Yesterday you counted your AI interruptions. Today we're going to use that number โ and the science behind it โ to build something that actually works.
Let's do the math. Researcher Sophie Leroy (University of Washington) coined the term attention residue in 2009. Her finding: when you switch tasks, part of your cognitive attention stays behind on the previous task. You're never fully in the new task. You're always partially elsewhere.
Gloria Mark's field research at office workplaces found that knowledge workers experienced an interruption every 3 minutes and 5 seconds on average. After each one, full cognitive recovery took 23 minutes and 15 seconds.
Now apply this to AI-assisted coding: you're not just getting interrupted every few minutes. You're getting interrupted by something that generates plausible, usable-looking code. Your brain still wants to evaluate it. That evaluation is a cognitive task. And when you evaluate AI output, you're not building the skill the output describes. You're building a different, shallower skill: curation.
The trap: the more AI you use, the more you need to use to understand what AI produced. And the less you understand your own codebase. And the more AI you need. And around it goes.
The solution isn't to use less AI. It's to batch AI interactions so your brain gets real, uninterrupted work time between them.
This sounds simple. It is simple. And almost nobody does it.
The batching rule: 90 minutes of uninterrupted work. Then 15 minutes of AI batch-processing. In the 90 minutes, you never touch AI. In the 15 minutes, you collect all your AI tasks and do them in one session.
Why 90 minutes? Csikszentmihalyi's flow state research shows that deep, restorative work happens in roughly 90-minute cycles. Your ultradian rhythm โ the body's natural rest cycle โ also runs about 90 minutes. This isn't arbitrary.
Today's Assignment
Set one 90-minute timer today. During it: no AI. Open your code. Work from your head. When the timer ends, take 15 minutes and do all your AI tasks at once. Notice what happens in the 90 minutes โ the quality of your thinking, the depth of your focus.
Tomorrow: how to preserve the skills AI is quietly eroding โ without sacrificing everything AI gives you.
More to read: Attention residue and AI โ the deep dive.
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