Key points

Single-tasking increases productivity by focusing attention on one task at a time.

Switching tasks can leave "attention residue" lingering on the unfinished work.

A simple "ready-to-resume" plan helps your brain let go of previous tasks.

Building closure rituals when finishing tasks prevents mental lingering.

Many people try to juggle a growing number of unfinished tasks by multi-tasking. As we discussed in a previous post , multi-tasking just makes you less productive because our brains do not work that way. This is why modern productivity advice recommends time-boxing, time-blocking, and other techniques, which describe ways to concentrate on a single task at a time. Single-tasking focuses our attention and allows for "deep work."

But there is a catch. In practice,

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