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I’ve been working steadily for hours, but I feel like I haven’t even started. My attention has been pulled from my assigned task—writing this story—by a myriad of what I believe are necessary work interruptions. (OK, a couple were from my cat, who also firmly believes in its necessity.)
My kids and I call days like this “squirrel days” in honor of Dugthe talking dog in (squirrel!!) the 2009 Pixar movie “Up”, who (squirrel!!) was constantly distracted by well, almost (squirrel!!)…
Unfortunately, too many of us have “squirrel” days, according to Dr. Gloria Mark, a computer science professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies how digital media affects our lives. In his book “Attention Span: A revolutionary way to restore balance, happiness and productivity,” Mark explains how decades of research have tracked the decline in the ability to focus.
“In 2004, we measured the average attention span on a screen to be 2½ minutes,” said Mark. “A few years later, we found that attention is about 75 seconds. Now we find that people can only pay attention to a screen for an average of 47 seconds.”
Not only do people focus for less than a minute on a single screen, Mark said, but when attention is diverted from an active work project, they take about 25 minutes to focus on that task. (Wait, what??)
“In fact, our research shows that it takes 25 minutes, 26 seconds, before returning to the original work sphere or project,” said Mark.
How can it be? “If we look at work in terms of change projects, as opposed to microviewing change screens, we find that people spend about 10½ minutes on each work project before being interrupted – internally or by someone else – and then moving on to another work project,” said Mark.
Yes, but then let’s go back to the original work, shall we? Wrong, said Mark. Instead, when we are interrupted on project two, we switch again to a different task – call it project three. Incredibly, his research showed that we are still interrupted on project three and move on to project four.
“And then go back and resume the original interrupted project,” said Mark. “But it’s not like you’re interrupted and doing nothing. For more than 25 minutes, you’re actually working on other things.”
(At least I can tell my boss when I miss my deadline.)
“However, there is also a switching cost,” Mark added. “A switching cost is the time it takes you to reorient yourself to your work: ‘Where was I?’ What was he thinking? That extra effort can also lead to errors and stress.”
Why is all this a problem? After all, it is called multitasking, thought by many to be a highly valued skill to face the demands of the information age.
“With the exception of a few rare individuals, there is no such thing as multitasking,” said Mark. “Unless one of the tasks is automatic, like chewing gum or walking, you can’t do two things effortlessly at the same time.”
For example, he said, you can’t read email and be in a video meeting. When you focus on one thing, you lose the other. “You really switch your attention very quickly between the two,” Mark said. “And when you change your attention quickly, it’s correlated with stress.”
Blood pressure rises. The heart rate quickens. Psychological measures of stress also show negative results, he said, such as more fatigue and mistakes and less productivity: “The more people multitask, the more mistakes they make.”
Who did this to us? We did, of course, with the help of technological culprits such as social media, tablets and television. But Mark blames the most email.
“For me, email is probably the worst because it has become a symbol of work,” he said, adding that his research has found a direct correlation between email and more stress.
“We cut off email for some workers in one organization for a work week,” he said. “Using the heart rate monitors, we found that they became significantly less stressed and were able to focus significantly longer.”
(I find myself pausing to look up flights to Bora Bora. Oh, good. They have e-mail here, too.)
“There is no way that a person can just completely cut off from technology and work in today’s world,” said Mark. “Then we learn to live with it so that it maintains our positive well-being.”
Getting your focus back requires being mindful of how you use technology, Mark said, an unfortunate task considering the average American spends at least 10 hours a day on screens.
Paradoxically, you can use technology to help, he said. Schedule memory work for the early part of the day when you’re not fully alert, then use technology to block out distractions when you’re at your mental best. At night, unload the tasks from your brain by writing them down and then put the list.
Distracted by social media sites? Hide them, Mark said: “Take the icons from your desktop and bury the applications on your phone in folders, where it takes extra effort to find them. Leave your phone in another room or put it in a drawer and close it.
It is also important to learn when to take a break. “If you have to read something more than once or if the words aren’t registering, it’s time to stop and catch up,” he said.
The best break is a walk in nature: “Just a 20-minute walk in nature can help people relax significantly,” said Mark. “And we found that it can help people produce significantly more ideas — it’s called divergent thinking.”
Too cold to walk outside? Do something challenging that requires no mental effort.
“I have a friend who is an MIT professor, and his favorite activity is matching socks,” Mark said. “Another friend likes to iron. Ideas can incubate and then we return to hard work, and we see it with fresh eyes.”
