How to avoid "distraction" damage to your brain?
Do you ever feel like you have 'distraction disorder'? I do anyway, and as if to prove my suspicions, my phone keeps pushing posts on attention deficit for me, lest I don't already know that I'm not brainy enough to pay attention.
It is difficult to say that the platform is at fault, after all, in the eyes of the algorithm, ADHD and I are just one diagnosis away:
- Meals cannot just be eaten, they must be accompanied by a video, but often the rice is cold, the next video has not yet been selected.
- Work with 20 or 30 pop-ups in the browser, writing and checking information, brushing social media, replying to coworkers, doing multiple things at once.
If you really forget, turn it off, and don't turn it on again, it's just not a good life and not prioritized enough.
Listen to the podcast to hear half, a friend sent a message, back to it, it is not a big deal, back to the message Huh I just listened to what came? Why would they talk about this point of view ah context is what ...... Off the big spectrum friends! Obviously think of freeing up your hands to be able to do something else, really do something else after the podcast with no listen to the same strange, want to be a bit of a gain will have to listen to several times over and over again, want to save time efficiency is even lower ah!
Not yet old enough to have a bad brain, but with little brain power left, save the baby! What's wrong with me?
Distributing your attention to multiple tasks and doing multiple things at the same time is called "multitasking" in psychology, and it also has a fancy English name Multi-tasking, doesn't it look more familiar? Well, a lot of people would take it as an advantage and put it on their resume.
But this is a skill bar that you are sincerely advised not to use in your life, and in fact, it's best not to use it at work either, because it's a disadvantage, not an advantage, for the vast majority of people. In fact, multitasking reduces efficiency, increases error rates, and can impair cognitive and emotional control in the long term.
You may be wondering, I often multi-task, it's okay, it's hard not to be some kind of strongest brain. Multi-tasking is possible, but it's usually only suitable for simple things that don't take much brain power, that have been trained over time to become habitual, and that involve two different brain regions. For example:
- Putting the cap on a bottle of water after drinking it
- Listening to a song while doing housework
Where at least one of the multiple actions is performed effortlessly, is automated, and doesn't rely on control.
But listening to a podcast and reading a book at the same time doesn't work, because they have to invoke brain regions that process language at the same time. Even if the two tasks don't take place in the same second, but are just close together, back and forth, they can affect each other. This is especially true for scenarios like work and study that require a certain amount of concentration, whether it's answering a phone call while driving or replying to a tweet while writing, which involves the allocation of brain power and increases cognitive load.
Let's take reading and replying to messages at work for example, have you ever calculated how much time it takes to return to the original state of concentration after being interrupted at work or study? Scientists have calculated that on average, 1 minute is wasted every 6 minutes.
A 2003 study found that if a person checks their email every 5 minutes, it takes them about 64 seconds to pick up where they left off. If you factor in the frequency of interruptions and the difficulty of the task, then nearly one-fifth of a day for a laborer is wasted switching tasks and dealing with interruptions.
This is because the brain resources required for attention and productivity are finite, and it takes brain power to do one task, and it takes brain power to switch back and forth between multiple tasks. Each time you change the goal of your attention, the brain acts like a reset system, doing a goal shift (I don't want A anymore, I want B!) before activating the rules (I'm going to turn off A's rules and replace them with B's rules to enforce them!)
This process increases our reaction time and our error rate, and is the price the brain pays for multi-tasking, known professionally as switching costs.
A Stanford University study has done a more detailed measurement, found that the office environment, the degree of noise, task difficulty, task type before and after the change can affect the conversion cost, but in any case, it always takes 15 to 25 minutes to return to the previous state of concentration.
That's why scientists suggest that the real time saver is not to work on more than one thing at a time, but to go and concentrate on one thing.
Spira, an analyst at consulting firm Basex, estimates that extreme multitasking costs the U.S. economy up to $900 billion a year in lost productivity.
So much for wasting time, let's just take a break from touching fish. But, what if I told you that multitasking also leads to IQ loss?
Psychologists have experimented on eight subjects, giving them IQ tests in quiet and with frequent interruptions, including ringing bells and flashing message notifications on the edge of a computer, and found that even after being told to ignore the interruptions and not to reply, the subjects' attention was still significantly disturbed, and their IQs briefly dropped by about 10 points, similar to the effects of marijuana use or staying up all night.
Long-term multi-tasking, experts in the fields of psychology and brain neuroscience at Stanford University believe that people who switch back and forth between various media windows on a daily basis experience a decline in cognitive control and a poorer ability to filter out irrelevant information and divert attention.
Kep Kee Loh, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, scanned the brains of 75 people and analyzed the changes in their brains when they were browsing and using multiple media at the same time (e.g., watching TV while playing on a cell phone) and found that those who were always multi-tasking had a lower density of grey matter in the area of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) in their brains -- meaning that it was harder to concentrate and emotional mediation was impaired, as well as decision making and goal setting.
A recent study from the National University of Singapore also shows that if too many things compete for memory proteins in the brain, it can affect the brain's ability to form long-term memories, which in turn increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Not to mention the stress it brings to us, with a large number of trivial tasks piling up, inevitably bringing about decision-making fatigue, or even completely swinging the pendulum. But you are still addicted to this kind of pressure stacking operation.
A Harvard study can be used to explain this addictive feeling, as multitasking with trivial tasks can stimulate dopamine production, excitement, and feelings of enjoyment and fulfillment - which is why we can't change pseudo-work when we know in our heart of hearts that it's not useful, and that it's stressing us out and making us tired. Distractions can also be addictive.
Most of what I said before is work and study, our life, in fact, does not need so much multi-tasking. Talking on the phone while driving, replying to messages while talking to others, unconsciously clicking on certain apps while eating, I don't think I need to list out theories, we can all feel that they don't count as good habits. But this kind of distraction is not your fault.
Technological advances and media evolution have virtually reshaped our brains, forcing us to be constantly on the lookout for opportunities and staying online, compelling us to indulge in all sorts of interruptions, taming our brains to crave for little red dots of message alerts, and to take pleasure in the sound of ticking boxes for to-do lists. 'The human brain has never been asked to do so much and keep track of so much information since the dawn of time', says Dr. Edward Hallowell, an expert on ADHD.
Since we're in this boat, there's nothing we can do about it. The only thing we can do is to draw a line in the sand, and try to keep our sanity when the workplace has to emphasize multi-tasking with us, so we don't bring this habit blindly into our private lives.
Try categorizing what you have to do, and if it's all simple tasks that can be automated as mentioned before, there's no harm in multi-tasking. We even encourage you to set aside dedicated time to let your mind wander and give your brain a rest.
But if it's work or study that requires a commitment of energy, it's best to return to a state of focus and mindful flow, try turning off some reminders, reduce pleasing, and actively block interruptions.
It's important to realize: concentration, positive thinking, is not the opposite of efficiency.
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