How ‘Attention Residue’ Is Stealing Your Focus — And How to Get It Back
Two ways (and a bonus) to stay focused without attention residue.
*Ding*
Another ‘urgent’ message hits the inbox. “Stop what you’re doing and take care of this task instead” it beckons.
But even as you move to work on this new task, you struggle to engage with it, struggle to really focus on the task at hand. Your attention seems to drift back to the task you had just tabled for later.
Sound all too familiar? Me, too.
The problems with multitasking are well-documented, but it turns out that rapidly switching between tasks has some serious negative impacts, too. When we have too many things to focus on, it’s nearly impossible to drag our beleaguered attention into the present to focus on the task at hand.
There’s a reason for that. It’s called Attention Residue.
Attention residue is the reason we can’t switch between tasks very effectively at rapid speeds. It happens because our attention lags behind what we’re working on.
When we move to a new project or task, our attention doesn’t get the memo right away. Instead, we remain focused on (or at least distracted by) the task that we just stopped doing. This…
