How do you cope with interruptions at work?

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I work in a tax office where I prepare income tax returns for a large number of clients. I like how taxes are a logical system where detailed, applied knowledge is useful, but there is something about the job that is difficult for me as an autistic person. It often happens that while I am preparing one tax return, my boss or one of my coworkers will interrupt me to ask me something about another tax return. It takes time for me to get back into the work that I am doing when this happens, and it has been significantly slowing me down. I don't think talking to them would help because they deal with more interruptions than I do and they don't seem to mind. Is there anything that has worked for you?

I struggle with this too. If it's a friendly/patient colleague, sometimes I'm able to say 'can you just give me a second' and I try make a quick note of what I'm doing before diverting my attention, so I have something to help me get back into whatever I was doing quicker. But it depends on the task if that works, and I don't like to ask since some people (especially a manager) might view it as disrespectful or brushing them off. But generally when I am interrupted I try to very quickly mentally conclude where I am/what I'm doing in my head, before moving my attention onto the interruption. That might mean having to ask the person to repeat what they just said because my brain's not caught up , but I find it helps to remember and get back into the task a little easier.. I hope it gets a bit easier for you

I have this problem too. My boss has now labelled me as slow and thinks I am not suited to the work... I am sorry I have no solution. My boss expects immediate switch from one topic to another.