Why you love switch-tasking
In 2014, professor Leo Yelkis and his team at Stanford University conducted a study that illuminates why it’s so hard to focus on one task. The participants were equipped with wrist sensors that monitored their arousal levels as they worked at their computers at home.
The researchers found that in the moment just before the participants switched from one task to another, their arousal levels spiked. And switching from work-related tasks, like writing an email, to an “entertainment-related” one, like watching a YouTube clip, resulted in the greatest spikes.
Similar studies have found that our anxiety levels drop when we switch from one feed of information to another.
No wonder it’s so hard for us to focus – switching simultaneously invigorates and relaxes us!
So how do you tackle distraction and become more focused? For more on that – including why physical exercise makes you a less dangerous driver – get our blinks to The Distracted Mind, by Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rose
No comments:
Post a Comment