{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/flatten-nested-interruptions-when-you-can",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1259",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Flatten nested interruptions when you can",
  "summary": "Every extra suspended goal makes the return path harder to see.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "Avoid creating an interruption stack when the second interruption can wait. Finish, defer or explicitly park the current interrupting task before opening another. A small laboratory study with ICU nurses found that nested interruptions lengthened and degraded resumption compared with serial interruptions. Treat the result as a risk signal: when goals start nesting, make the stack visible and reduce it deliberately.",
  "limits": [
    "The strongest direct evidence here is a small specialized laboratory study. Some environments require nested response; the goal is visibility and control, not a ban."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-interruption-recovery-and-prospective-memory"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-FE629E643CEACEBA"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "In a laboratory study with 30 ICU nurses, nested interruptions produced longer resumption lag and less accurate resumption than serial or baseline interruption conditions.",
      "source_id": "RS-FE629E643CEACEBA",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The sample and task were specialized; nested interruption should be treated as a risk factor rather than a universally quantified cost.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "You are already handling one interruption and a second request arrives before the first interruption or original task has been closed."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "The strongest direct evidence here is a small specialized laboratory study. Some environments require nested response; the goal is visibility and control, not a ban."
  ],
  "example": "If you paused an analysis to answer a support issue and another chat arrives, queue the chat unless it actually outranks the support issue instead of creating a third active context.",
  "check": "At any point you can name the active task and the suspended stack, and noncritical work is not recursively interrupting other interruptions.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-FE629E643CEACEBA",
      "title": "Effects of Nested Interruptions on Task Resumption: A Laboratory Study With Intensive Care Nurses",
      "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28128985/"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1259",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-1252",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/treat-a-rule-switch-as-a-setup-cost"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-6D16E0375C83620B",
      "title": "Resume the right task and remember the future action",
      "url": "/collections/resume-the-right-task-and-remember-the-future-action"
    }
  ]
}