This is a place for displaying some concepts of the Sherpa System.
Please click here for the official Sherpa website.
Attention Residue:
The Toll of Switching Costs
Imagine this: You’re taking a deep dive into a new product proposal from one of your engineers. Just as you’re getting into the groove – ding! – your phone goes off. It’s a simple request from a direct report and the task only takes 30 seconds. But suddenly, you’ve completely lost track of what you were doing.
​
If you find yourself constantly interrupted, you’re not just losing 30 seconds here or there. Those small interruptions can eat up a huge portion of your working day.
According to psychologist Gerald Weinberg, each extra task switch or context switch eats up 20–80% of your overall productivity. This phenomenon is known as “attention residue.”
FACTS:
-
Focusing on one task at a time = 100% of your productive time available.
-
Task switching between two tasks at a time = 40% of your productive time for each and 20% lost to context switching.
-
Task switching between three tasks at a time = 20% of your productive time for each and 40% lost to context switching.
Dr. Sophie Leroy, a professor at the University of Washington, who coined the term "attention residue" and led many studies on it. She found that a part of the brain tends to ruminate on an interrupting task for an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds. An fMRI scan during a cognitively demanding task shows that even a quick glance at an email subject results in a loss of focus, which goes unnoticed by the study subject. The same is true for interruptions, including self-interruptions.
To prevent this, control when and how you’re interrupted. Turn off email and text alerts, and put on some headphones. Just make sure people have a way to reach you in a genuine emergency.
Solutions:
Minimize attention hijackers by turning off alerts, closing your email program, putting on your headphones, or closing your door, etc.
Keep a notebook handy to jot down any “mental popups” that appear. This helps prevent self-interruptions.
Create a 60-second-or-less Ready-to-Resume Plan to give the brain a way to refocus when interrupted.
“Even though a quick peek at your inbox or social feed only takes a second, the duration of those checks does not correlate to the magnitude of the distraction.”
– Cal Newport, PhD