one-on-ones with tech leads. These are the relationships that keep everything else running.

What I Had to Give Up

I gave up being in every standup. I gave up reviewing every pull request description. I gave up being the first to know about every issue. That was hard. But at this scale, being everywhere means being effective nowhere. My leads handle the details. I handle the direction.