Cover
Orient the sitting and teach the colour language in one glance.
Variants
- default
Data fields
The fields a spec's page can set for this component (see switchback show cover --json):
questiontimeboxhowtostationery_note
Grounding
Helps: when the sitting needs one question to aim at; stating the goal first is supported only by related work on advance organisers, so treat the question as the contract to check the return against, not a guarantee of focus
Backfires: when an early, narrow question locks in the wrong problem, when moving the phone away causes more anxiety than its presence did (the phone-presence effect failed a direct replication), or when stopping mid-sentence is not paired with a written note of the next step
- DStating at the outset the specific question a session must answer improves the relevance and focus of the work, compared with starting without a stated goal.Luiten, Ames & Ackerson (1980), Locke & Latham (2002)
- CHaving one's smartphone within reach, even silent and face down, reduces available cognitive capacity, and moving it to another room restores that capacity.Ruiz Pardo & Minda (2022), Hartmann, Martarelli, Reber & Rothen (2020), Thornton, Faires, Robbins & Rollins (2014), Böttger, Poschik & Zierer (2023), Hartanto & Yang (2016), Stothart, Mitchum & Yehnert (2015)
- CEnding a work session in the middle of a unit of work, such as mid-sentence, rather than at a natural break, increases the likelihood and ease of resuming the work at the next session.Ghibellini & Meier (2025), Masicampo & Baumeister (2011)
- BLeaving a visible cue of where you were and what comes next at the point of interruption reduces the time and errors involved in resuming a task.Hodgetts & Jones (2006), Monk, Trafton & Boehm-Davis (2008), Altmann & Trafton (2002)