Time fragmentation is a more serious problem than it may seem at first. When someone has time problems, we tend to assume they're very busy and have no free time. But lack of time is only one cause of "time problems". The second, no less important reason people get nothing done or do things very poorly is time fragmentation. Fragmentation means breaking time into small chunks for different tasks, so you simply never get to concentrate.
There can be several causes. They can be internal or external. Internal: laziness, procrastination, wrong prioritization, regular distractions (social networks) and more. External: phone calls, doorbell or intercom, pointless work calls, and the like.
Two more points about fragmentation. First, it doesn't hinder everyone for every task. If you don't need to concentrate on one thing for long and your to‑do list is: pay bills, order a gift, shave, read 10–15 minutes in English — then fragmentation isn't so bad. Each task takes 10–20 minutes, so you have time to finish before something distracts you.
Second, fragmentation increases with age. I call it family-household fragmentation. At work you can and should avoid it; in personal time it's almost impossible — tasks and problems won't solve themselves. When you have no duties or worries, you have fewer distractions and less fragmentation. At 20 I could keep concentration for days without fragmentation in work and personal projects. At 20 you haven't acquired much: you live with your parents and they handle household and utilities. Now at 30 I have several flats, two had renovations, and I had to keep the renovation context in my head. I once lived in a flat during a building renovation — very unpleasant in terms of time fragmentation; builders could come several times a day. In future, with children, time fragmentation will grow: taking kids to school or daycare, caring for them when they're ill, other family and household tasks — all of that will fragment time. So it's no surprise that many employers, especially in IT, often choose very green, young staff. Yes, they can hardly do anything and don't know much, but they're ready to work on projects even in their personal time, without distractions from life problems (which they hardly have). On the other hand, experience still counts, and any team of ambitious young people should have someone experienced to look after them.
When you switch between tasks, focus and concentration are always lost. Not for 20 minutes as some productivity books claim, but still enough to waste time again getting into the task. I'll also mention the loss of concentration and focus in the chapter on notifications from social networks and messengers. Time fragmentation is in many cases unavoidable, especially with age. So try to plan your most important tasks — those that need full concentration — for periods when the chance of fragmentation is lowest.
