📗 Understand
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14 févr. 2024
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6 min read
"Distractions"—a big word, often thrown around to describe... well, just about anything. So, how about we take a moment to really dig into it today?
🤯 Internal Triggers of Distraction
For the past twenty years, Gloria Mark has been examining the evolution of human attention in the digital age. In her book Attention Span, her research reveals a drastic decline in attention span when in front of a screen.
In 2004, it was 150 seconds. Between 2016 and 2021, the average attention span dropped to 47 seconds.
The cause of distractions is often attributed to external triggers, which are held responsible for all our woes. Technological distractions (notifications, emails, calls) or physical interruptions (from colleagues or housemates) are indeed common if we allow them to occur. However, let’s return to the very definition of distraction: an “inapplicability of thought to things that one should be concerned with.”
In other words, distractions divert you from what you are doing. Whether it’s:
A household or work task
Spending time with a loved one
Doing something for yourself.
You may have noticed that distractions often do not come from external elements but rather from brain impulses.
These are more insidious and deeper triggers: internal triggers.
Gloria Mark frequently observed the following phenomenon among knowledge workers (those who work on computers). For no apparent reason, the majority of people suddenly, in the middle of a task:
Open another tab to check their emails or do a Google search
Unlock their phone, only to put it down five seconds later.
How can we explain these almost automatic mechanisms? For a simple reason rooted in our genetics: the brain naturally seeks to minimize discomfort. When faced with an unpleasant situation such as:
Boredom
Stress
Uncertainty
Anxiety
Fatigue
Your brain naturally seeks an escape to regain its comfort zone. This is where distraction comes into play. It doesn’t necessarily stem from the pursuit of immediate pleasure but rather from the desire to avoid pain.
Problem? Every time you choose the path of distraction, your brain rewards you.
At work, it associates instant gratification and switching between tasks with a behavior that helps avoid discomfort. Thus, the brain positively reinforces it and roots this habit. Cunningly, this mechanism makes you feel at the moment that it’s a productive path:
Distraction: you jump from one task to another without transition, giving the impression of being active and making progress.
Dopamine spike: this action provides instant satisfaction every time you complete a micro-task.
Reward: this pleasant feeling encourages you to seek out other micro-tasks to accomplish, creating a feedback loop where you constantly feel like you’re making progress
This loop is dangerous: it creates an illusion of productivity. In reality, we are merely skimming the surface, never diving into substantial work, in deep waters.
At the end of the day, you haven’t engaged in anything substantial. There’s a widespread feeling since 47% of people believe that “deep thinking” is a thing of the past.
Self-distraction is therefore an aggravating factor of multitasking, and single-tasking is becoming increasingly rare.
It’s a vicious cycle, as resisting distraction will release little dopamine during the process. Your brain will therefore want to act at all costs to distract you. Remaining focused will be increasingly perceived as less enjoyable, more boring, and more complicated.
Technology acts here as a catalyst, but it is not the initial cause of this distraction. Simply put, the design of digital applications exploits and amplifies these natural tendencies.
Constant distractions at work leave in their wake scattered thoughts and partially completed tasks.
The “deep work” is, however, crucial for achieving a real sense of accomplishment. When days are exhausting but unproductive, work feels at best unsatisfying and at worst demotivating. You may feel overwhelmed, waste time, and experience increased stress.
This repeated mental exhaustion induced by continuous distractions can even lead to burnout.
🧠 Meta-Awareness
"Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
Physical and technological barriers can be put in place for external solicitations. However, for what comes from within, the problem is deeper and requires effort.
Gloria Mark refers to “meta-awareness” in her book. Her perspective is that we need to train ourselves to be aware of what we’re doing at the moment we’re doing it.
Regarding distractions, it’s about paying attention to your attention. Noticing what you normally wouldn’t have noticed.
Behind every interruption, the idea is to examine the discomfort that lies beneath and to try to address that feeling rather than the distraction itself.
If you just went on Instagram “out of reflex” at work, ask yourself what led you there:
Are you tired?
Is your task too boring?
Is it too difficult?
Are you uncertain about what you should be doing?
Facilitated by habit, most internal distractions have become automatic for the brain. Meta-awareness consists of bringing automatic actions to consciousness. By trying to be honest with oneself and observing oneself without judgment.
Meta-awareness is a crucial step in challenging negative habit loops and steering toward more intentional actions. It’s a skill to develop: the more it is practiced, the easier it becomes to detect triggering feelings and to nip distractions in the bud.
For example:
If you’re tired 👉 take a nap or go for a short walk
If the task is too complex 👉 break it down into smaller parts, and focus on the first one
If the task is too boring 👉 find an extrinsic motivation to complete it with more enthusiasm
Nir Eyal, in his book Indistractable, adds that we need to be particularly attentive to “liminal moments”. That is, the moments of transition between tasks.
Without realizing it, they create uncertainty and anxiety that will push you to distraction “just for a minute.” Nir Eyal mentions the 10-minute rule (which I personally use) to resist in these moments.
During a liminal moment, if you feel the urge to distract yourself to alleviate this discomfort, tell yourself it’s okay to give in, but not right now.
Force yourself to wait ten minutes before doing so. These ten minutes encourage you to “ride the urge.” You ride the urge like a wave until it fades, observing it without fully rejecting it, but without acting on it either.
Often, the urge will disappear quickly. This is a mental exercise I recommend.
💪 The Challenge of the Week
This week, choose a specific day. During that day, every time you feel the tension of a distraction rising. Ask yourself these 3 questions:
Why do I want this?
What value will it bring me?
What can I do better instead?
If your awareness comes a little too late and you’re already distracted, ask yourself the same questions but afterward. I did this work several months ago.
I realized that whenever a task became more complex or when I didn’t know where to start, I had a tendency to procrastinate by opening another tab.
For example, when I was writing articles and felt blocked in terms of inspiration, I often opened LinkedIn for a few seconds without any particular intention.
Meta-awareness helped me catch myself at that precise moment and tackle the feeling that was causing this distraction. Now, I’ve become aware of this “tension” rising within me.
Depending on the feeling, I either take a short break or grab my notebook and jot down sub-tasks for more clarity. When you feel your concentration wane or a distraction coming, ask yourself these questions and look for an alternative that suits you!
📱The App to Download: Jomo
The approach is great: zero shaming and ultra-personalization. Jomo acts as a companion to help you find digital habits that have value for you.
It allows for great granularity in screen time rules and app blocking, to truly find what works for you. Jomo helps to better understand the time spent on your phone and to find the balance between valuable screen time and superfluous screen time.
Jomo also encourages you to note your feelings at the end of the day, thus making your screen time more intentional.
And a bunch of other really cool features, including:
Suggestions for alternatives on blocking screens
The ability to compete with friends to challenge each other on screen time
In short, a comprehensive tool for better understanding your usage and defining new digital habits. It is currently available only on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
