Why we are always struggling with distraction (and what we can do)
One minute we are typing away furiously at the report that is due tomorrow and the next we have been sucked into a three-hour endless Instagram scrolling session. What happened?
We now live in a world of constant stimulation. Teams of literally hundreds of expert are employed with the sole purpose of maintaining your concentration just long enough for you to see their ads, thus generating their income.
Behind every viral video or catchy ad jingle, there was likely a team of well-trained psychologists who calculated the optimum way to present their content in a manner that is maximally stimulating in the minimum amount of time. Given the competing interests of the individual and the so called “big-man”, it is no surprise that we often experience issues with focus and distraction.
It is also important to forgive yourself for being unable to focus from time to time, as you are not solely responsible for the media that you are exposed to. So what can we do about this ever-present issue?
Here are some simple, actionable steps that you can implement right now to help reduce distractions.
1)What are your goals?
The idea here is to alter your own psychological attitude towards what you are doing. Ultimately, the time it takes us to perform a task is generally the length of time we have to complete it, regardless of the task. This is known as Parkinson’s Law. We can use this to our advantage to help reduce distraction.
For instance, if you sit down to do some jobs for the day, mentally you might think to yourself “I need to sort my finances, apply for some jobs and sort out the shopping”. Instead, we should change this to: “In the next three hours I will organise my finances for March, apply for three posts on Indeed that I bookmarked and do an online grocery shop for the week”. This simple mind shift makes us more goal-oriented, setting a self-defined timeframe for us to complete our tasks. This gives us a degree of accountability when we find that we haven’t completed as many of our tasks as we had planned to.
The problem with a vague goal is that it is not very rewarding, thus dropping our motivation levels. On the other hand, a clearly defined goal to work towards tastes much sweeter when it is achieved. This goes a long way in building longer term motivation to complete our tasks.
2)Always listen to yourself
As determined and goal-oriented as we might be, it can still be psychologically daunting to complete a time-consuming or difficult task. It is therefore helpful to delve a little deeper into the psychology that underpins our actions. Ultimately, the reason we reach for our phone when we are being bored to death by our tax returns is that on a deeper level, we are trying in some way to avoid a negative emotion. This could be anything from boredom, to fear or self doubt.
By acknowledging why we keep reaching to a distraction, we might be able to alter the task at hand in a way that minimises these negative emotions.
For instance, as part of my day job, I have to write letters of correspondence to others. Although a seemingly dry task, I try to weave in an amusing comment or joke (albeit professional!), or adopt a different style of writing that I might not ordinarily use. The tone of my letters is generally inconsequential as I am predominantly summarising facts , but it makes the process more enjoyable for me and hopefully brings a smile to the face of the recipient.
3) Say goodbye to doom scrolling
The final tip that tackles the issue from a different angle is much more simple and does not require any examination of your underlying psyche. Annoyingly, these are the things your parents told you to do that we begrudgingly ignored. Quite simply, remove the distractions in the first place. Delete social media, leave your phone in another room and disable the notification that tells you that Taylor Swift just farted.
Obviously you can reinstall these apps, retrieve your phone and reinstate your fart notifications. The idea is to create just enough friction that it reminds you why you probably shouldn’t be resorting to your distraction. Doing this often will help generate a habit of not devoting hours to Tiktok style, dopamine-rich useless videos.
I do not mean to preach that social media is evil (although this is subject to debate!), but rather I am advocating for intentional use of social media. When we open an app that has an unlimited scroll feature (like Instagram or Twitter), we are not using the apps to gain insight or information that we are looking for.
Rather, we are mindlessly scrolling to distract ourselves. Ask yourself after you have fallen into a doom-scrolling session “what do I remember from this?” or “do I feel better having done this?”. 9/10 the answers will be: “nothing” and “no, I feel worse”.
If you need a break, take a break. Sip a coffee and switch off your thoughts whilst going for a walk. This is much more likely to make you feel rested and thus boost your productivity.
To conclude…
To summarise, distractions are all around us and everyone is vying for our attention. To combat this we can: set goals, listen to your emotions and delete Tiktok.
