Driving Away From Distractions - Or How To Save 2 Hours Per Day
Surprises about the brain and distractions
Distractions are everywhere and they eat up our energy and productivity. They can be exhausting. Less energy equals less capacity to understand, decide, recall, memorize, and inhibit.
Some facts to bring awareness to:
Office distractions eat up an average of 2.1 hours a day
Employees spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before being distracted
After an interruption, it takes them 25 minutes to return to the original task, if they do at all
People switch activities every 3 minutes, either making a call, speaking with someone in their cubicle, or working on a document
People hold on average a thought for only ten seconds before flitting off to something else
Being “always on” (connected to others via technology) can drop your IQ significantly, as much as losing a night’s sleep.
Surprises about the brain - distractions
Distractions:
When we get distracted it’s often a result of thinking about ourselves, which activates the default network in the brain.
Distractions exhaust the prefrontal cortex’s limited resources.
Focus:
Maintaining good focus on a thought occurs not so much in how you focus, but rather in how you inhibit the wrong things from coming into focus. Focus occurs partially through the inhibition of distractions.
Inhibition:
Inhibition requires catching an impulse when it first emerges before the momentum of the action takes over.
Inhibition uses a lot of energy because the braking system is part of the prefrontal cortex.
Each time you inhibit something, your ability to inhibit again is reduced.
When you are tired, hungry, or anxious, it’s easier to make mistakes and harder to inhibit the wrong impulses.
Some things to try
Switch off: When you need to focus, remove all external distractions completely. Switch off all communication devices during any deeper thinking work. Your brain prefers to focus on things right in front of you. For your phone to have no measurable effect on you, it has to be out of sight in another room.
Prepare for focus time: Reduce the likelihood of internal distractions by clearing your mind before embarking on difficult tasks.
Inhibit distractions early before they take on momentum.
Bottom lines:
Distractions are everywhere and they eat up our energy and productivity. They can be exhausting. Less energy equals less capacity to understand, decide, recall, memorize, and inhibit.
Focus occurs partially through the inhibition of distractions.
Inhibit distractions early before they take on momentum.
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Resources:
Dr. David Rock: “Your Brain at Work”