Lessons - Multitasking Is A Myth (What It Does To Your Brain)

Welcome to the lessons episodes of Success Story. These lessons episodes will be shorter clips from past guests, accomplished value community members, and myself. In each short episode, we'll feature concise and insightful actionable conversations and tactics, providing you with real-world strategies and tips to help you achieve your personal and professional goals. If you're seeking a no-nonsense approach to growth and progress, you've come to the right spot. Settle in, take notes, and enjoy. Attention residue. This is your new worst enemy. What does attention residue actually feel like? How do you figure out if it's actually impacting you? Hey, Scott here. Today I'm going to teach you why attention residue is sabotaging your flow. Picture this. You just started the day. You're just grabbing your coffee or your first port of call with a check-slacks or teams or whatever it is for any urgent messages. It took a while, but you finally managed to clear your inbox. And now you're one hour into the first major task with the first major project that you have to complete that day. Your focus playlist is playing at the perfect volume, keyboard is on fire, your typing so fast, thoughts flow seamlessly from your brain to the screen, it's the fabled flow state. Nothing can stop you now. But a thought suddenly occurs to you. What about those concert tickets you forgot to buy last night? Better get them now before they sell out. It'll only take a few minutes and they can get back to work. There's a problem, however. When you've purchased the tickets and you turned back to your project, it feels as though your entire psyche has shifted. Which part were you up to again? What was that detail you wanted to remember for the next slide? And wait, who else should you invite to that concert? Oops, it's safe to say that your flow state is gone for the rest of the day. So let's talk about exactly what's going on here at a psychological level. Attention residue. This is your new worst enemy. Now, if any part of that little opening sequence of events resonates with you, you're not alone. Game stage found that 98% of the workforce gets distracted about three to four times each day. It's estimated that distraction costs US businesses around $650 billion every year. So yes, distraction in the workplace is a huge problem. But why is it a problem? What's a quick phone check here? There a brief intermission to reply to messages on Slack. Listen, in my travels this week, internet travels, I stumble between all the different rabbit holes that go down, I stumble across a concept called attention residue. It's a term that was first coined by Dr. Sophie Leroy, and it describes what happens when your focus on one task is interrupted, even if only for a few seconds. You find yourself trying to return to the same level of concentration as before. The issue here is that our brains don't switch tasks instantly, instead they linger over the previous job for some time afterwards, and even though you may have finished replying to messages or checking your phone, part of your mind remains focused on these activities. So Dr. Leroy calls this residue because of the way in which it builds up over time. The more frequently you switch tasks throughout the day, the more of this residue accumulates in your mind. As it builds up, so does your mental fatigue. So reaching flow state becomes next to impossible. Now let's go behind the science. It's actually very fascinating to dig into Dr. Leroy's research on this topic. She's been studying attention science for 17 years, at a long time, and it shows her depth of passion for the subject. The good news is that she's unraveled a lot of mysteries in the space. We now know, for example, that attention residue reduces your effectiveness when working on complex projects, interferes with decision-making processes, and makes them more difficult to switch between tasks. And Dr. Leroy's own words, quote, you might not be as efficient in your work, you might not be as good a listener, you might get overwhelmed more easily, you might make errors or struggle with decisions in your ability to process information. This is the multitasking myth. You might have heard people say that multitasking is a myth since our brains aren't designed to handle more than one task at a time. Attention residue is the concept proving this theory right. We create the illusion of multitasking by juggling several tasks, but in reality, we're just creating mental fatigue. For any neuroscience enthusiast in the room, this piece of research explains that our fronto-paradil control network and dorsal attention network are more active when we attempt to multitask. There's an increased demand on important mental systems, and most of the time, the demand is simply unsustainable. While engaging, these systems can partially mitigate its behavioral costs, multitasking is not free. We pay a price and increase demand on these systems, and some performance deficit typically occurs. What makes this even trickier is the fact that when we quote, unquote, multitask, we're under the illusion that we're getting more work done. Hint, no more work is getting done at all. Now what does attention residue actually feel like? How do you figure out if it's actually impacting you? Because you might be listening to this thinking to yourself, I'm the exception to the rule. I really can multitask without going off the rails. If that's the case, and you're saying that, I'm sorry to break the news, you are probably just unaware of what's happening psychologically. Attention residue isn't always obvious. Sometimes it's as clear as day, you feel your brain fogging up as you switch from one task to the next. Other times it's more subtle and hard to pinpoint. You could be feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty making decisions. You might also feel frustrated because you're always starting tasks and never finishing them or struggling to focus on something for a prolonged period of time. Some people experience strange energy slumps even if they just had a coffee. In all likelihood, this is caused by attention residue, not just from multitasking, but from any distraction that interrupts your workflow. Now, let's add another layer to this, time pressure, and why time pressure makes things exponentially worse. An interesting piece of research in Dr. Lee Royzarsson was called, quote, tasks interrupted how anticipating time pressure on resumption of an interrupted task causes attention residue and low performance on interrupting tasks and how ready to resume plan mitigates the effects. This is a mouthful, but there's a breakdown. Attention residue comes into play anytime you switch from one point of focus to another. However, it doesn't affect everyone equally. It depends on the context of the tasks being completed. If you're distracted from an important task and you are aware that the distraction is weakening your chances of completing the main task, once you return to it, you might experience more attention residue than usual. That's interesting, right? The mere knowledge that you are on a time crunch can increase the amount of attention residue that your brain experiences upon returning to the original task. What's the solution? Create a Ready to Resume Intervention Plan. Now it would be nice if we could all stick to one task consistently, but that's not the reality of the modern workplace. Your boss might come in with an urgent request or you'll have to drop what you're doing for whatever reason. You might be in the middle of a project when a colleague or a mentee asks for help. What can be done to reduce the effects of attention residue in these situations that you cannot avoid? In the same study as the one mentioned a couple seconds ago, Dr. Lee Roy and her team found that creating a, quote, Ready to Resume Intervention Plan can significantly reduce attention residue and improve performance on interrupting tasks. Essentially, this involves setting a clear goal before you switch to another task and creating a plan of action for one you return. You know exactly when you'll return to the task at hand, the pressure of time is removed and you're more likely to get back to it with a clear head. For instance, say you estimate that the task at hand needs another two hours to be completed. Before you switch to the interrupting task, you can make a plan to resume work on the main task at least two hours before closing time. By creating this plan and clarifying your goals, you reduce the risk of attention residue. The same applies to any task that is interrupted, set a goal before switching tasks and an end time for when you'll return. Detention residue is an additional threat if you're diagnosed with a certain medical condition such as attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyper disorder. This is very stressful for you. Distractions are almost an unavoidable part of your day, so although this affects people that do not have these types of conditions, I still want to make sure that you have a game plan if you are affected by these types of conditions. Because it affects everybody who does not have ADD and ADHD, but it significantly affects to a greater degree. And I don't want to give you the impression that there is no fix for this. So here's the thing. If you do have an additional complication, your attention span is like a muscle. It can be exercised and strengthened to function optimally. And the distractions come and they will. You can't simply block them out, but you can control how you manage those distractions. For instance, instead of jumping straight over to your email inbox when you hear a ping, take a second to note down where you're up to in the current task and when you're going to return. Create an immediate return plan. The simple act of grounding yourself in the current task will help you switch back with more clarity. If a distraction is something that you can easily ignore do so, you can even just turn off the sound on your phone, on your computer so that you don't hear that thing. Don't let yourself be tricked into thinking that every distraction must be attended to immediately. So you architect your environment for you to succeed. There are some things that can wait. And if they don't need your attention right away, then leave them until later. Use strategic stimulation. You'll find it uncomfortable when your brain isn't stimulated enough and that's when the distractions start to come. So stimulate yourself strategically by playing some binaural beats or using a standing desk. The challenge to go against the programming of your neural pathways, but remember that your attention span can be shaped, strengthened and sharpened like a knife. Now let's also add on another layer of complexity, but what if you're just addicted? Maybe it's not your colleagues distracting you. Maybe it's not slack messages. Maybe it's TikTok or YouTube or Instagram. The truth is that many of us are hooked on the dopamine head associated with social media use. And it can be hard to break free from this cycle. Seriously, studies exist to compare our addiction to social media with that of a drug addict. And then there's a theory called the goldfish effect. Studies are beginning to link social media use with lower attention spans literally shorter than that of a goldfish. In other words, extensive use of social media is impacting our ability to focus on important tasks. And that can have serious implications for our productivity. Now there are many rabbit holes that you can go down when trying to cut out social media use. I mean, you can download app blockers, you can delete accounts, you can even switch your phone into airplane or grayscale mode. But there's only one strategy I found effective personally, and that's physical removal. In other words, get your phone out of your workspace, out of sight, out of mind. So what's to take away? Out of all of this, attention residue is a real problem. And it's one that can be managed or even conquered with the right strategies. It doesn't matter if your distractions come from external sources like colleagues or environmental factors or internal sources like addiction to social media platforms. What matters is that you take proactive steps to manage them and use the power of your own focus to increase productivity. So just a question for anybody listening. Have you noticed the effects of attention residue in your own work life? If so, please leave some strategies that you have for managing it because I can guarantee if you're dealing with this and you're watching this, there's other people that are watching this as well that would appreciate how you've architected a good environment so that this is not distracting. So if you do have some strategies, leave them in the comments below. If you are watching this on YouTube, hit like, hit subscribe. If you are listening to this, share it with somebody you'd find it useful.