Your workday needs a palate cleanser between tasks.
I had finished responding to emails. Closed all my apps and browser windows. Opened a doc. Time to write. And then I just sat there. Slumped back in my chair.
It wasn’t writer’s block. I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I had my coffee. I was ready. So why couldn’t I start?
My brain was still on the last task. It hadn’t switched yet.
I had done all the physical things, closed the tabs, grabbed the coffee, opened the blank doc, but mentally I was still somewhere in my inbox. The residue of the last task was still there, coating everything.
Ever had that feeling? You’re physically in the next task but mentally you’re still in the last one. You know you need to focus but you can’t quite get there.
What I needed wasn’t more willpower. I needed a reset.
I needed a mental palate cleanser. In the 1800s French chefs started serving small, deliberate bites between courses. Not food exactly, more like an interruption. The goal was to clear the lingering flavors of the last dish so the next one could actually land. In Normandy they called it the Trou Normand, literally “a Norman hole.” A small scoop of Calvados sorbet, served between the fish and the meat course, punched a hole in the flavor of what came before. In Burgundy, same idea, but with a marc sorbet instead. Each region had its own version, but the intention was identical: reset the palate so the next course gets a fair shot. (The Nibble)
Your workday is a multicourse meal. You start light: email, a quick check-in, some administrative nibbles. Then comes the main course, the big project, the hard conversation, the thing that requires extra brainpower. Somewhere in there you’ve got a little meeting soup. Each task is its own course, and each one leaves something behind. Sometimes it’s pleasant. Sometimes you’re left thinking, “what did I just eat?”
The problem is we don’t treat our workdays like a meal. We plow straight from one course to the next and wonder why nothing tastes right.
Our brains still have the “taste” of the last task which prevents us from fully experiencing our current task. Instead of serving yourself one course of work after another, use a palate cleanser to remove the residue of the last task, and then have a clean mental plate for the next one.
The other key aspect is matching the cleanser to the mental load of the task. The heavier the cognitive lift, the stronger the reset you need.
The French weren’t serving Calvados sorbet after a dinner roll. They saved it for after the fish, the rich, lingering stuff. Same principle applies at work. Coming out of email? A few pushups, a glass of water, a minute of staring out the window and you’re good. Coming out of a two-hour budget review or a particularly spicy performance conversation? You need something stronger. A walk around the block. Fifteen minutes away from screens entirely. Something that gives your brain enough space to actually let go before it has to pick up what’s next.
The richer the course, the stronger the cleanser. True for food. True for work.
Back to my writing problem. Once I recognized what was happening, the fix was simple: I dropped and did a set of pushups. Low mental load. Increased blood flow. A small endorphin bump. Thirty seconds later I sat back down and the words started moving.
Here are a few others to cleanse your mental palate:
- A short walk outside (even five minutes counts)
- Music with no agenda, not a podcast, not a meeting, just sound
- A set of pushups, jumping jacks, or a quick stretch
- Sitting near a window and watching something that moves: trees, traffic, clouds
None of these are revolutionary. The difference is doing them on purpose, between tasks, as a deliberate reset. Not as distraction, but as an intentional part of the multicourse workday.
Next time you find yourself staring at a blank doc or firing up the next task before your brain has left the last one, don’t push through and hope for the best. Give your brain a palate cleanser between tasks.
The next course will taste a lot better.
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