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Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

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Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#11

Post by keopi »

dgallagher wrote: post #9

Rob May* wrote this three years ago about the same topic: Is Concentration the New Competitive Advantage?: http://www.businesspundit.com/is-concentration-the-new-compe... He goes onto saying how reading every Digg post, or looking at every new Web 2.0 startup is basically a complete waist of time. You feel like you're actually learning something, but in reality the info you're learning is "junk" knowledge (unless you…

Yeah, I had a similar thought thinking how Hacker News was distracting me from the work I should be focusing on.

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#12

Post by silentbicycle »

thalur wrote: post #4
chops wrote: post #3

Mental attention, she notes, is selective. Like a flashlight beam, we aim our consciousness on but a thin slice of what surrounds us. At a party, for instance, we hear only one voice among many until another voice speaks our name and our attention suddenly shifts. I find myself to be much the opposite. I have trouble focusing on on any one conversation, I'm too easily distracted. I can't hold a phone call or conversa…

I know what you mean - I have the same problem. For me, it's worst with television: I can't have a conversation with someone if there's a TV on in the same room. I'm not sure if this is the opposite to the flashlight simile, or just an example of an inability to direct it at will.

Well, television (particularly ad-supported television) is actively trying over and over to grab your attention, so it's not terribly surprising. I have a hard time focusing when there's a tv in line-of-sight, too, and it gets worse when I haven't watched broadcast tv for a while.

I remember hearing somebody (Douglas Rushkoff, I think) suggest that ADD-like behaviors might be an adaptation to a childhood in which one is inundated with aggressive, flashy advertising. Adapting to reflexively ignoring things that are designed to steal your focus probably affects your brain in the long term, much like meditating regularly can.

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#13

Post by etal »

chops wrote: post #3

Mental attention, she notes, is selective. Like a flashlight beam, we aim our consciousness on but a thin slice of what surrounds us. At a party, for instance, we hear only one voice among many until another voice speaks our name and our attention suddenly shifts. I find myself to be much the opposite. I have trouble focusing on on any one conversation, I'm too easily distracted. I can't hold a phone call or conversa…

Foreground versus background processes probably makes a better metaphor. It is possible to truly multitask, beyond just franticly switching focus -- we do it when we drive or play sports -- but only one task actually has focus. The rest runs in the background. Learning to control that ability is a great way to manage your time and attention.

I'm pretty helpless with group conversations, too. I guess conversation uses a lot of different aspects of attention, so you can't just fire off background tasks for listening to music and each conversation.

As for the people who can do concurrent conversations -- I think they're very good at filling in the gaps of each conversation that they miss. If each conversation is mostly small talk and little stories, you can lose a few words from each sentence and still follow along, especially if you can pick up on voice inflection and body language in your background tasks (as our more socially adept girlfriends and sisters seem to).

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#14

Post by mjfern »

The article mentions the concept of "flow." This concept is described in detail in the book "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I highly recommend this book!

http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Mihaly-Csik...

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#15

Post by gcheong »

keopi wrote: post #11
dgallagher wrote: post #9

Rob May* wrote this three years ago about the same topic: Is Concentration the New Competitive Advantage?: http://www.businesspundit.com/is-concentration-the-new-compe... He goes onto saying how reading every Digg post, or looking at every new Web 2.0 startup is basically a complete waist of time. You feel like you're actually learning something, but in reality the info you're learning is "junk" knowledge (unless you…

Yeah, I had a similar thought thinking how Hacker News was distracting me from the work I should be focusing on.

I'm beginning to think the value of HN is to give you something to do after you've sold your startup.

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#16

Post by umjames »

silentbicycle wrote: post #12
thalur wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know what you mean - I have the same problem. For me, it's worst with television: I can't have a conversation with someone if there's a TV on in the same room. I'm not sure if this is the opposite to the flashlight simile, or just an example of an inability to direct it at will.

Well, television (particularly ad-supported television) is actively trying over and over to grab your attention, so it's not terribly surprising. I have a hard time focusing when there's a tv in line-of-sight, too, and it gets worse when I haven't watched broadcast tv for a while. I remember hearing somebody (Douglas Rushkoff, I think) suggest that ADD-like behaviors might be an adaptation to a childhood in which one…

If that's true, we should re-purpose ADD to stand for Advertisement Deluge Disorder.

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#17

Post by psyklic »

dgallagher wrote: post #9

Rob May* wrote this three years ago about the same topic: Is Concentration the New Competitive Advantage?: http://www.businesspundit.com/is-concentration-the-new-compe... He goes onto saying how reading every Digg post, or looking at every new Web 2.0 startup is basically a complete waist of time. You feel like you're actually learning something, but in reality the info you're learning is "junk" knowledge (unless you…

concentration was always the competitive advantage!

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#19

Post by mahmud »

gcheong wrote: post #15
keopi wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I had a similar thought thinking how Hacker News was distracting me from the work I should be focusing on.

I'm beginning to think the value of HN is to give you something to do after you've sold your startup.

For me it's before and during. HN is a deadly weapon in the hands of a shrewd business opportunist with kickass hacking team/skills.

It has been an MBA for me.

Re: Why it is so hard to stay focused these days—and what to do about it

#20

Post by dgallagher »

mahmud wrote: post #19
gcheong wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm beginning to think the value of HN is to give you something to do after you've sold your startup.

For me it's before and during. HN is a deadly weapon in the hands of a shrewd business opportunist with kickass hacking team/skills. It has been an MBA for me.

It's definitely useful in moderation. I think most of us would agree that we find a lot of the comments to be valuable and insightful, as with some of the articles.

Of course, "in moderation" is key here. Spending all day on the site probably isn't a good use one ones time. Popping in for a few minutes throughout the day is probably pretty safe to do.

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