I Tracked My Dev Team's Context Switching for 30 Days - We Were Losing 3 Hours Daily!

According to each employee’s productivity, we set a target for each team. So do we for our dev team as well.

But, where every team was successfully reaching their targets, the dev team could not. They were constantly missing their deadlines with huge backlogs!

So, I decided to find the reason behind this. I leveraged employee productivity tools, analyzed the data, and the result shocked the entire office!

The dev team was losing 180 minutes every day! This became the reason for all these headaches. Let’s learn about how we solved the issue.

We Used an Employee Monitoring Software to Track the Dev Team’s Context

When I first noticed our dev team missing deadlines, I thought the problem might be the workload or task prioritization. But after a few team check-ins, it was obvious they were working hard, sometimes even late into the night. Still, something was off.

So, I decided to take a closer look using our employee monitoring software. This solution would help me get data insights into how time is getting spent, in order to let me understand the work pattern.

Here’s how the tool helped us–

• We tracked the use of the dev team members' app and web usage. It revealed how many times developers were switching between tools. So, we could see the frequency between the platforms and understand their working patterns. It also helped us figure out the obstacles or the focus breakers that were disturbing the flow of their work.
• We analyzed the employee's focus time report. The tracker showed the exact hours each developer spent on uninterrupted work. I noticed some had deep focus only for one or two hours a day, even though they were active for eight.
• We compared their activity data with project management updates, and I could see which tasks were frequently paused mid-way.

No One was Ready to Face the Truth!

Once we kept tracking that data for 30 days in a row, the overall result was shocking!

Even employees were not ready to accept it.

Here’s what we’ve found out—

• The team was joining unproductive update calls every day for almost 2 hours.
• Everyone was constantly texting or interrupting others' focus hours for project updates at least 3-4 times a day.
• Developers were breaking their flow so often that it took them nearly 20 minutes each time to get back on track.

Here’s what we found out as a solution—

• We cut off unproductive meetings from everyday schedules. There was only necessary feedback.
• We started tracking the project process from the project management software.
• We created dedicated “focus hours,” using the data from the time tracking tool, where no messages or calls were allowed unless it was truly urgent.

Within a few weeks, the dev team started seeing the difference clearly. They were calmer, more focused, and finally meeting their deadlines again.

Each of the employees’ daily productivity also increased by 10-17%! This was a massive change that we were able to achieve within a week after implementing the productivity tracker!

What We’ll Never Go Back To

Unlike other teams, dev teams need more clarity while proceeding on a project. So, it was natural for our dev team to check in with others or jump on quick calls whenever something came up.

But what we missed was the importance of having dedicated focus time. A stretch of hours when developers could dive deep into their code without interruptions. In trying to keep everyone constantly updated, we were unknowingly stealing that focus from them.

This small mistake kept slowing us down, delaying launches, and creating unnecessary stress. With the help of employee productivity tracking software and other tools like project management solutions, we are now more aligned in managing teams.

Our dev team members now enjoy clear focus hours, fewer interruptions, and faster, higher-quality project completions.