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- Attention Residue - Why Your Mind Stays Where You’ve Been
Attention Residue - Why Your Mind Stays Where You’ve Been
How Switching Tasks Drains Focus, Reduces Performance, and Slows Progress
Welcome to The Smarter Brain, a curation of thought-provoking ideas and actionable reads to help you build better habits and become more productive.
Happy reading - See you on Wednesday!
Cheers,
The Smarter Brain Team
Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins
3 Ideas for Better Habits
Focus Needs Closure
Cal Newport is a computer science professor and author focused on deep focus, cognitive performance, and the cost of fragmented attention.
“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction.”
Clear the Mind
David Allen is a productivity consultant who emphasizes mental clarity through externalizing tasks and closing open cognitive loops.
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”
Total Immersion
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi was a psychologist who studied deep engagement, attention, and the conditions required for sustained focus.
“The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort.”
Having your own side hustle can be a lot of fun, but it can also be quite stressful. There are many things you need to know to even start your side hustle. You need to choose the right one so you don't feel overwhelmed after some time. And when you're growing your side hustle, there are things you need to keep in mind on a regular basis. The Notion Side Hustle OS is a solution for all that.
Productivity Tools and Resources
There’s No Such Thing as Multitasking - And That’s Why Your Brain Stays Stuck
Business expert Sophie Leroy explains how multitasking leaves cognitive residue in your mind, making it harder to be fully present on the task at hand. Explore the multitasking myth and attention residue here.
Clearing the Clutter: Overcoming Attention Residue for Enhanced Focus
A practical guide to recognizing attention residue and taking back control of your cognitive focus with actionable strategies. See how to clear mental clutter and improve focus here.
Remove the Temptation
Freedom - Blocks distracting apps and websites so attention doesn’t fragment in the first place.
Close Open Loops
Todoist - Captures unfinished tasks so your brain doesn’t keep revisiting them.
What We're Reading
The Lindy Newsletter - Explores focus and attention through the lens of historical and cognitive insights, offering unconventional strategies for restoring deep concentration and beating distraction. Recent editions cover attention restoration, cognitive resets, and focus strategies rooted in history and neuroscience.
Cal Newport’s Newsletter focuses on strategies, research, and reflections to help people reclaim their attention in a world dominated by distraction. It explores how to cultivate deep work, resist the constant pull of digital noise, and create systems that protect cognitive resources.
Brain Food
Today I Learned: When you switch from one task to another, part of your attention often stays stuck on the previous task, making it harder to fully focus on the new one. (Source)
Science: Cognitive psychology research shows that attention residue occurs because unfinished or interrupted tasks keep neural activation in the prefrontal cortex, which reduces working memory capacity and slows performance on the next task. (Source)
Have a productive rest of your week,
The Smarter Brain Team
Resource Spotlight
Attention Residue - Why Your Brain Can’t Just Switch Off
Monthly insights rooted in science, not hype - uncover why your mind lingers on what you’ve left behind, how it silently erodes focus, and practical ways to reclaim your attention.
Attention Residue - Why Your Focus Fades Before You Know It
Monthly insights rooted in science, not fluff - this one unpacks how tiny interruptions and task switching leave cognitive residue in your mind, silently eroding your ability to think deeply and produce quality work.
Attention Residue - The Hidden Focus Drag You Didn’t Know You Had
Monthly insights grounded in science, not buzz - this piece breaks down why your mind hangs on to what you’ve just left behind, how that lingering cognitive baggage silently eats into your productivity, and actionable ways to reclaim your attention.
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