How to Focus Like It's 1990

[PatSeg]

In 2004, Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, watched knowledge workers go about a typical day at the office. Using a stopwatch, she noted every time they switched tasks on their computer, moving from a spreadsheet to an email to a web page to a different web page and back to the spreadsheet. She found that people averaged just two and a half minutes on a given task before switching.

When Dr. Mark repeated the experiment in 2012, the average time office workers spent on a task had dropped to 75 seconds. And it has continued to drop from there.

“Our attention spans while on our computers and smartphones have become short — crazily short — as we now spend about 47 seconds on any screen on average,” Dr. Mark wrote in her new book, “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity.”

Anyone who’s tried to study for an exam, write a report or read a book knows how hard it is to concentrate for significant chunks of time. Typically, digital devices are to blame for the disruption. The internet is omniscient, our phones omnipotent, and together they demand and destroy our concentration. Even when we really try to focus on a task, we often find we can’t, our eyes glazing over and our thoughts drifting.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/well/mind/concentration-focus-distraction.html?unlocked_article_code=qyW86yHZISBpqaHg8O7a87TcLGB2MOEF0xx4MmheK-FrU_p1NV-ztrB_COvF4m-aQlFsb0SB-sMuq4ufU0NPfG3H1vzU823S6K2wi9cE5OgsXfNDILqclnrD3rxLbtCoC5REq6ViC1kB5b4wNGjGggVRg6rmSXtEij12cDeFfyTLAtEEnndVxKQY_kKKVXcdFniU2ciUHMMlajCGEaVlRcoxn70HM8zm5GfiyzNIFI4SFcqkPnksG8GpSFao7XxBOP4sm2XlHxiuLgFCAVPROFWfMtGRcglJQ_pIcu4wFzvTkW6klJBsB1-yst5RJUIglHU4m_9AxN5IjWGoi-pzFDmKJC9cUEelNKK93g&smid=share-url