I’ve read a few recent articles on attention and concentration, timed to the release of Winifred Gallagher’s new book, Rapt. The NY Times piece in particular, I feel, does a good job of exploring the difference betwen the urgent (checking your email) and the important (finishing that book). In short, it’s tricky because our brains are hardwired to respond to the urgent; more often than not we’re left scratching our heads at the end of the day, tired and wondering exactly what we accomplished that day that’s making us so tired.
“People get caught up in what happens to grab their attention,” says Leaf Van Boven of Cornell University, whose world-renowned psychology studies examine how our actions affect our happiness. “That is, what happens to call for their consumption in the moment, and they tend not to think very purposefully or mindfully in the decisions that they make. People are very adept at identifying the kind of experiences in line with their overall life goals. The challenge is really to be mindful of making decisions and consuming in a way that reflects underlying values.”
One key for me, I’ve discovered, is to make sure this doesn’t happen by removing all possible distractions. Not just through external means of turning off the internet, blocking addictive websites or turning off your phone, but with internal reinforcers:
- Having a clearly stated goal or task at hand that is to be accomplished in the time you’re sitting down (“finish this chapter” works better on a To Do list than “get my Master’s”)
- Write it down on a piece of paper in front of you alongside the related, overall goal, eg: ’study these words = become fluent in Mandarin’
- Giving yourself a sense of urgency by imposing a deadline
- Rather than waiting for the right time, allotting time in which you are to do nothing else
- Whenever you are tempted to check the score or interrupt yourself, just look on your sheet of paper: remember that every innocent Twitter update can turn into a lost 45 minutes online, which are preventing you from reaching your overall goal
Filed under: psychology | Leave a Comment
Tags: attention, concentration, focus, time, time management
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Photo credit: Fran Lebowitz.I like to write about behavior, culture, and technology.
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