I have a short attention span and I always need to be doing something, even if it is done mindlessly, to keep my attention for more than 15 minutes. So, in class, I need to be doodling or scrolling my phone (without actually engaging with the content) in order to fully absorb what my teacher is saying. It's not a distraction because that implies something taking my full attention, and it's not procrastination because it's not stopping me from doing the work. It's like intentional-distracting-for-the-purpose-of-benefitting-my-work-overall. It's like one section of my mind needs to be lulled by something in order for the other part of my brain to be fully functioning and absorbing.
Maybe there is a word for this? I find it hard to describe this to people, they say, "so you need a distraction?" but the connotations from that imply that I'm not doing it to enhance learning, but actually to stop learning for a bit.