We live in a culture of distraction.
Everything vies for our attention, and the competition is fierce. We are very good at knowing how to distract ourselves, especially when there are other things we should be doing.
Our phones constantly bombard us with notifications, diverting and robbing concentration and focus from us. With limitless access to new information our brains tend to get overwhelmed.
Andrew Brand | Argonaut
Adam Gazzaley, a professor of neurology, physiology and psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco, found switching between tasks causes a degradation in performance that can impact every aspect of cognition, from decision making to our learning process.
“When you really wrap your head around how broad the negative impact is, it’s really, in many ways, overwhelming,” Gazzaley said.
Gazzaley also found our success in filtering irrelevant information is critical in our ability to adequately perceive, remember and make decisions about that information.
“If you process information around you that is irrelevant to your goals, it will create interference. It will degrade those representations in your brain and you will not perform at the same level,” Gazzaley said.
When it is important that something be completed, distractions become apparent and appealing, causing us to get weighed down with interference. When creativity hits a roadblock, distraction shows up. This can make productivity challenging if we aren’t filtering the irrelevant.
Taking a break from a task is extremely helpful for increasing productivity, but there is a difference between taking a break and becoming distracted. Although distraction provides respite from a difficult task, it can turn into avoidance. When we are distracted, we tend to avoid dealing with what’s going on inside. Allowing ourselves time to digest and process what’s going on inside helps us be more comfortable with ourselves and less eager to get distracted.
Distractions can appear in the form of interruptions, especially when we consider being distracted by technology. Phones and all the non-stop multimedia content they provide can trap the mind in a vortex of mostly pointless information and stimuli.
Sometimes that little Instagram notification urgently notifying that someone commented on a photo is the most appealing thing to check — it is so tempting. Be less reactive and more responsive. Turn off all unnecessary notifications. Being aware that you are being distracted is the first step to overcoming distraction.
It can be a rigorous battle to avoid the temptation of mindless distraction, but the freedom found from being able to concentrate on what is actually important is worth it.
Distraction is a normal part of life, and not all distractions are bad. Getting distracted by beneficial things can be wonderful. It can be liberating to explore a new place, discover insights about a particular topic or have a conversation with a random person. All these things can start out as a distraction from the current task, but they can all turn out to be completely worthwhile. Moderation, however, should always be considered. Be mindful of what you allow yourself to be distracted by, and be open to beneficial distractions.
Andrew Brand can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @theandrewbrand