Better Focus, Part 3

As I mentioned before, when I had my “too much in my brain” meltdown I became a student of FOCUS. In searching for what was causing me to feel lost in the midst of 7 bajillion distractions I stumbled across a video of a guy giving a power point presentation about this generations lack of focus.

Joe Kraus is an entrepreneur and has been a part of several companies that were eventually purchased by Google.   Joe gave a speech last year about the “culture of distraction” that we find ourselves in.  You can watch a video of his speech (complete with powerpoint visuals) or read the transcript on Joe’s Blog.

The things he explained resonated greatly with my struggle with focus.  As I admitted before, I can’t seem to focus on anything. I know I don’t have ADD because I had better focus as a kid/teenager!  Kraus blames this mainly on our smartphones.  The more we pay attention to distractions, the easier it is to get distracted, thus training our brain to NOT focus.

A few Stats Kraus throws at us:

• We are 40% less productive when we multitask (as opposed to focusing on one task at a time)
• We are the equivalent of 10 IQ points dumber when we multitask.
• When the internet was mainly an “at work, stationary place” americans connected to the internet 4/5 times a day. With smartphones, we connect on average 27 times a day
• We are interrupted once every 7 minutes.

One of the most interesting things he remarks on is our fear of “gap” time. Waiting in line, check facebook.  Eating lunch alone, catch up with shows on Netflix. We leave no time in between, no space for our brains to wander.  Joe points out that most epiphanies or great ideas come to people in the shower.  This is because they are practically forced to set their interactive device (tablets, phones, etc) aside and let their mind ponder.

In summary,

1. We are training our brains to NOT focus making us literally dumber and less productive.
2. It cuts creativity and serious contemplation.
3. It also takes the place of real human relationships making us devote time to devices and not really connecting.

Joe’s solution?  Take a “holiday” from all media devices.  His family turns everything off every Sunday. (TVs, computers, phones, tablets, radios) and does things like- reads books! (and not on a kindle)  He claims that when you go back to work you will see improved concentration and focus. Also, he suggests we purposefully slow down during the day. Take a walk, go to church, sit and read a book.  Retrain your brain to focus on one thing at a time.

Author’s note:  1. We are trying this as a family… We can’t do a whole day but, we plan for a couple hours in the evening on a couple days. It has helped me tremendously.  2. Sorry for the delay in posting.  We’re leaving on a jet plane and sometimes things just don’t let up!