Attention Residue. What it means to your personal productivity.

Why context switching and instantly moving to the next task is bad?

When you switch from one task to another, a tiny portion of the information is left in your conscious for a little longer even after you put yourself into the new task.

The mindset you exercised for your previous task happens to dwell for some time during the start of a new task, exists, and slowly decays until you flow entirely into the new task at hand.

These residues cause little hiccups in your performance and consume a significant amount of your cognitive power (especially if you’re involved in any creative process).

It is true for all situations regardless of the value of the task or whether it is a productive one or a recreational one.

Solution to cleanse attention residue

Take a break between tasks.

Interstitial journaling.

Take a walk between two different types of tasks.

Never ever choose to multitask.

Make some obvious changes to aid your brain to notice the difference like changing the room, or changing the light color. Physical and environmental changes are more noticeable for a brain to pick up the signal.

Try meditating for a couple of minutes.