Frequent smartphone notifications can distract us and keep us focused on what we are trying to do.
And there’s good evidence that the presence of your phone, muted or not, is enough of a distraction. What’s happening? And most importantly, how can you regain your focus without losing sight of the important things?
Estimates vary, but the average person checks their phone about 85 times a day, roughly every 15 minutes.
In other words, every 15 minutes you are likely to be interrupted from what you are doing. The problem is, it can take a while to regain your full focus after you’ve been interrupted by your phone.
And if you’re just watching TV, distractions (and refocusing) aren’t a big deal. But if you’re driving, trying to study, work, or spend time with loved ones, it can cause some major problems.
Sounds from your phone are “external interruptions” to you. We might get excited when we hear our phones ringing.
What if your phone is in silent mode? Doesn’t that solve the problem? Ok no. This is another type of discontinuity, internal discontinuity. Think about every time you are doing a task but your attention shifts to your phone. You may have resisted the urge to pick it up and find out what’s happening on the internet, but you’ve probably checked it out anyway.
In this case, we can be conditioned to expect a reward every time we look at our phone and don’t have to wait for the signal to start.
Give your mind a rest
There is growing evidence linking push notifications to lower productivity, poorer focus, and more distractions at work and school.
But is there any evidence that our brains are working harder to manage frequent attention shifts?
A study of people’s brain waves found that those who described themselves as heavy smartphone users were more sensitive to push notifications than those who said they were light users.
While notifications delayed focus for both groups, it took longer for addicted users to regain focus.
Missing the phone often can make you feel a nervous need to respond. Frequent disconnections from smartphones are also linked to increased FOMO (fear of missing out).
And if your phone gets distracted after you respond to a notification, any procrastination you do while getting back to a task can leave you feeling guilty or frustrated.
And certainly, there’s evidence to suggest that the more time you spend on your phone in unproductive ways, the less you value your well-being.
How can I stop?
We know that turning on silent mode won’t magically solve the problem, especially if you’re already a frequent controller. What we need is behavior change, and it’s hard. It may take a few tries to see a permanent change.
If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking, lose weight, or start an exercise program, you’ll understand what this means.
Start by turning off all unnecessary notifications. So if you want to reduce the number of times you check your phone, here are a few things you can try:
• Charge your phone at night in a different room than yours. Notifications can keep you from falling asleep and wake you up repeatedly from your most important sleep throughout the night.
• Stop the urge to check and actively decide if it will help you in the moment. For example, when you turn to reach for your phone, stop and ask yourself if this action serves any purpose other than distraction.
• Try the Pomodoro method to focus on the task. This involves breaking up your focus time into manageable chunks (say, 25 minutes) and then treating yourself to short breaks. Gradually increase the time between treatments. Gradually relearning to keep your attention on any task can take some time if you are a high volume controller.
The report was prepared by Sharon Horwood, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at Deakin University.
Source: ScienceAlert
Source: Arabic RT
