Article · 8 min read

Attention Residue (Sophie Leroy's research)

Sophie Leroy · University of Washington Bothell School of Business Free Intermediate

This is the researcher who coined attention residue explaining, in her own words, why answering one WhatsApp ping costs far more than the 20 seconds it takes to type back. When you switch tasks, part of your mind stays stuck on the last one, and the effect is worst when the switch is an involuntary interruption you have to rush through, which is precisely what a customer or investor ping is. Read this and the two-or-three-windows-a-day rule stops feeling like discipline theatre and starts feeling like protecting the only cognitive resource that builds your product.

• Part of your attention stays glued to the previous task after you switch, leaving fewer cognitive resources for the work in front of you.
• Interruptions and unfinished, time-pressured tasks (a live WhatsApp thread) produce the strongest residue.
• The damage is heaviest on exactly the cognitively demanding work founders most need to protect, so batching replies is defence, not laziness.