![]() Yes, sometimes I need to do it in the middle too, if I can feel myself getting diverted. I’ve found that taking 2-3 of these before I need to focus has a demonstrably positive effect on my attention. Try a practice of deep, oxygenating breathing: four counts in slowly (think MISSISSIPPIs), a brief hold, then the same pace of four counts out. As a coach, I do this before sessions to collect myself and my energy, but I hadn’t really applied it to other work. The easiest, most low-tech option is always available to us: we can center ourselves through breathing. (This also requires not running up against deadlines, so I try to plan ahead.) Generally speaking, I produce more, and better, work if I don’t force it. If I start a project and can’t focus after a few attempts, then I give myself permission to put it down and come back to it. I’m having better luck now listening to my body and mind more. ![]() Rather, mid-afternoon is when I hit my stride.įor a while, I kept trying to wedge my most focused work into what I thought would be the best time, or what I've heard others say was advantageous. I used to swear by early morning creative work when I was most fresh, but in the past several years that hasn’t worked as well. One aspect of my own focus that I’ve noticed is that the timing has begun to shift. Otherwise, they’ll creep into everything else. Instead, set time aside for these things intentionally. Rather, it will take more of your time than you anticipate. You likely can’t do a quick headline check or engage in a short conversation about a tough topic. Journalists publish what gets noticed, and so negative headlines run roughshod over our attention spans.Īll this is to say that if you’re checking out the rabbit hole of negative information, expect to fall down it. Psychologists have long known that there’s also a negativity bias, in which we pay more attention to bad news in the effort to learn how to avoid danger. The business model is based on sharing opinions, and your Uncle Joe certainly isn’t fact-checking before he posts on Facebook. Of course we know that social media is rife with the spread of misperceptions, innuendos, and false information. While there were a range of reasons, one was that falsehoods are more sensationalistic and less nuanced, therefore more likely to shock and be passed along. Science Magazine published research that found that lies and rumors spread faster than truths. Most of us gain control back only when we plan to be distracted, and proactively turn off temptation. Don’t rely on willpower to resist – that’s asking too much. That may mean turning off notifications when you’re working, putting your phone on airplane mode, or even moving your entire location for focused work. If we want to take back control, we have to be the boss of our attention – not phone alerts. As productivity expert Maura Thomas says in Harvard Business Review, what we pay attention to controls our life. It may even help to write down when you tend to lose concentration, and what you do instead. To have better focus, first figure out what distracts you. We’ve created the perfect environment for not focusing. In our regular environment we simply have too many things vying for our attention, from email notifications (what just distracted me, now turned off), to our phones, to social media alerts, to open-floor plan offices. I meant to have it be a holiday hiatus, but it was such a relief, that I haven’t added the app back. That simple act was enough to dramatically decrease my freneticism around news cycles. While it’s still on my computer, I’m no longer able to check it when away from the office without effort. I had my own (more limited) example of this starting in December when I took Twitter off my phone. He was even better informed because he avoided the misinformation that proliferates right after a news event, as he was forced to wait for the next day’s analysis. He said it was “life changing” like “unshackling myself from a monster who had me on speed dial.” He found that his anxiety decreased. In a New York Times story, Farhad Manjoo shared his experience breaking a digital habit by only consuming news from written papers for two full months. ![]() It may take a dip in cold water to shock your system back to normal. We quickly forget what it was like before, and that we have a choice in the matter. Once we get into a habit of distraction, it becomes normalized.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |