Notes

This book gives general information about working habits. It isn't medical or employment advice. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026.

I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026. One has a published correction, mentioned below. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 10, 15 and 21. The person in the examples is invented, along with the report, the reconciliation, Dave, Priya, and every count on the tally sheet.

Before you start. The description of ADHD in adults, the signs I list, the age of onset and the advice to see a GP are from the NHS page "ADHD in adults".

Chapter 3. That the word multitasking came from computing is general knowledge. Monsell, "Task switching", Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7, 2003, pages 134 to 140. The example of odd and even numbers, vowels and consonants is a standard one from this literature and isn't taken from his summary. Rubinstein, Meyer and Evans, "Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching", Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 27, 2001, pages 763 to 797. The step from their one-second tasks to a report is my extrapolation. Strayer, Drews and Crouch, "A comparison of the cell phone driver and the drunk driver", Human Factors 48, 2006, pages 381 to 391. It was a simulator study. The drunk drivers had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 per cent. They drove differently from the phone users, following more closely and braking harder, so "more impaired" depends on the measures chosen. The law on phones is from the GOV.UK page "Using a phone, sat nav or other device when driving".

Chapter 4. Altmann, Trafton and Hambrick, "Momentary interruptions can derail the train of thought", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 143, 2014, pages 215 to 226. Interruptions averaged 2.8 and 4.4 seconds. Leroy, "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, 2009, pages 168 to 181. I couldn't obtain a summary of this paper and have described it as it's generally reported, which the chapter says. Mark, Gonzalez and Harris, "No task left behind? Examining the nature of fragmented work", Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2005, pages 321 to 330. They observed 24 information workers, and 57 per cent of working spheres were interrupted. You may have seen a claim that it takes twenty-three minutes to return to a task after an interruption. I haven't been able to trace it to a published finding and haven't used it. My estimate that a restart takes several minutes is only an estimate.

Chapter 5. Sanbonmatsu, Strayer, Medeiros-Ward and Watson, "Who multi-tasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and sensation seeking", PLoS One 8, 2013, e54402. The participants were university students, and ability was measured with one task, the Operation Span. Watson and Strayer, "Supertaskers: profiles in extraordinary multitasking ability", Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 17, 2010, pages 479 to 485. Ophir, Nass and Wagner, "Cognitive control in media multitaskers", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 2009, pages 15583 to 15587. Wiradhany and Nieuwenstein, "Cognitive control in media multitaskers: two replication studies and a meta-analysis", Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics 79, 2017, pages 2620 to 2641. Five of their fourteen tests reproduced the effect, and only two survived a stricter analysis. The journal later published a correction to this paper, which I haven't read. My explanation of why people misjudge their own ability is reasoning.

Chapter 6. Mark, Gudith and Klocke, "The cost of interrupted work: more speed and stress", Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2008, pages 107 to 110. Wang and Tchernev, "The 'myth' of media multitasking: reciprocal dynamics of media multitasking, personal needs, and gratifications", Journal of Communication 62, 2012, pages 493 to 513. Their participants were students and the multitasking was mostly with media, so applying it to office work is my extension. The finished list is my suggestion.

Chapter 7. Kushlev and Dunn, "Checking email less frequently reduces stress", Computers in Human Behavior 43, 2015, pages 220 to 228. I've relied on a description of this study and haven't read the paper or its summary. The exercise with fifty messages is mine.

Chapter 8. Fitz, Kushlev, Jagannathan, Lewis, Paliwal and Ariely, "Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being", Computers in Human Behavior 101, 2019, pages 84 to 94. One of the authors has had other papers retracted. I found no notice against this one when I checked. What I say about how software is designed is my opinion.

Chapter 9. Sana, Weston and Cepeda, "Laptop multitasking hinders classroom learning for both users and nearby peers", Computers and Education 62, 2013, pages 24 to 31. It was a simulated classroom. Applying it to meetings is my extension. That listening and writing compete because both use language is a common account which I haven't sourced.

Chapter 11. Masicampo and Baumeister, "Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 101, 2011, pages 667 to 683. The arithmetic of three tasks is mine and can be checked on paper.

Chapter 12. Cowan, "The magical number 4 in short-term memory: a reconsideration of mental storage capacity", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 2001, pages 87 to 114. The 1950s paper is George Miller's, which I cite from general knowledge. Cowan's limit applies under particular laboratory conditions, and the chapter says so.

Chapter 13. Tam and Inzlicht, "Fast-forward to boredom: how switching behavior on digital media makes people more bored", Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 153, 2024, pages 2409 to 2426. There were seven experiments with 1,223 participants. The results for online articles and for people who weren't students were less clear. What I say about the dull first ten minutes of a task is my observation.

Chapter 14. Leroy and Glomb as below. Everything else is mine.

Chapter 16. Limits on work in progress come from manufacturing and software practice, often under the name kanban. I describe them from general knowledge.

Chapter 17. Leroy and Glomb, "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, 2018, pages 380 to 397. Their plan was a brief reflection on how one would return to the task. My one-line parking note is a simpler version, and it hasn't been tested. The stretch lengths I suggest are common practice, with no particular study behind them.

Chapter 18. The point about conversation follows from chapter 3. I haven't cited research on phones and family life here.

Chapter 19. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule and its parts haven't been tested together, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.

Chapter 20. The NHS page named above. It notes that waiting times for assessment vary and can be months or years. That external supports such as lists are often recommended for ADHD is general knowledge, and I haven't sourced it.