Our world is getting more high-tech by the day.
77 percent of American adults say they own a smartphone, up from just 35 percent in 2011, and just over half of young adults (18-29-year-olds) say they live in a house with three or more of these devices, according to the Pew Research Center. Amazon recently opened the first cashier-less convenience store, and cars that drive themselves aren’t merely fodder for futuristic cartoons anymore.
With technology advancing at such a rapid rate and continually encroaching on how we work, study, interact socially and consume information, the question becomes: can our minds keep up with our machinery?
When someone changes their eating habits, it’s recommended they clean out their kitchen and remove the unhealthy foods they no longer wish to eat. The same out of sight, out of mind philosophy works when it comes to technological distractions.
When something is out of sight, it is not distracting us. The world has an unlimited number of stimuli, but humans, all animals really, have limited attention capabilities. We use our attention to filter out (i.e., ignore) unneeded information. Having all notifications and emails on all the time is like a band playing in your office it is very difficult to ignore.
5 Ways to Help Create Your Distraction-Free Workspace
- Clear off your desk. Only have materials out that are related to the task at hand. Put whatever you’re not using phone, planner, notebook, away and out of sight.
- Work in a quiet place. Close your office door or consider wearing noise-cancelling headphones if you work in a public space or open-floor plan office.
- Keep open only tabs, documents and apps related to the current task. Close all others.
- Avoid having your email open. Don’t check email while working on a big project such as a report or presentation. Instead, designate specific times of day that you’ll read and respond to messages.
- Silence your cellphone. Keep your phone out of sight and turn off all alerts and vibration
Create a Block Schedule (include breaks)
Once you free your physical space of distractions, try to segment your day into periods for different projects. Think back to your high school schedule; you had 45 minutes for math, followed by 45 minutes of English, then history, etc. Classes were divided by minutes-long passing periods, giving you a built-in break. We can think of breaking up our workday in much the same fashion.
The idea is to allow one a sufficient amount of time to concentrate on a particular project to be productive. Every time one switches from one task to the next, there is a time cost to starting the new task, and additional time costs in terms of figuring out where one left off, and then focusing on the new information, says Dr. Gitelman.
If you take breaks throughout the day, be sure they are productive (i.e. not scrolling through social media). Suggestions:
Exercise
Get outside
Read a fiction book
Laugh
Talk to someone in person or on the phone
Daydream, journal or color in an adult or child’s coloring book