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How do you increase your attention? You consider these seven steps to deal with attention residue, that’s how!
Do you ever feel as though your mind has become like a library bulletin board, plastered with reminders you never requested?
Even if you’re not aware of the problem, the answer is probably yes.
The issue occurs when you move between tasks — say writing, then answering the phone, then back to writing again. Little bits of your attention remain stuck like gum on a shoe in the previous task — especially if one of those tasks is incomplete or unresolved. It’s like a cognitive baggage claim. You’ve moved to the next mental terminal, but your old tasks are still circling the carousel.
Your focus has baggage
This problem is called “attention residue,” a concept first identified in 2009 by Dr. Sophie Leroy, then a researcher at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.
Leroy introduced it in her paper titled: “Why Is It So Hard to Do My Work? The Challenge of Attention Residue When Switching Between Work Tasks.” (A title that basically screams, “I see you, distracted writers.”)
Leroy’s research showed that when we switch tasks, part of our attention stays stuck on the previous task. And this residue reduces our performance on whatever we’re trying to do next. It’s like trying to sprint while dragging an invisible anchor.
And software only makes the problem worse. A 2022 study published by Harvard Business Review found that the average digital worker toggles between applications and websites nearly 1,200 times per day. That’s basically toggling once every 24 seconds of an eight-hour workday.
Over a full year, that amounts to five working weeks or around nine per cent of annual work time lost to context switching. That’s more than a month of your work life, vanished into the digital void.
But it costs more than just time. Even as we work more slowly, we also make more mistakes, and we feel more anxiety. It’s the triple threat no one wants.
Why writers need to worry
Writers are especially vulnerable to attention residue. That’s because writing requires sustained deep work, and our “flow states” — those times when we write quickly and easily — are as fragile as a house of cards in a windstorm.
Further, there is a persistent myth that we can do many supporting tasks (research, email and phone calls) quickly. “It’ll just take me three minutes to write this email,” we tell ourselves. Or even more laughably, “It’ll take me just 30 seconds to check how to spell this name correctly.” (Spoiler alert: I have never known a search to take fewer than 15 minutes. That “quick check” will somehow lead you down a Wikipedia rabbit hole about 17th-century cartographers.)
Clearly, we need a solution.
How to minimize attention residue
Here are seven strategies that will help prevent attention residue from messing up your writing:
- Create transition rituals: Give yourself physical actions that will signal your brain that you’re going to shift modes. For example, I always work with a timer, and when the bell dings, I know it’s time for me to move on to another task. (Also, I never expect to finish a project after just one session. I work well in advance.) If you don’t want to use a timer, you could signal the same with a brief exercise break, a cup of coffee or tea or a walk. Think of it as a palate cleanser for your brain.
- Implement strategic scheduling: Write early in the day (I don’t mean 5 a.m.! I mean shortly after you wake, whenever that is, as long as it doesn’t compromise your sleep). Definitely don’t write immediately after checking email or reading the news, when your brain will be whirling like a dervish possessed by a tornado.
- Use time blocking: Dedicate protected time for your writing. I time-block my whole day, every working day, and it’s a strategy I highly recommend for writers. Treat your writing time like a doctor’s appointment — non-negotiable and sacred.
- Make notes: Never allow yourself to become distracted by thinking about other things you need to do. Any time a task springs to mind, write it down. And don’t use sticky notes, because (you already know this), they might go missing! Instead, have a secure and specific place to do it. (I have a clipboard on the right-hand side of my desk for scribbling such info. At the end of every day, I enter my reminders into my to-do list software.) Your future self will thank you for not turning your workspace into a sticky-note crime scene.
- Adopt digital boundaries: Use airplane mode for your phone, app blockers for social media or place your phone in another room when you’re writing — preferably somewhere that requires actual effort to reach.
- Deploy warm-up exercises: Some people like to use free-writing, but I vastly prefer mindmapping, which centres me in my creative brain and helps me to channel inspiration. Find your ritual and stick to it like your writing life depends on it — because it kind of does.
- Have a “shutdown ritual”: This won’t help your writing per se, but it will improve your life by ensuring you don’t take your work home with you (even if you work from home). I have a nine-item checklist of things I do at the end of every day, and when I’m done, I know I’ve finished my work until the next morning. It’s like tucking my work brain into bed so it doesn’t keep me up at night.
Closing thoughts
The hidden cost of attention residue is high. It steals your productivity, makes you write more slowly, causes you to feel more anxiety and leads to more mistakes. In short, it’s a creativity vampire, and it’s time to drive a stake through its heart.
Still, with problems like this, don’t try to fix everything all at once. Awareness is the first step, so monitor yourself for the next two weeks to see if you’re getting stuck in residue, like a fly in a flytrap.
Also understand that minor changes can lead to major improvements. So, experiment with one or two of the strategies I’ve listed and see if they help you.
Remember: It’s possible to write with little talent. But it’s impossible to write without attention. Attention is the most precious currency we have.
If you liked this post, you’ll also like How do you increase your attention span?
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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.
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My video podcast last week addressed how to improve undergrad writing. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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How do you increase your attention? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the comments section, below. If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by Nov. 30/25, I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the related posts links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)
