[cracauer]

That is about the opposite of what works for me. A total absence of other signals isn't good. What I need is an "attention sponge". When attention lifts for a moment from the actual work, the "attention sponge" will hold it for a while, but that sponge is specifically chosen to not hold on to it.

An example is a background where a TV series runs that I watched 9 times already, let's say Babylon 5. The work computer has an attention accident (maybe just slow or whatever). My attention lifts from work, and B5 catches it before it goes off who knows where. Since B5 is not interactive and since I've seen it 9 times already it easily releases the attention so that it can go back to work.

I wrote more here: https://medium.com/@MartinCracauer/on-attention-focus-and-au...