The
Price of Distraction Is Far Beyond Your Imagination
People get sidetracked by irrelevant websites
and unproductive tasks occasionally. Have you ever stopped to wonder exactly
how much these distractions cost us? The amount of time and money we fritter
away will blow your mind.
According to McKinsey, high-skilled workers
spend a staggering 28% of their working hours reading and replying to e-mail
messages. If we learned to manage our communication
technology in a more efficient manner, we could give the economy a $900 million
to $1.3 trillion boost per year.
When you find yourself sitting in the office
feeling bored or overwhelmed, it’s easy to automatically check your social
media. But it comes at a high price. Social media costs the U.S. economy $650
billion every year.
Take a moment and let those figures sink in.
We are a distracted nation, and we’re paying for it – big time.
The rise of connectivity
How did we end up in this situation? The 21st
century is characterised by connectivity. Over the past couple of decades, it’s
become increasingly difficult to disconnect from sources of information. We can
access the internet almost anywhere, we can make cheap phone calls to friends
around the globe, and our Facebook feeds are constantly refreshing themselves.
Our addiction becomes especially apparent
when we lose our phones or our internet connection drops out. For example, have
you ever mislaid your phone for a few hours and become frantic at the thought
of missing out on social media notifications and updates? Or perhaps you’ve
caught yourself longing for the days where your boss couldn’t just send you a
WhatsApp message in the evenings to ask you to do overtime or work faster on a
project?
What’s beyond the time loss
Originally, smartphones and other portable
devices were designed to maximize convenience, allow us to work on the move,
and enhance our productivity. Unfortunately, they have turned into a
distraction that often interrupts our daily lives.
For example, you might be working on an
important presentation, only to be distracted by several e-mail notifications.
You then have a choice – do you stop and answer these messages, or do you carry
on with your presentation and hope that the sender doesn’t expect an immediate
response? Either way, the notification has interrupted your flow and thrown you
off course.
Every time your attention is diverted from
your task, you lose time. It takes effort to get back on track, and repeated
interruptions can demotivate you. It can feel as though everyone wants a piece
of your time, and that you will never get around to finishing anything. If you
are a typical American worker, you’ll be distracted every 11 minutes, and it
will take you 25 minutes to actually settle down again to your task. The more
complicated your project, the longer it takes to regain your focus, because
your brain has to put in considerable effort when switching between complex
objectives.
Research carried out at Carnegie Mellon
University shows that human beings simply aren’t equipped to “toggle” between
work tasks and frivolous distractions such as Facebook. If you try to do two
tasks at the same time, your performance on each will suffer.
The researchers carried out a study in which
people were asked to read a short passage, and then answer questions that
tested their understanding of what they had read. Those who were interrupted
during the task performed just 80% as well as the participants who were allowed
to do the test in peace. In short, you shouldn’t be
surprised if social media kills your productivity.
Keep your focus where it belongs
So what can you do? First, you can decide to put your phone and other
devices away, or at least set them to silent, when focusing on an important
project. Deal with distractions before they happen. If you don’t receive
notifications, you won’t be distracted. Tell your colleagues that you need to
focus on a task, and that they will have to phone you or come to your office if
there’s an emergency.
There’s also a useful technique you can use that
will quickly get you back on track:
The 20 Second Rule
Positive psychologist Shawn Achor believes
that 20 seconds can make all the difference when it comes to behavior change.
Specifically, making tasks slightly easier or more accessible will encourage
you to do them, whereas making a behavior slightly harder will decrease the
likelihood that you will give in to your urges. If something – such as checking
your social media – takes you 20 seconds longer to do, you’re less likely to do
it.
What does this mean for those of us
struggling to manage distractions? Basically, you need to make it slightly more
difficult to give into temptation – to check your e-mail, to respond to a
notification, and so forth. For example, move your phone so that it takes you
20 seconds longer to reach it, or disable a messaging app so that it takes you
20 seconds longer to log in and enable it again. This approach means you do not
have to rely on willpower. Instead, you will have set up a reliable system that
facilitates good habits.
Regain your control over distractions
Remember, most notifications aren’t going to be urgent, and that social
media isn’t going to help you get any work done. Advances in technology may
mean that it’s harder than ever before to focus on a project, but that doesn’t
mean you can’t become more productive. It just requires commitment, practice,
and a determination to manage your messages – don’t let them manage you!
Remember, building a 20-second temporal gap between yourself and a source of
distraction is all you need to do to regain control.
Leon Ho
http://www.lifehack.org/662393/the-price-of-distraction-is-hugely-beyond-your-imagination?ck_subscriber_id=168781672
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