Podcast: Attention Residue

Multi-tasking. The desire to do multiple things at once, providing more output, faster. You probably have heard this, and others push this concept to you in your work area. However, here is the big secret. It is all a lie. The human brain has a very hard time processing two or more things at the same time.

There is a reason why they say, He cannot chew bubble gum and walk at the same time. Mentally, rather than multi-tasking, the mind has to pivot from one process to another. If you are efficient and have good neuroplasticity you may appear to be multitasking. However, it is an appearance, not a true activity. If you wonder what neuroplasticity is, check out my prior podcast.

An interesting paper came out in 2009, titled “Why is it so hard to do my work?” The study was on those attempting to multitask and the results were interesting. Those multitaskers believed to be more efficient and doing better than those who focused on one thing at a time. They were wrong, and the data proved it. Not only were they less efficient, providing less output, but their quality was also lower. Why then are we told to be good multitaskers if it hinders rather than helps? I suspect it’s due to a cool buzzword and it just sounds good. “I am a multitasker. I can get many things done at once.”

While reading Cal Newport’s book titled Deep Work, I found an interesting term called attention residue that piqued my interest. This term was first used in a study involving multitasking or pivoting tasks.

The 2009 study provide to us by Sophie Leroy also gave us a new term called attention residue, based on these findings. She comments in organizations, the knowledge worker has multiple projects going on at the same time. The worker must learn to sequentially work on each rather than having the ability to multitask or work on all at the same time. This is something I am fully aware of in my full-time job. I have to constantly pivot from one task to another. Those tasks may fall into the categories of assisting others, identifying an issue, providing a resolution, project managing, on and on. Honestly, for me, it got to the point, where I have applied 15-minute time blocks in my outlook calendar to better gauge my timekeeping. I may provide that technique in another episode or on my YouTube channel.

Speaking of my YouTube channel, I encourage you to hop over to InfoByMattCole YouTube channel, where I post a video every week. I plan to begin a video series involving the creation of a knowledge base for podcasting. I digress.

This term she called Attention Residue is when you switch from Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow – a residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task.

This residue can be thick, or hard for the individual to let go of the prior task. Even if the individual is slightly thinking on task, the switch still retains some residue. It takes a while before your attention fully stops on task A, while you working on task B.

You can see the implications this has from the findings. For those multitaskers pivoting continually, they will never fully be engaged in one task, and worse, their quality will remain low.

So how do we stop this?

According to Deep Work, to produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction. This is what he calls and named the book Deep Work.

Sounds reasonable, but we do not live in a reasonable world, much less a work environment. I head somewhere, if you do not control your time, someone else will. The individual must demand time to concentrate on those more difficult tasks. Without doing so, we become busy workers not producing workers. Additionally, we are constantly only operating on part of our cognitive resources.

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So how can we really do this? How can we reduce this attention residue and work at our peak mental capacity?

First, we must retrain ourselves to focus on one task at a time. Completing that tasks, allowing your subconscious to know it’s truly done is a start. David Allen picked up part of this concept in his infamous book “Getting Things Done”, where he implores you to write everything down on your mind onto one location. This allows the mind to ‘know’ it is somewhere safe, telling it to no longer worry about it. Similarly, if we truly complete the task, our mind can rest easier knowing it’s done.

Find your power hour and use it.

The term power hour or admin morning or Get Your Life in Order all means finding that one uninterrupted time-span, allowing you to really focus on those tasks before being disrupted. Personally, I find my time-span early morning before work, allowing me to drink my coffee and ruminate on ideas or perform those tasks that will require my full attention. Find your personal time slot and use it wisely.

Finally, I suggest taking those tasks and to-do’s and really looking at the priorities. Many times, we believe we need or must do those, but in reality, some are simply time-killers or can easily be given for others to do. Reducing that list can reduce your personal stress.

#KnowledgeShare | Matt Cole | #infobyMattCole