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First lets talk about attention residue, this is where you move between tasks continually throughout the day. Science tells us that there is a cognitive switching cost to shifting your attention from one task to another. When your attention is shifted, there is a “residue” that remains with the prior task and impairs your cognitive performance on the new task.
You may think your attention has fully shifted to the new task, but your brain has a lag.
Over the years I have experimented with several strategies for managing attention residue that have been highly effective. I’m going to share four of them…
1. Create a Boot Up Sequence
Having a consistent routine to “get in the zone” is extremely helpful.
Your personal boot up sequence is a series of actions that prime your mind and body for deep focus work.
For me, this involves the following:
Importantly, I can generally create those conditions whether I’m at home or on the road, which means I can get myself into a focused state no matter where I am.
Create your own boot up sequence and your attention performance will improve.
2. Schedule Focus Blocks
This is the most fundamental strategy for fighting back against attention residue: Block time on your calendar for sprints of focused energy.
Download a simple focus app for your computer (I like Flow) and use it to set a timer for a focus block length. The app will restrict any apps you want from being opened during your block. I typically restrict WhatsApp, texts, email, Teams, and LinkedIn, as those are my biggest time wasters and notification drivers.
If you’re prone to checking your phone (like I am!), put it in another room so that you physically can’t see or touch it.
You’ll build your focus muscle progressively:
It may mean playing with your calendar a bit, but since most people do their best work early (before most daily calls start) or late (after most daily calls end), it should be doable.
3. Take a Walk
Attention residue is at its worst when we’re forced into back-to-back meetings. You’re nodding I can tell…
Whenever possible, create open windows of at least 5 minutes between higher value tasks.
Schedule 25-minute calls or note upfront the desire to be efficient (say you want to give people their time back so that it’s about helping them!). Block those windows on your calendar.
During these windows, do one of the following:
The walk or breathing exercise serves as a reset button for your brain. Use it regularly.
4. Leverage Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s Law is the idea that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.
Have all day to process email and you end up emailing for the entire day. Have 30 minutes to process email and you crank through your entire inbox in a flash.
To use this to your advantage, pick a few time-constrained windows during the day when you will deeply focus on the task of processing email or messages (those notifications that prompt the “just checks” that are so damning to your attention).
In addition to improving your attention while focusing on other tasks, this change will improve the quality of your email and message responses, since you’ll actually be focused on them, rather than trying to balance them against some other task.
Attention residue is a silent killer of your work quality and efficiency. Understanding it—and taking the steps to fight back—will have an immediate positive impact on your work and life.
I’d love to hear from you:
S. x
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