Picture someone who reads an angry work message at six, then sits down to dinner with a friend. They are at the table, but part of them is still in the message. The friend gets half a person. Nothing about the dinner caused that. It was carried in from the thing before.
Task oneunfinished
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Attentionpart stays behind
Sophie Leroy, a researcher who studies work, named this in 2009: attention residue. When a person leaves one task for another, part of their attention stays on the first, most of all if the first was left unfinished. In her experiments, people with more residue did worse on the next task.
Finished
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Half done
Which leaves more residue: a task finished before moving on, or one left half done?
The one left half done.
Right. Finished, the mind lets go. Half done, part of it stays behind to hold the place.
The finished one, because it took more effort.
Not yet. Effort is not what stays. The unfinished one keeps part of the mind holding its place, and that is the residue.
Neither. Attention moves all at once.
Not yet. Leroy's experiments found that it does not. Part stays behind, and the next task pays for it.
Anger from the message
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The jokelands flat
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The waiterseems slow
A feeling is residue too, in this course's wider use of the word. The anger from the message does not know the message is over. It stays in the body for a while and colours whatever comes next: the friend's joke lands flat, the waiter seems slow. The next moment is being read through the last one.
Picture a residue that fades on its own. Move the gap between the message and the dinner, and watch how much of the person arrives at the table. Made up to show the shape.
At the table5 made up
Still in the message5 made up
Time before the dinner: Straight in
Straight from the message to the table: half a person arrives. The rest is still in the message.
At the table7 made up
Still in the message3 made up
Time before the dinner: A ten-minute walk
Ten minutes of walking: most of the person arrives.
At the table9 made up
Still in the message1 made up
Time before the dinner: An hour
An hour: nearly all of the person is at the table.
At the table10 made up
Still in the message0 made up
Time before the dinner: A night's sleep
A night's sleep: the whole person arrives. The message is a thing that happened yesterday.
What did the walk and the hour do that the dinner itself could not?
They made the anger stronger by leaving it alone.
Not yet. The frames go the other way: more gap, more person at the table. A feeling with nothing feeding it fades.
Gave the residue time to fade before the next thing started.
Right. Residue fades on its own if nothing feeds it. Going straight from the message to the table gave it no time, so it came too.
Nothing. A good dinner clears any mood.
Not yet. The frames show half a person arriving when there is no gap. The dinner can help later, but it starts with whatever was carried in.
Move the control.
A deed→Residue→Time, nothing feeding it→Clear
Two things shorten residue: finishing the thing, and time with nothing feeding it. A phone that keeps the message in view stops the fade, because every look restarts the clock. So the gap of time from lesson 9 does a second job here: it lets residue fade.
Each card is a moment after something hard. Does the residue get time to fade, or does it get fed?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
Closing the laptop and walking to the shop
Rereading the message twice on the bus
Opening the thread again under the table at dinner
Finishing the reply and putting the phone away
Scrolling for other people's arguments about the same thing
Sleeping on it
Closing the laptop and walking to the shop → Fades
Not yet. Fades. Nothing is in front of the eyes to restart it, and the walk is time.
Rereading the message twice on the bus → Fed
Not yet. Fed. Each reread puts the thing back at full strength, as if it had just arrived.
Opening the thread again under the table at dinner → Fed
Not yet. Fed. The dinner was the gap, and the look cancels it.
Finishing the reply and putting the phone away → Fades
Not yet. Fades. The task is finished, which Leroy found lets the mind let go, and nothing feeds it after.
Scrolling for other people's arguments about the same thing → Fed
Not yet. Fed. Each new argument puts it back at full strength.
Sleeping on it → Fades
Not yet. Fades. The longest gap there is, with nothing in front of the eyes.
3Fades
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3Fed
Right. Three fed, three fade. Residue fades on its own. What keeps it alive is contact, and each contact restarts the clock.
0 min8 made up
10 min4 made up
Picture a residue that halves every ten minutes with nothing feeding it, a made-up rule. It starts at 8. After twenty minutes with nothing feeding it, how much is left?
Halve it once for the first ten minutes, and once more for the second.
Right. Eight, then four, then two: two halvings in twenty minutes. Reopen the message at minute nineteen and it is eight again, and the clock starts over.
Notesfinished first
↓→
The next patient
A hospital lets nurses finish writing one patient's notes before taking the next call, instead of answering at once. Using this lesson, what does finishing first change for the next patient?
Less residue. The first patient's unfinished notes are not still holding part of the nurse's attention.
Right. Leroy's finding, in a corridor. An unfinished task leaves part of the mind behind; a finished one lets go.
Nothing. A nurse can hold two patients in mind.
Not yet. They can hold both, and that is the residue. The lesson is about what the holding costs the next patient.
It makes the second patient wait, which is worse.
Not yet. They do wait, and that is a real cost. The lesson does not say which cost is bigger. It says the second patient would otherwise get a nurse partly still with the first.
Lesson complete
Part of the mind stays on what was left unfinished; residue fades with time and nothing feeding it.