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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:
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Focusing on one task at a time = 100% of your productive time available.
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Task switching between two tasks at a time = 40% of your productive time for each and 20% lost to context switching.
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Task switching between three tasks at a time = 20% of your productive time for each and 40% lost to context switching.
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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
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