Hitting the Pause
Button in a Digital Age
(Commentary by Aidi
Shukor)
At a time
when we are all constantly connected to the digital world, everything seems to
be moving so rapidly.
Often in a
typical day, we keep ourselves busy by replying emails for work, responding to
texts in our many different WhatsApp groups and of course, scrolling through
our Instagram feed until we realise that it is almost time for dinner. The
cycle then continues for days until it eventually becomes a habit to us.
But, are we
aware of the consequences that the prolonged time we spent in the digital world
can bring to our personal well-being?
Studies have
shown that spending too much time on social media in a day can bring
detrimental effects to our brain and our ability to concentrate. So, what can
we do to regain concentration?
Harriet Griffey
of The Guardian suggests that we can start regaining our concentration by
identifying the things that are sabotaging our personal concentration and
mindfulness and then implementing steps towards changing our behaviour.
There is a
myriad of ways for us to focus and take time-off in this fast-paced and highly
demanding digital age. The things suggested by Harriet that we can do are as
follows:
·
The ‘Five More’ Rule
·
Meditation and Focus
·
Watching the Clock
·
Physical Exercise
·
Sleep
·
Reading for Pleasure
·
Digital Apps
Have you
tried any of these? Read more on the post below.
_________________________________________________________________________
The
Lost Art of Concentration: Being Distracted in a Digital World
We check our
phones every 12 minutes, often just after waking up. Always-on behaviour is
harmful to long-term mental health, and we need to learn to the hit the pause
button.
It is
difficult to imagine life before our personal and professional worlds were so
dominated and “switched on” via smartphones and the other devices that make us
accessible and, crucially, so easily distractible and interruptible every
second of the day. This constant fragmentation of our time and concentration
has become the new normal, to which we have adapted with ease, but there is a
downside: more and more experts are telling us that these interruptions and
distractions have eroded our ability to concentrate.
We have
known for a long time that repeated interruptions affect concentration. In
2005, research carried out by Dr Glenn Wilson at London’s Institute of
Psychiatry found that persistent interruptions and distractions at work had a
profound effect. Those distracted by emails and phone calls saw a 10-point fall
in their IQ, twice that found in studies on the impact of smoking marijuana.
More than half of the 1,100 participants said they always responded to an email
immediately or as soon as possible, while 21% admitted they would interrupt a
meeting to do so. Constant interruptions can have the same effect as the loss
of a night’s sleep.
Nicholas
Carr picked up on this again in an article in the Atlantic in 2008, before
going on to publish his book The Shallows two years later. “Immersing myself in
a book or a lengthy article used to be easy,” he wrote. “My mind would get
caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours
strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now
my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety,
lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m
always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used
to come naturally has become a struggle.”
The impact
of interruptions on individual productivity can also be catastrophic. In 2002,
it was reported that, on average, we experience an interruption every eight
minutes or about seven or eight per hour. In an eight-hour day, that is about
60 interruptions. The average interruption takes about five minutes, so that is
about five hours out of eight. And if it takes around 15 minutes to resume the
interrupted activity at a good level of concentration, this means that we are
never concentrating very well.
In August
2018, research from the UK’s telecoms regulator, Ofcom, reported that people
check their smartphones on average every 12 minutes during their waking hours,
with 71% saying they never turn their phone off and 40% saying they check them
within five minutes of waking. Both Facebook and Instagram announced they were
developing new tools designed to limit usage in response to claims that
excessive social media use can have a negative impact on mental health.
Continuous
partial attention – or CPA – was a phrase coined by the ex-Apple and Microsoft
consultant Linda Stone. By adopting an always-on, anywhere, anytime, any place
behaviour, we exist in a constant state of alertness that scans the world but
never really gives our full attention to anything. In the short term, we adapt
well to these demands, but in the long term the stress hormones adrenaline and
cortisol create a physiological hyper-alert state that is always scanning for
stimuli, provoking a sense of addiction temporarily assuaged by checking in.
Myth of Multitasking
With our
heavy use of digital media, it could be said that we have taken multitasking to
new heights, but we’re not actually multitasking; rather, we are switching
rapidly between different activities. Adrenaline and cortisol are designed to
support us through bursts of intense activity, but in the long term cortisol
can knock out the feel-good hormones serotonin and dopamine in the brain, which
help us feel calm and happy, affecting our sleep and heart rate and making us
feel jittery.
It would
seem then that this physiological adaptation, fostered by our behaviour, is a
predominant reason for the poor concentration so many people report. The fact
that we are the cause of this is, paradoxically, good news since it hands back
to us the potential to change our behaviour and reclaim the brain function and
cognitive health that’s been disrupted by our digitally enhanced lives. And
this may even be more important than just improving our levels of
concentration. Constant, high levels of circulating stress hormones have an
inflammatory and detrimental affect on brain cells, suggests the psychiatrist
Edward Bullmore, who has written about the link between inflammation and
depression in his latest book, The Inflamed Mind. Depression, along with
anxiety, is a known factor in knocking out concentration.
Put simply,
better concentration makes life easier and less stressful and we will be more
productive. To make this change means reflecting on what we are doing to
sabotage personal concentration, and then implementing steps towards
behavioural change that will improve our chances of concentrating better. This
means deliberately reducing distractions and being more self-disciplined about
our use of social media, which are increasingly urgent for the sake of our
cognitive and mental health.
It takes
about three weeks for a repeating behaviour to form a habit, says Jeremy Dean,
a psychologist and the author of Making Habits, Breaking Habits. Getting into a
new habit will not happen overnight and adaptation can be incremental. Start by
switching off smartphone alerts, or taking social media apps off your phone,
then switching off the device for increasingly long periods.
Practise
concentration by finding things to do that specifically engage you for a period
of time to the exclusion of everything else. What is noticeable is that you
cannot just go from a state of distraction to one of concentration, in the same
way that most of us cannot fall asleep the minute our head hits the pillow. It
takes a bit of time and, with practice, becomes easier to accomplish.
The ‘Five More’ Rule
This is a simple way of learning to concentrate better. It goes like this:
whenever you feel like quitting – just do five more – five more minutes, five
more exercises, five more pages – which will extend your focus. The rule pushes
you just beyond the point of frustration and helps build mental concentration.
It’s a form of training as well as being a way of getting something
accomplished.
Sitting still would seem an easy thing to achieve. But it is harder than
it sounds. It is akin to meditation, which can be a useful way to improve
concentration. In this case, however, just get in to a comfortable, supported
position and sit still and do nothing for five minutes. Use it as a pause
between activities. Of course, if you already practise meditation, combine this
with breathing for a quick “time out”.
Meditation and Focus
Switching off from both external and internal distractions does not come
easily. Learning how to be more mindful, practising mindfulness or meditation,
can all help facilitate greater concentration, not least because feeling calmer
restores equilibrium and focus.
Most of us breathe poorly: we tend to over-breathe, taking three or four
breaths using only the upper part of our lung capacity, when one good breath
using the lungs more completely would serve us better. This shallow breathing
is very tiring, not only because we expend unnecessary muscular energy, but
because we reduce our oxygen intake per breath.
In its extreme form, over-breathing becomes hyperventilation, which can
trigger panic attacks. In all mindfulness or meditation practice, breathing is
key. So it’s wise to learn good techniques first. A daily practice, starting
with 10 minutes and building on it, means that the ability to take some
restorative “time out” will also be available to you:
· Lie comfortably on the floor,
knees bent, chin tucked in – what Alexander Technique teachers call the
“constructive rest position” – or sit upright in a chair, legs uncrossed, feet
flat on the floor.
· Consciously relax your neck
and drop your shoulders, rest your arms by your sides with your palms turned
upwards.
· Breathe long and gently
through your nose, into your belly until you see it gently rise, for a slow
count of five.
· Pause, and hold that breath
for a count of five, then gently exhale through your mouth for another count of
five.
· While doing this, try to clear
your mind of all other thoughts, or if this is difficult close your eyes and
visualise a pebble dropping into a pool of water and gently sinking down.
· Repeat this breathing cycle 10
times; then see how your regular breathing adjusts.
· You can also use this
breathing technique at any time you feel tense or stressed, or as the basis of
any meditation.
We all need to take time out, so set a timer to signal a break, or use an
app such as Calm.com. Or you can just play a favourite music track, knowing
that it will give you a set amount of time in which to press pause and do
nothing.
Another effective technique for boosting concentration is counting
backwards. Counting backwards in sevens from 1,000 might sound like an exercise
in exasperation, but it does require you to concentrate very hard: try it. It
requires persistence and the use of different skills, which for some may
include visualising the numbers as you count. Whatever it takes, keep at it for
long enough to completely focus and you’ll also have the added bonus of finding
that you have, temporarily, cleared your head of everything else for a few
minutes.
Similarly, spelling words backwards is a good way to focus: start with
words that are easy: dog, box, cup, and then build up to longer words –
including nouns and more abstract words – such as cushion, blonde, effort,
number – increasing the length and complexity of the word. Again, this is an
exercise that can be built on.
Another way to focus is to sit in a comfortable position and find a spot
on the wall to stare at. This works best when you have no conscious association
with it to distract you – so, a black spot about two inches in diameter at eye
level works well. Focus all your attention on this for around three minutes to
start with (you can set a timer if this helps) and let any thoughts that arise
drift away, constantly returning your focus to the spot.
Anyone familiar with meditation will recognise this technique. If it helps
to notice your breath, slow and steady this too, but always make your visual
focus on the spot the priority. Practiced regularly, this can become so
familiar it creates a resource on which to draw, enabling you to consciously
refocus at will, even without the visual prompt.
Watching the Clock
An old-fashioned clock face with hands and a second hand is needed for
this. Starting with the second hand at the 12, focus intently on its progress
around the clock face without allowing any distracting thoughts to intervene.
Every time your concentration is interrupted by a stray thought, wait until the
second hand is at the 12 again, and start again. It’s harder than it sounds and
can feel very frustrating initially, but once the ability is learnt it’s easy
to access again and again, whenever you need to create a more concentrated
state of mind.
We access so much information through what we see, but often we are not
particularly observant about what we are looking at, leaving us with just an
impression or feeling about what we’ve seen. In an effort to improve
concentration skills, it’s worth considering how looking at and then
visualising something, can reinforce concentration. Start by paying more
attention, whether this is looking at a picture in an art gallery, or taking a
bus ride, or just enjoying the scenery from a window. You don’t have to commit
an exact graphic image to memory, but engage with it, notice details, reflect
on it and, within a short time, you will be able to close your eyes and
visualise it. There is no right or wrong way to do this, it’s just an
opportunity to practise focus and improve concentration.
There’s a huge difference between hearing and listening. Learning to
listen well starts quite self-consciously but will also become a useful habit.
You can use music to practise this, the length of a track giving you between
three to five minutes (or longer) on which to focus. Really listen to the
nuances of the music, its notes, cadences, instruments used, lyrics. Music is
often just a background noise but real, complicated musical notation can be
more than just pleasurable, it can be a real boon to helping relearn
concentration skills.
Physical Exercise
For any extended period of exercise – whether it be yoga, playing a team
sport or dancing – the engagement of the brain with the body is also an
exercise in concentration. Regular exercise also activates the body and this is
beneficial for the brain.
A Dutch study of schoolchildren published in the Journal of Science and
Medicine in Sport in 2016 showed that interspersing lessons with a 20-minute
stretch of aerobic exercise measurably improved attention spans in the children
that participated. Another 2014 study from the American Academy of Paediatrics,
on the benefits of exercise in 7 to 9-year-olds, not only found that the
children’s physical health improved as they got fitter, but also their brain
function, cognitive performance and executive control.
Sleep
Poor sleep and being chronically under-slept affects concentration, while
also reinforcing those stress hormones to compensate, making it a bit of a
vicious circle. Improving sleep cannot happen overnight, particularly if it is
a chronic problem, but taking measures to improve this will yield results over
a period of weeks, rather than days.
One place to start is clearing your bedroom of TVs, computers and other
technology. Although any type of light can inhibit sleep, research has shown
that light towards the blue end of the spectrum is especially effective at
keeping you awake because it stimulates the retina in the eye and inhibits the
secretion of melatonin from the pineal gland in the brain.
Computer screens, tablets, smartphones, flat-screen TVs and LED lighting
all emit large amounts of blue light, and it is important to avoid these before
trying to sleep. Around 80% of people routinely use these devices running up to
bedtime, and among 18 to 24-year-olds this figure increases to 91%, according
to research carried out by Prof Richard Wiseman.
Amber-tinted glasses can cut out glare, and it is also possible to fit
screens with commercially produced blue-light blocking filters. Another
solution, of course, is to avoid all electronic devices before bed in order to
help avoid insomnia and improve sleep.
Reading for Pleasure
One thing that many people who feel they have lost the ability to
concentrate mention is that reading a book for pleasure no longer works for
them. We have got so used to skim reading for fast access to information that
the demand of a more sophisticated vocabulary, a complex plot structure or a
novel’s length can be difficult to engage with. Like anything, single-minded
attention may need relearning in order to enjoy reading for pleasure again, but
close reading in itself can be a route to better concentration. To help that,
read from an actual book, not a screen: screens are too reminiscent of skim
reading and just turning pages will slow your pace. Read for long enough to
engage your interest, at least 30 minutes: engagement in content takes time,
but will help you read for longer.
Digital Apps
Somewhat ironically, digital apps may have their place in monitoring,
managing or restricting digital time, but bear in mind that they still keep you
connected to digital devices. Better perhaps to wean yourself away from
excessive digital use by doing something alternative: read a book, go to a
movie (where turning off phones is required), take a walk, eat a meal without
checking … basically restore some sort of self-discipline through the benefit
of alternate activities.
But if you must turn to a digital solution to solve a digital problem, try
these: track usage with Moment; access Facebook limiter; go Cold Turkey; try
Stay On Task; use the App detox blocker; or break phone addiction with Space.
Image source: Lifehacker | AU
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