C. Hinsley

1 August 2020

One of the most powerful methods I've found for overcoming distraction from flow states is the use of task priming. These distractions are caused by the encroaching influence of shallow tasks and environmental uncertainty; such diversions appear in virtually every type of work. Task priming is a fairly straightforward technique that almost completely eradicates the need for explicit, structured planning, outside of tasks that require large amounts of creativity and prior analysis. The technique is simple:

• Start working on a task. Once you engage with the task, your basal ganglia take over and unconscious effort begins to propel you forward through the task's completion.
• While you are working on that task, once unconscious propulsion has been initiated, begin thinking forward to the point in the future at which unconscious effort will cease to be productive; the next sub-task is often delimited by distinct context switches. Your job at this point is to identify the most likely immediately-upcoming context switches.
• Once you have identified a set of relevant context switches, visualize them clearly as you continue working through the sub-task you are currently working on. If you have enough time and attention to afford, you can couple your visualization with in-depth analysis of how you might best get through the context switch — particular actions you can take, things to focus on during the transition and leading up to it, under what conditions the environment you're working in might betray your expectations, and so on. It isn't necessary that this analysis be fully conscious; lots of assessments about the probabilities of interruptions or mispredictions are available subconsciously and can be reasoned about in a fraction of a second.
• Upon transitioning to the upcoming task, begin priming for the next context switch.

The important thing here is that you are not wasting free processing cycles on optimizing the task you are currently working on; a requirement if you are working on tasks that you can apply task priming to in the first place is that you should be able to accomplish tasks without your full conscious attention throughout their duration. You might have an upcoming task that requires extra attention, in which case you should devote special attention towards priming for the task itself during the completion of the task preceding it to save time and maintain focus. Otherwise, you should focus on the transitions between tasks, the context switches — allocate all conscious effort towards them.

Put simply, task priming boils down to: Start working, Visualize what you will need to do next, Focus on the transitions between the tasks more than the tasks themselves.

When you perform task priming, you are making full use of your conscious ability and diverting attention both away from external distractions and internal "wandering" of the mind. Typically this results in lessened cognitive fatigue after a bout of work, as well as a significant amount of time saved due to increased efficiency. Just as well, I wouldn't be surprised if the technique were something that a person improves at with continued practice. The jurisprudence exercised in selecting which tasks to prime, and on just how to prime them (What exactly should you visualize? How should you orient yourself in preparation for context switches?), is a central dilemma in problem solving generally. Task priming provides a well-defined, versatile, efficient framework for stacking these priming selections and makes it easier to identify one's flaws in that aforementioned jurisdiction.