do you ever find yourself do you ever
find yourself trying to concentrate you
can’t seem to focus
why are we so distracted these days and
is technology the root cause of the
problem or is there something deeper
going on my name is near ayo and I have
Background
spent the last five years researching
and writing about the deeper psychology
of distraction when I found myself
struggling with distraction I decided to
do what many people advised and got rid
of the distracting technology I got
myself a flip phone without any apps all
they did was phone calls and texts
messages then I got a word processor
from the 1990s without any sort of
internet connection unfortunately
found I still got distracted
I’d start reading a book for my
bookshelf I tidy up my desk I take out
the trash even just to avoid the thing
that I didn’t want to do I had only
focus on the external triggers the pings
and ding does that were leading me
towards distraction what I hadn’t
focused on and what turns out to be a
much more common source of distraction
are the internal triggers the
uncomfortable emotional states that we
seek to escape when we’re lonely we
check facebook when we’re uncertain we
Google when we’re bored we check the
news stock prices sports course anything
to not feel these uncomfortable
sensations that we’re not ready to
experience mmm here are a few techniques
I discovered in my research that can
help us stay on track first what you
Plan your day
want to do is to make sure you plan your
day two-thirds of people don’t keep any
sort of calendar any kind of schedule in
their day well the fact of the matter is
if you don’t plan your day somebody is
going to plan it for you many of us
believe in this myth of the to-do list I
used to think that just by writing
things down they get done but of course
I go from day to day to day recycling
the bottom half of my to-do list because
I wasn’t making time to do those tasks
so the best place to start is not with
the output of what you want to get done
day but with the input of how much time
you have to devote to every task so
Consequences of distraction
Distraction has many consequences one of
them is that we find that when someone
is interrupted during tasks it can take
up to 20 minutes for them to refocus on
what they were doing many times we don’t
even realize how much were smart output
is wait some check email in one solid
block if you enjoy using social media
that’s great but make time for it in
your day so it’s not something you’re
only using everytime you feel bored or
lonely researchers have found that
Surfing the urge
surfing the urge is an effective way to
master our internal triggers in a
smoking cessation study researchers
found that when they taught smokers how
to notice the sensation and be mindful
of what they were experienced they
became much more likely to stop smoking
by surfing the urge and noticing what it is
is that we’re experiencing and allowing
that sensation to crest and then below
kind of like how a surfer might surf a
wave we allow that emotion that
uncomfortable internal trigger to crest
and then
[Music]
liminal moments
the next thing that we want to do is to
be careful of liminal moments
moments are these periods of time when
we are transitioning from one task to
the other so for example if you start
checking your email on the way back from
a meeting and you’re finally at your
desk and you keep checking your email
instead of getting to the task at hand
well now that liminal moment has turned
into a distraction so be careful those
times when you’re transitioning from one
task to the next a study of Alcoholics
Conclusion
found that the number one determinant of
whether someone would stay sober after a
rehabilitation program was not theirs
level of physical dependency it wasn’t
what was happening in their bodies in fact
it was what was happening in their minds
the people who are most likely to stay
sober were those who believed they had
the power to stop so when we think that
technology is hijacking our brains or
its addicting everyone we are making it
more likely that we won’t be able to put
technology distractions in their place
so don’t believe this line if there’s
nothing we can do
clearly there’s so much we can do to
help make sure that we get the best out
of these products without letting them
