My role involves both analysis and creativity (marketing). I personally find I can't shift from tasks heavy in one to the other multiple times through the day and offer my best work at both. If I need to be creative I try and make my day creative and vice versa for data analysis. I imagine if you consistently stay in one state you get an element of burn-in that makes shifting harder.
I have the exact same issue. I've done well with trying to structure my days similarly, but there are inevitably times where something needs to be done immediately and of course it's never in tune with how I planned the day heh. Trying to explain exactly how disruptive task-switching across domains is for me personally is not something I've been able to communicate effectively to non-technical peers and superiors.
Sure, I can switch from programming to InDesign today! I didn't want to finish that this week anyway. (I exaggerate for effect, but not by much.)
