Focus & Productivity Glossary

The lingering part of your attention that stays stuck on a previous task after you switch.

The hidden cost of jumping between unrelated tasks, which fragments attention and slows you down.

Distraction-free concentration on a demanding task, pushing your abilities toward their limit.

Using technology intentionally — keeping the few tools that serve you and cutting the rest.

A simple grid that sorts tasks by urgency and importance to decide what to do, defer, delegate or drop.

Complete absorption in a task, where focus feels effortless and time seems to fall away.

A stretch of radically reduced inputs and obligations, devoted almost entirely to focused work.

A method that breaks work into timed intervals — classically 25 minutes — separated by short breaks.

Low-concentration, logistical tasks that keep you busy but create little lasting value.

Deliberately doing one thing at a time, with full attention, until it reaches a stopping point.

Grouping similar tasks and doing them together to reduce the cost of switching.

Assigning every part of your day to a specific block on the calendar in advance.

Giving a task a fixed maximum amount of time, then stopping when the box is up.

The body's roughly 90-minute cycles of higher and lower energy across the day.