How to break technology addiction and improve concentration

Author : em-admin

Posted : 27 / 04 / 11

New research from Kent University’s psychology department confirms what many of us already know from experience. Far from helping us become more efficient, the constant interruption of technology is weakening our ability to concentrate and slowing us down at work.

With inboxes pinging and smartphones winking at us, we’re increasingly giving in to tempting but non-essential diversions – and researchers say we could be wasting nearly one-fifth of our time in the process. No wonder so many of us are no strangers to working late.

Lead us not into temptation

The study came about after lead researcher Ulrich Weger noticed that his own progress at work was continually thwarted by email notifications luring him away from the task at hand.

The experiment charged about 100 volunteers with reading text on a computer. During the task, they were interrupted by a one-minute verbal message, such as a phone call, and were asked to continue reading the text when it reappeared onscreen. The researchers used eye-trackers to follow the volunteers’ visual journey in returning to the task. Since they went back to the text at an earlier point than where they left off, each interruption caused an average 17 per cent increase in the total time to finish reading the whole passage.

The study also found that it took volunteers significantly longer to read the text when it was accompanied by background speech or music.

A return to concentration

So, what of the resulting ideas for combating the problem? Weger suggests a daily concentration exercise, where you focus on a simple object for a few minutes. As soon as you become aware that your thoughts have drifted onto something else, gently bring them back to your chosen object. It’s worth it, according to Weger: ‘After practice, you get more competent at shielding yourself against the countless tempting stimuli in our world.’

Other solutions include: marking the point on the page where you temporarily stop reading (this accounted for 10 per cent of the time wasted in the study), turning off phones and email notifications, and making sure you don’t sit looking out on, for example, a distractingly busy street.

Burying phones in the garden and turning desks to the wall will undoubtedly appeal to some, but it probably won’t work in the long run. We have a much simpler way to get the job done – try some of our practical tips for beating writer’s block and the procrastination trap in our articles ‘Forgiveness: the answer to writer’s block‘ and ‘Tips for breaking through the barrier’.

Reference: Reading resumption after interruptions: using eye movements to study the costs of interruptions during reading by Ulrich Weger.