{"id":3086,"date":"2025-01-10T05:37:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T05:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/?p=3086"},"modified":"2025-01-10T05:37:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T05:37:32","slug":"understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Number of words: 338<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a 2009 paper, titled, intriguingly, \u201cWhy Is It So Hard to Do My Work?,\u201d Leroy introduced an effect she called <em>attention residue<\/em>. In the introduction to this paper, she noted that other researchers have studied the effect of multitasking\u2014trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously\u2014on performance, but that in the modern knowledge work office, once you got to a high enough level, it was more common to find people working on multiple projects sequentially: \u201cGoing from one meeting to the next, starting to work on one project and soon after having to transition to another is just part of life in organizations,\u201d Leroy explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem this research identifies with this work strategy is that when you switch from some Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn\u2019t immediately follow\u2014a <em>residue<\/em> of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task. This residue gets especially thick if your work on Task A was unbounded and of low intensity before you switched, but even if you finish Task A before moving on, your attention remains divided for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leroy studied the effect of this attention residue on performance by forcing task switches in the laboratory. In one such experiment, for example, she started her<a><\/a> subjects working on a set of word puzzles. In one of the trials, she would interrupt them and tell them that they needed to move on to a new and challenging task, in this case, reading r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and making hypothetical hiring decisions. In other trials, she let the subjects finish the puzzles before giving them the next task. In between puzzling and hiring, she would deploy a quick lexical decision game to quantify the amount of residue left from the first task. The results from this and her similar experiments were clear: \u201cPeople experiencing attention residue after switching tasks are likely to demonstrate poor performance on that next task,\u201d and the more intense the residue, the worse the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Excerpted from page number 41-43 of \u201cDeep Work\u201d by Cal Newport.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Number of words: 338 In a 2009 paper, titled, intriguingly, \u201cWhy Is It So Hard to Do My Work?,\u201d Leroy introduced an effect she called attention residue. In the introduction to this paper, she noted that other researchers have studied the effect of multitasking\u2014trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously\u2014on performance, but that in the modern &#8230; <a title=\"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\" aria-label=\"More on Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49,57],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Number of words: 338 In a 2009 paper, titled, intriguingly, \u201cWhy Is It So Hard to Do My Work?,\u201d Leroy introduced an effect she called attention residue. In the introduction to this paper, she noted that other researchers have studied the effect of multitasking\u2014trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously\u2014on performance, but that in the modern ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BullsEye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-10T05:37:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-10T05:37:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bhavya Chowdhury\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bhavya Chowdhury\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\",\"name\":\"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-10T05:37:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-10T05:37:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/992754c8575e3584d4c0dbcab059dd23\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"BullsEye\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/992754c8575e3584d4c0dbcab059dd23\",\"name\":\"Bhavya Chowdhury\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96cc080647ada77871a0fe51c103b135?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96cc080647ada77871a0fe51c103b135?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Bhavya Chowdhury\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/author\/bhavya-chowdhury\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye","og_description":"Number of words: 338 In a 2009 paper, titled, intriguingly, \u201cWhy Is It So Hard to Do My Work?,\u201d Leroy introduced an effect she called attention residue. In the introduction to this paper, she noted that other researchers have studied the effect of multitasking\u2014trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously\u2014on performance, but that in the modern ... Read more","og_url":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/","og_site_name":"BullsEye","article_published_time":"2025-01-10T05:37:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-10T05:37:32+00:00","author":"Bhavya Chowdhury","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Bhavya Chowdhury","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/","url":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/","name":"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue - BullsEye","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-01-10T05:37:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-10T05:37:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/992754c8575e3584d4c0dbcab059dd23"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/deep-work\/understanding-the-science-behind-attention-residue\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Understanding the Science Behind Attention Residue"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/","name":"BullsEye","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/992754c8575e3584d4c0dbcab059dd23","name":"Bhavya Chowdhury","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96cc080647ada77871a0fe51c103b135?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96cc080647ada77871a0fe51c103b135?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Bhavya Chowdhury"},"url":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/author\/bhavya-chowdhury\/"}]}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Bhavya Chowdhury","author_link":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/author\/bhavya-chowdhury\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Number of words: 338 In a 2009 paper, titled, intriguingly, \u201cWhy Is It So Hard to Do My Work?,\u201d Leroy introduced an effect she called attention residue. In the introduction to this paper, she noted that other researchers have studied the effect of multitasking\u2014trying to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously\u2014on performance, but that in the modern&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3087,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3086\/revisions\/3087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bullseye.ac\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}