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I really don’t get distrac-Ohhh Shiny!

Justin H
Nov 9, 2016
3 min read

In a previous entry, I mentioned the impossibility of multi-tasking. Some people may disagree with me, but I fully stand behind my comment, with my stubborn pride and confidence…and science! See what happens is, your brain doesn’t actually concentrate on two independent tasks and do them simultaneously, but instead quickly switches its attention between the two tasks. It can feel like multi-tasking, especially when you’ve got multiple things going on at once, like rubbing your belly and tapping your head, but because our brain is like an organic computer, the focus swap just happens so quickly we don’t even notice it. So how does this relate to the title of the blog? I don’t really know yet…

An alternate phrase I mentioned in that same previous entry was switch-tasking, the act of turning our attention to another thing. Let’s examine the impact of a distraction on our work. Say you are in your office, in the zone. You’ve got your music on, and the work is just flowing out of you in a brilliant stream of genius that will turn your company into the next Microsoft (assuming you don’t already work there). You’re in the zone, focused, intent, energetic and productive. And then you get a phone call. You grab the call to take care of it quickly in order to return to your job. The person on the line starts talking about the game (sports!), or a problem they have with their own work, or complaining about a mutual boss or whatever it is, it draws your attention away from the zone and into the new ‘thing’. After a few seconds or minutes, you hang up the phone and you turn back to your project. Where were you? What were you thinking? You were on the cusp of a huge discovery but you can’t seem to grasp your previous thought train. It’s left the station and is miles down the track. You missed it while you were gossiping. That’s the cost of distractions. You might be able to run and catch back up to the train as it’s heading away, but chances are you are so winded from the journey, you aren’t really able to get back fully into that zone. This is still an analogy right?

Economists refer to this as opportunity cost, the work you gave up and sacrificed in order to take that phone call distraction. I simply call it a Wednesday. Distractions happen daily, and frequently. There have been many times I have had to work outside of the office to meet a deadline or get an important project done, just to remove my accessibility to other employees and prevent distractions. I was at a seminar regarding time management, and it had a slightly different approach than many others I’ve attended. Instead of being all about organizing yourself and to-do lists, it focused more on the impact of distractions and how to limit them. For example, the speaker mentioned how his voicemail message states that he only answers the phone between certain times, and returns calls from messages during others. He gave an allowance of time for approach-ability, but otherwise kept strict rules in place regarding open office hours and when he can or cannot be interrupted. Some of the rules he set felt a little extreme, but I could envision the impact it had on his productivity.

Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to distractions, how to prevent them, or at least stop the distraction from derailing your productivity train. I’m just as susceptible to those things as most people, and honestly, I feel like I’m maybe more likely to allow myself to get distracted than others. If you have any tips, I’m open to suggestions. I just really dislike feeling like I cannot return to the zone because someone has to talk to me right this second about the election results from last night.