Chapter 14: Further Reading

Essential Sources

Monsell, S. (2003). "Task switching." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 134–140. Comprehensive review of task-switching costs. The go-to source for understanding why multitasking doesn't work.

Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). "Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity." Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. The smartphone proximity study — phone on desk vs. in another room. Simple, elegant, important finding.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row. The original popular book on flow. Read for the descriptive observations; be cautious about the prescriptive extensions.

Orben, A., & Przybylski, A. K. (2019). "The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use." Nature Human Behaviour, 3(2), 173–182. The large-scale analysis showing that screen time's effect on wellbeing is tiny — comparable to eating potatoes.

Mark, G., Gudith, D., & Klocke, U. (2008). "The cost of interrupted work: More speed and stress." Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 107–110. Gloria Mark's research on interruption costs, including the ~23-minute return-to-task finding.

Rubinstein, J. S., Meyer, D. E., & Evans, J. E. (2001). "Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 27(4), 763–797. Foundational study estimating the magnitude of task-switching costs.

Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2002). "The concept of flow." In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 89–105). Oxford University Press. Academic overview of flow by the original researcher. More measured than the popular flow industry.

Newport, C. (2016). Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Grand Central. Cal Newport's evidence-informed guide to sustained focus. More grounded than the flow-hacking industry and practical for knowledge workers.

Mark, G. (2023). Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity. Hanover Square Press. Gloria Mark's popular book based on her decades of interruption research. More nuanced than headlines about shrinking attention spans.

Levitin, D. J. (2014). The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Dutton. Neuroscientist's guide to managing attention and information, with practical applications grounded in cognitive science.

Online Resources

The Flow Research Collective. Steven Kotler's organization. Worth reviewing with a critical eye — the research-based content is useful, but the marketing claims extend beyond the evidence.

Cal Newport's blog (calnewport.com). Regular posts on deep work, attention, and productivity, grounded more in evidence than most productivity content.