Do you want the good news or the bad news?
Okay, bad news first.
Researchers have found that media multitasking is bad for your ability to focus, I didn’t think that much of it when I first found out, but honestly, I was half focused on a podcast I had on in the background. Then I Googled media multitasking…
Media multitasking means engaging with multiple streams of media simultaneously: switching between email, web browsing, checking text messages, listening to music, etc.
Oh. Hmm…Oh no! That’s totally me. So, um, what does that do to my ability to focus?
The Effects of Media Multitasking
Every year, the stream of alerts, notifications and unread messages is more constant than ever. While we are responding to emails, we get a notification about our recent post and find ourselves scrolling through Facebook. Then a text comes in about our plans that evening, and we respond to that. Sometimes we are streaming music or a podcast in the background, too. What was I doing before? Oh yeah, responding to emails! The back and forth seems never ending.
Research has shown that this type of chronic media multitasking is associated with deficits in cognitive control. Compared to controls who multitasked infrequently, high media multitaskers were more likely to be distracted by irrelevant environmental stimuli and performed worse on cognitive tests that measured task switching ability. Basically, high media multitaskers can’t focus as well.
But didn’t you say there was good news, too?
Mindfulness Helps Reverse This Trend
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, noticed that mindfulness has been found to help people in the exact opposite ways that media multitasking was hurting them.
So they set out to find out if a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention could improve multitaskers’ performance on these cognitive tasks related to focus.
The mindfulness study found that not only did the mindfulness intervention program improve scores on cognition control tasks, but the improvements were disproportionately large for the heavy media multitaskers. The best part is that the difference in scores was produced by replacing only 10 minutes of web browsing with 10 minutes of a breath counting task. So replacing only 10 minutes of web browsing with focused breathing can help reverse the negative effects of our fast paced, digital world.
In this digital era, practicing mindfulness is more important than ever. When we have so many inputs vying for our attention at any given moment, we need to actively practice our ability to hone in on what’s truly important.
My challenge to myself is to meditate every day for 10 minutes. By meditation I don’t mean reaching some transcendental mental state, but simply counting my breath for 10 minutes. When I lose count or lose my focus while counting, I will smile, take a few deep breaths, and start over. It’s not about how many times my mind wanders. It’s about focusing on one thing and one thing only. It sounds reasonable to first commit to two weeks.
Anyone else up for this challenge?
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I have been practising Mindfulness for quite a while and actually find it quite helpful. I even have a CD or two of Mindfulness exercises. One by Jon Kabat-Zinn. As well there is a site I visit (Guilford Press) when I want to do other exercises.
Thanks for the recommendations, Sandy!
Thanks for the suggestions Sandy. Always looking for additional resources. 🙂
I’ve been running a mindfulness course at our office and to see the response and changes in attitude and awareness is amazing. When one just stops and pauses it open a narrow window of clarity into ones reality. My goal is just to enable a glimpse of clarity and suggest the more times you can stop and pause that window will slowly widen.
That’s great to hear, James, and what a noble goal. For a long time, I had focused on meditating once or twice per day, for a long sit of maybe an hour or so. But lately, I have really seen the power of simply pausing throughout the day, as many times as you can think of it. And for many people, that is what they have time to do. Stuck at a light or waiting for the car to warm up, take some deep breaths. It’s amazing what even a few deep breaths can do, isn’t it? Ideally, how long do you recommend the pause to be for greatest impact?
Hi, Michael.
I think the mere fact that one pauses is a step in the right direction. I think the number of times one can pause during the day is far more beneficial than the length. Pause, bring attention to you breath builds your meta-attention. Eventually you will maintain mindfulness indefinitely because you have strengthened you mind from wandering. You’re right, there are so many opportunities during the day to practice. The mere fact of listening to a colleague and aware that the mind has wandered is practice.