Switch
“I just finished something draining and now need to do something different.”
Between modes — meeting to making, call to writing, parenting to working.
What success looks like
Enter the next task without the last task still 'running' in the background.
Reach for it when
- After meetings
- Between modes
- After a long call
- After a hard conversation, before the next thing
- When attention is divided
The science
Ready-to-Resume Plan + Rapid Somatosensory Rotation
Switch addresses *attention residue* — Sophie Leroy's documented finding (2009) that when you finish Task A and start Task B without closure, cognitive resources stay allocated to A, degrading B. The construct is more specific than "multitasking is incomplete switching" — Leroy showed residue arises particularly when Task A is unfinished AND time-pressured.
The protocol has two functional components, in order of evidence-quality:
1. Ready-to-resume plan (Leroy & Glomb 2018). A brief 60-90 second mental or spoken note of "where I stopped on the last thing + my next step." This is the intervention with the strongest direct RCT evidence for reducing attention residue — four studies showed significant residue reduction via this exact mechanism. The cognitive *closure on Task A* is what does the work; it is not about switching attention to something else.
2. Rapid body scan + brief exhale-biased breath. This is the state-shift step before Task B begins: a semantic-to-sensory attentional reorganization (Farb 2023 documents the DAN/insula/ACC reconfiguration during interoceptive vs. exteroceptive attention). This supports parasympathetic recovery and clears the somatic activation from the prior mode.
What this protocol does NOT do. An earlier version called rapid body scan "the fastest documented way to flush attention residue." There is no comparative ranking in the literature, and Leroy's own follow-up program tested ready-to-resume *writing* — not body scans — as the residue-reducer. We also previously cited Kaplan 1995 / Attention Restoration Theory; ART is about environmental affordances (soft fascination in nature), not indoor body scans. We removed that citation.
If you only have 30 seconds: just do step 1 ("I stopped at X. Next time I will Y."). That carries most of the evidence-supported benefit.
When NOT to use this
This protocol may be the wrong tool — or need care — for:
- History of trauma-related dissociation or active dissociative-subtype PTSD — body-scan and interoceptive practices can deepen dissociation. Britton & Lindahl 2021 found ~58% of meditators reported negatively-valenced adverse effects (~37% with functional impact). Consider trauma-informed grounding (5-4-3-2-1 sensory) instead.
- Active psychosis — interoceptive practices are not recommended in active episodes.
- When you genuinely only have 30-60 seconds — the evidence-best fast version is just the ready-to-resume step: "I stopped at X. Next time I will Y." Skip the body scan.
This is not medical advice. If any of these describe you, talk to your clinician before integrating this protocol.
References
What this protocol is built on
Leroy, S. (2009). Why is it so hard to do my work? The challenge of attention residue when switching between work tasks.
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 109(2), 168-181
Leroy, S., Glomb, T. M. (2018). Tasks interrupted: How anticipating time pressure on resumption of an interrupted task causes attention residue and low performance on interrupting tasks and how a 'ready-to-resume' plan mitigates the effects.
Organization Science, 29(3), 380-397
Farb, N. A. S., et al. (2023). Interoceptive attention and the neural reconfiguration of attention networks.
eNeuro, 10(6)
Britton, W. B., Lindahl, J. R., et al. (2021). Defining and measuring meditation-related adverse effects in mindfulness-based programs.
Clinical Psychological Science, 9(6), 1185-1204
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