So what's happening there?

Allow me to speculate. When we switch between different topics of work, we lose state. So our brain tries to first finish all pending tasks in the old context, settle and reorient, and then begin the new context. But one problem with the hyperstimulated social-media-addicted akrasia sufferer is that the state of continuous distraction, to the brain, emulates the state of being in flow. Every task completion is immediately followed by another task popping up. Excellent efficiency! And when you are in flow, switching to another topic is a waste of invested energy.

"Coming to rest", the technique here, would then be a way to signal to the brain "actually, you are mistaken. I do not have any pending tasks at the moment." This would then make it easier to initiate a deep context switch.

edit: Oh, I get the title lol, that's clever.

Interesting, thanks.

One metacognitive behavior which I think you’re pointing to but I want to call out explicitly is something like, “I default-assume I should finish thinking the thought I’m thinking now. I should get to the end of the sentence.” (And then, before you know it, the next sentence begins…) Thinking is one example, but could apply to other verbs, reading/watching/doings as well.

Instead, it seems useful to experientially see that “stopping” can be “practiced” at any point, even before you get to the end of whatever it is. There is no need to finish the