Pay more attention and avoid being driven to distraction

One of the greatest casualties of the information age has been our attention span.

One of the greatest casualties of the information age has been our attention span.

A study conducted by Microsoft in May 2015 found the average concentration span of an adult human had dropped from 12 ­seconds in 2000 to just eight ­seconds 15 years later.

To put this in context, humans now boast an attention span one second shorter than that of a goldfish (whose attention spans are nine seconds long).

The ability to concentrate on the essential is under relentless ­assault from a constant barrage of email, phone calls and social media, and has conditioned us to switch tasks constantly and split our attention.

While psychologists are often quick to point out the danger this poses to mental health, distractedness is also dangerous to physical health.

According to Pew Research, in the past year 8000 pedestrians in the US were seriously injured or killed because they wandered into traffic while glued to their phones.

In the German city of Augsburg, distracted pedestrians have become such an issue that local authorities have installed stop lights in the pavement at busy intersections for the benefit for pedestrians looking down at their phones.

Distraction also is having an ­increasing impact on the modern workplace.

Recent studies have found office workers are interrupted every three minutes.

Once attention is broken, it can take 23 minutes to return focus to the original task.

Whether it’s the co-worker stopping by your desk with a quick question, the endless meetings and memos, the conversation between colleagues within earshot you simply can’t help but tune into, the modern open-plan office is custom-built to destroy focus.

Researchers at Harvard University have found a frequent switching of tasks and attention is closely linked to a lowering of workplace productivity. Many of the individuals they studied flipped between one task and another up to 500 times a day — dramatically lowering productivity and increasing the number of hours required to complete tasks.

Similar research indicates multi-taskers make more mistakes and are up to 40 per cent slower than people who focus on one task at a time.

While we easily can blame ­colleagues, office layouts and gadgets for our levels of distraction, the fact is we enjoy being distracted more than we know — even finding it strangely addictive.

According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuro­scientist Earl Miller, every time we complete tasks, such as sending an email, answering a text or uploading something to Facebook, a tiny amount of the body’s reward hormone, dopamine, is released.

Brains respond to dopamine, so we are encouraged to keep switching to small tasks that provide instant gratification. This creates a dangerous feedback loop where we begin to feel we are accomplishing a lot rather then stagnating.

While distraction may come naturally and can be pleasurably addictive at an unconscious level, it is devastating to productivity.

To build momentum and get into a flow state, being able to concentrate and focus deeply on important tasks is critical.

In the words of US author Og Mandino: “It is those who concentrate on but one thing at a time who advance in this world.”

Michael McQueen is a business strategist and author of Momentum: How to Build It, Keep It, or Get It Back.