Let’s talk about something absurd: We’ve created entire jobs dedicated to managing the tools that are supposed to make our jobs easier. Think about that for a second. There are people whose entire role is “Jira Administrator.” We’ve literally created jobs to manage our job management software.
The Madness of Meta-Work
Here’s what my typical Monday looked like last year:
- Check Slack for updates (15 mins)
- Update Jira tickets with Friday’s progress (30 mins)
- Move cards on three different Kanban boards (20 mins)
- Update the sprint velocity spreadsheet (15 mins)
- Tag relevant stakeholders in Confluence docs (10 mins)
- Sync my Google Calendar with the team calendar (10 mins)
That’s 100 minutes. Gone. Just to tell different tools what I’m going to do before I actually do anything.
“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” - Peter Drucker
Your Brain is Not a Project Management Tool
Last month, my team lead confided something that hit hard. He was having actual anxiety attacks every morning, just from his “startup routine.” The first two hours of his day weren’t spent on engineering problems or team leadership - they were consumed by methodically opening tabs and applications: Jira for sprint planning, Confluence for documentation, Azure DevOps for pipelines, Slack for team communication, Linear for bugs, three different email accounts, countless Chrome tabs with AWS consoles…
“It’s like my brain is already fried before I write a single line of code,” he said. And he’s not alone.
This is the cruel irony of modern work: while the actual work we do has evolved dramatically - cloud computing, AI, remote collaboration - the way we manage that work is still stuck in a primitive tab-hoarding, context-switching hell. We’ve built spaceships while still using stone tools to organize their construction.
The cognitive load is relentless:
- Slack demands immediate attention ("You have 23 unread mentions")
- Jira screams about overdue tickets
- Confluence nudges about outdated documentation
- Notion reminds you about unorganized databases
- Linear pings about priority bugs
- Asana notifies about missed milestones
- Teams blinks with meeting reminders
The True Cost of Context Switching
According to research by the University of California, it takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully regain focus after an interruption. Let’s do the math:
5 tool switches per hour × 8 hours × 23 minutes = 15.3 hours of recovery time
That’s nearly two full workdays spent just regaining focus. Time you’ll never get back. Energy you could have spent on actual work.
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” - Michael Porter
The Jira Administrator Paradox
Let’s talk about this phenomenon. We now have jobs dedicated to managing software that was supposed to make jobs easier to manage. It’s like hiring someone to manage your calendar that helps you manage your time.
Real conversation from a recent standup:
- Dev: “The ticket status isn’t updating correctly.”
- PM: “You need to talk to the Jira admin about that.”
- Dev: “Can’t I just… fix it?”
- PM: “No, it’s a permissions issue. Only the Jira admin can modify the workflow.”
- Dev: dies inside
We’ve created a bureaucracy around our anti-bureaucracy tools.
The Mental Health Cost
This isn’t just about lost time. It’s about what this fractured attention is doing to our brains. Studies show that high rates of context switching correlate with:
- Increased anxiety
- Lower job satisfaction
- Reduced creative thinking
- Higher stress levels
When your brain is constantly jumping between tools, it never gets to settle into deep work. It’s like trying to read a book while someone keeps changing the language every paragraph.
The Digital Evolution Paradox: Modern Software, Stone Age Management
Here’s something that keeps me up at night: We’re building AI models that can generate images from text, creating autonomous vehicles, and deploying code that powers millions of users - yet we’re managing all this cutting-edge work like digital cavemen.
“We have built systems of infinite complexity to manage finite human minds.” - Cal Newport, A World Without Email
Think about it. Your phone’s software updates weekly. Your development frameworks evolve daily. Cloud platforms release new features hourly. But how do we track and manage all this complexity? By manually jumping between tools, copying and pasting status updates, and praying we don’t forget anything important during our daily tab-opening ritual.
The Multitasking Myth and the Memory Crisis
Let’s kill a dangerous myth right now: humans can’t multitask. What we call “multitasking” is really just rapid context switching, and it’s destroying our ability to think clearly. Our working memory - that precious mental workspace where actual problem-solving happens - can only hold about 4-7 items at once. Yet we’ve built work environments that demand we juggle dozens.
Here’s the raw truth from cognitive science:
- Every context switch dumps your working memory
- Each new tool interface consumes cognitive bandwidth
- Task switching can reduce productivity by up to 40%
- Recovery time between switches increases with mental fatigue
We’re not getting more done. We’re just getting better at being overwhelmed.
The Human-First Revolution We Need
The solution isn’t adding more tools or “getting better” at juggling them. Our brains haven’t had a hardware update in 200,000 years. We’re not going to suddenly develop new cognitive abilities to match our software’s complexity.
Instead, we need a fundamental shift: Software that adapts to human cognition, not the other way around.
What if:
- Your work environment respected your brain’s natural rhythms
- Tools adapted to your thought process, not vice versa
- Context switching became the exception, not the norm
- Mental well-being was a feature, not an afterthought
This isn’t just feel-good theory. Companies that prioritize cognitive ergonomics see real results:
- Lower employee burnout rates
- Increased creative problem-solving
- Better code quality
- Higher team retention
- Improved project outcomes
When you stop forcing human brains to be databases and let them do what they do best - think, create, solve - everyone wins. The company gets better output. Workers get their sanity back. And maybe, just maybe, we can stop pretending that being “busy managing tools” is the same as being productive.
It’s time for a revolution in how we manage digital work. Not with more tools, but with smarter ones. Tools that understand and respect the finite nature of human attention. Because in 2025, the most valuable resource isn’t your software stack - it’s the human minds operating it.
If any of this resonated with you – if you’re tired of your brain being a human API, if your morning routine involves anxiety-inducing tab management, or if you just want to work in a way that actually respects how humans think – I’d ask you to try something different.
Give your brain the respect it deserves →
Not another productivity tool. Just a more human way to work.