You can close the document and still be working on it in your head.

That is one of the frustrating things about switching tasks.

You move from writing to email, from a project to a call, or from one problem to another. Physically, you have moved on. Mentally, part of you is still holding the sentence you did not finish, the question you had not resolved, or the idea you were trying not to forget.

The cost of switching is not only the minute it takes to open something else.

It is the attention that comes with you.

Try this

Before leaving a piece of meaningful work, take 20 seconds and write three short lines:

I was working on:​
What you were actually trying to do.

The next move is:​
The next concrete action.

I am still thinking about:​
The unresolved question, concern, or idea occupying your mind.

Then switch tasks.

The point is not to create better notes.

It is to stop asking your working memory to hold the previous task while you are trying to pay attention to the next one.

You may still need time to settle into something new. But there is a difference between remembering that unfinished work exists and trying to keep the whole thing alive in your head.

Sometimes the best way to let go of a task is to leave the thought somewhere you can trust.

What unfinished thought is following you from one task into the next right now?