Lesson 4 of 125 min left
Lesson 4 · 12 min read
The cost of switching
Every time you move between tasks, part of your attention stays behind. Researchers call it attention residue: the thoughts about the last task that crowd the next one.
The cost isn't the switch itself, which takes a second. It's the twenty minutes it takes to be fully back, and the shallower work you do in the meantime.
Calm software protects the next twenty minutes, not just the next click.
Key idea
Batch interruptions. A product that sends one summary at 5 pm costs its users less than ten pings across the afternoon.