Attention switching
As mentioned in Section 3, one of the properties of attention is switchability, which is the ability to shift attention from one object to another. Thanks to switchability, agents can change roles. For example, a person can finish playing the role of an engineer at work and switch to the role of a parent. Conscious switching is distinguished from distraction caused by external and internal irritants. For example, when a person consciously changes roles from meeting organizer at work to a purchaser, they are switching roles. When employees come to him during work and ask to immediately solve a non-urgent (and often unimportant) issue, he does not switch, but rather gets distracted from the task - automatically and involuntarily.
We try to reduce distractions because they add chaos and interrupt activities until a work product is delivered. A person distracted by new inputs pays not only with the time directly spent on processing the inputs but also with the time needed to return to the interrupted role. Often, the time to return to a role is at least 15 minutes, and if the role is complex or unfamiliar to the person, even more time may be required. As a result, if half an hour was allocated for a task, in reality, even a 5-minute distraction reduces the time available for completion to no more than 10 minutes. It is rare in business to receive high-quality work products in such a short time frame.
We aim to engage attention switching when changing activities to avoid getting "stuck" in one role. Here, the mechanism of contextual updating helps us: the brain continuously calculates the situation and environment we are in, compares it with samples in the "data bank," and selects the role and behavior. In this way, the brain associatively directs the cameras of attention, choosing the "role that has helped / can help in this situation." Contextual updating generally works quite well. For example, people who come to work usually do not confuse the work environment with the family environment (at least in the main aspects).
However, there are challenges with it. For instance, contextual updating alone cannot suggest executing a fundamentally new role because it is not yet in the "data bank." For example, if a person is not used to playing the role of a leader and has never thought about doing it, they see the discussion topic at a meeting straying far from the agenda but do not intervene to bring the participants back to the agenda. They simply wait for things to sort themselves out. In such cases, a conscious decision may need to be made to perform an unfamiliar role.
Switching also causes a temporary shutdown of S2 - the analytical system needs time to reboot and ramp up again. This is why periods of focused work are so important: one or more consecutive work periods, for example, 4 "pomodoros" of 25 minutes each (after the first three, a short 5-minute break that does not disturb focus on the task, after the fourth - a window for interaction with the world around). This effect should be taken into account.
It is also worth noting that with constant repetition of certain actions or information, the brain gradually starts recognizing them as the most "familiar" and "probable." Therefore, if you have repeatedly played a role, for example, as an engineer, and now you need to play the role of a manager, the brain will stubbornly present you with role objects of an engineer, not a manager, because it is more familiar and understandable. Dealing with this habit can be aided by additional checklists for the new role, highlighting the role in schedules and meeting agendas to remind yourself of the need to perform it.
Furthermore, marketers and media professionals are well aware of this effect and strive to use it for manipulations: for example, by throwing a lot of specifically presented information from various sources, they aim to create the impression that everything they say is true in the end. To counter attempts to "hack" your consciousness, it is essential to carefully select the sources from which you consume information. Besides, it is recommended to periodically "ground" the received information in the physical world: try to refute it based on observable physical reality. Only if you fail to disprove it should you consider the information to be of good quality.
The mechanism of contextual updating can be used in designing the path of attention. If you have trouble being stuck in a specific role, it makes sense to add rituals of "entering the role" and "exiting the role," changing the context. For example, an engineer who needs to take on the role of a manager can bring out descriptions and checklists related to manager tasks, adjust their attire, and so on - that is, perform actions that prepare them for assuming one role or finishing it. And the effect of "we consider more probable and remember more often if we encounter information more often" can be put to use with the help of saturation. Saturation involves immersing the agent (yourself, the team) in new information "head-on": when you read texts on the topic, listen to podcasts and recordings, practice thinking by writing, and take notes - in other words, maximizing the number of encounters with unfamiliar information. Saturation also helps address some attention-holding issues, which we will discuss in the following sections.