Time & Energy Morning Brief™️

Each weekday morning, I record a short audio reflection on leadership, performance, relationships, values, and what it means to show up well for the people and things that matter most.

It's five intentional minutes before the world starts asking things of you.

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Time & Energy Morning Brief™️

Attention Residue

September 13, 2026 • Nick Lakoduk • Season 1 • Episode 39

0:00 | 4:49

Your attention is getting spent whether you approve the purchase or not. Monday makes that painfully clear: overnight email, surprise meetings, pings, unfinished work from Friday, and a quick news check that somehow turns into ten minutes. Before we’ve even chosen what matters, the day starts choosing for us and it doesn’t choose gently. We want to change that by making one intentional decision before the noise gets a vote.

We dig into the research behind why switching tasks feels so draining. Sophie Leroy’s “attention residue” explains how part of your mind stays stuck on what you just left, especially when it’s unfinished, so your next task gets only the scraps of your focus. Then we bring in Gloria Mark’s findings that many of us shift attention about every 47 seconds on a screen, often because we interrupt ourselves. It’s a powerful reminder that productivity isn’t only about calendars and to-do lists; it’s about attention management, energy, and the hidden cost of constant switching.

We also talk about a trap almost all of us fall into: urgency impersonating importance. The newest thing, the loudest thing, and the easiest thing to finish can dominate our day, while the quiet priorities sit in the background, like relationships, health, meaningful work, and decisions that require real thought. The fix isn’t perfection or a distraction-free life. It’s a small, practical reset.

Before the day runs away, pick one thing that deserves your best attention and give it protected space, even twenty minutes or putting your phone elsewhere during a conversation. If this helps, subscribe, share it with a friend who feels stretched thin, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Monday Morning Attention Reset

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Good morning. Here's the time and energy morning brief for Monday, September 14th, 2026. Five intentional minutes before the world starts asking things of us. By the time most of us decide what deserves our attention today, several other things may have already decided for us. The email that came in overnight, the meeting someone put on our calendar, the notification on our phone, the unfinished thing from Friday, the person who needs an answer, the news we decided to check for 30 seconds that somehow turned into 10 minutes. It's Monday. There will be no shortage of things willing to tell us they're important. And the interesting thing about attention is that we don't have to consciously choose where it goes for it to be spent. Something can simply take it.

Attention Residue And Task Switching

SPEAKER_00 1:06

There's some fascinating research behind what happens when this becomes the way we move through our days. Researcher Sophie Leroy coined the term attention residue while studying what happens when people switch between tasks. Her research found that when we move away from one task, particularly when it's unfinished, part of our attention can remain stuck on what we just left. Our body moved to the next thing. Our brain didn't completely come with us. And performance on the next task can suffer because some of our cognitive resources are still occupied somewhere else.

Why Time Management Falls Short

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Researcher Gloria Mark has spent years studying how people actually use their attention while working with technology. Her research has found that people now spend an average of about 47 seconds on a screen before shifting their attention somewhere else. 47 seconds, not necessarily because someone interrupted us either. We interrupt ourselves, we check, we switch, we remember something, we open another tab, we respond to the message while we're thinking about the meeting, while we're trying to finish the thing we originally sat down to do. And all that switching has a cost, which makes me think attention is probably one of the most overlooked ways we spend our energy. We talk a lot about managing time, we organize calendars, make lists, prioritize projects, block off hours. But two people can have the exact same hour available to them and experience that hour very differently. One gives something their full attention, the other gives it whatever attention is left after 10 other things have taken a little piece. Same 60 minutes, very different energy. That's why I don't think the goal is to eliminate distraction. Good luck with that. People need us. Plans change, kids call, customers have problems, someone knocks on the door. And sometimes the interruption really is more important than whatever we were doing.

Urgency Pretends To Be Important

SPEAKER_00 2:56

The question is whether we're making enough intentional decisions about our attention before the world starts making those decisions for us. Because urgency is really good at impersonating importance. The newest thing gets our attention, the loudest thing gets our attention, the easiest thing to finish gets our attention. The thing with the little red notification gets our attention. Meanwhile, something that actually matters can sit quietly in the background because it isn't demanding anything from us. A conversation, a decision, a piece of work that requires real thought, a relationship, our health, an idea we keep saying we want to explore. The things that matter most aren't always the things most capable of interrupting us.

One Intentional Focus Block

SPEAKER_00 3:41

So before today gets too far away from you, try something simple. Ask yourself, what deserves my best attention today? Not everything that needs to get done, not the entire list. One thing. Then give it a little bit of space where it doesn't have to compete with everything else. Maybe that's 20 minutes, maybe it's an hour, maybe it's simply putting your phone somewhere else during a conversation. The amount of time probably matters less than the quality of attention you bring to it. Time is fixed. Energy is renewable, but only when it's aligned. And attention is one of the ways we decide where that energy goes. There will always be something willing to spend it for us. The opportunity is to decide what deserves it first.

Energy Follows Attention

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Make it a great day.