There can only be 1 active focus at a time.

“Always on” attention increases allostatic load = stress which makes us dumber. Juggling attention means earmarking resources for switching, reducing effectiveness on current task. Where parallelization matters, some tasks can be trained into routine. Get pending decisions out of the way or they’ll repeatedly steal resources and focus.rR1


  1. David Rock, Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, 1st ed (New York: Harper Business, 2009). (See notes.)