Attention Residue: Why Switching Costs More Than You Think
Attention residue: The portion of attention that remains on a previous task after switching to a new one, degrading performance on the new task.
Where the idea comes from
The term comes from Sophie Leroy, whose 2009 paper "Why is it so hard to do my work?" showed that people moving between tasks performed worse on the new one when the previous task was left unfinished — Later work with Theresa Glomb in 2018 tested a ready-to-resume plan during interruptions; it is a separate study, not a universal refocusing rule.
How it shows up
- Reading the same paragraph three times after a message arrives
- Coming out of a meeting still arguing with it half an hour later
- Feeling busy all day with little you can point to
- Needing a run-up after every interruption, however small
Practical steps to try
- Before an interruption, write where you stopped and the action to take when you return
- Batch interruptions rather than absorbing them one at a time
- Protect one block a day where switching is not possible at all
- Stop mid-sentence deliberately, so the residue points at something specific rather than something vague
Where the popular version overreaches
The widely quoted "it takes 23 minutes to refocus" figure comes from a small observational study of office workers and has been repeated far past what it can support. Attention residue is real; the precise number attached to it in most articles is not a reliable constant.
Common questions
- How long does it take to refocus after an interruption?
- There is no dependable number, despite how often one is quoted. It varies with the task, the interruption and whether the previous work was left at a clean stopping point — which is the variable you can actually control.
- Does closing a task really help?
- A 2018 study by Leroy and Glomb tested a ready-to-resume plan in interruption contexts. Recording where you stopped and what comes next is a practical application; it does not make switching cost-free.
Sources
Related
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