#Hot to avoid distractions full#
#Hot to avoid distractions tv#

Unfortunately I found I still got distracted. Then I got a word processor from the 1990s without any sort of internet connection. All it did was phone calls and text messages. I got myself a flip-phone without any apps. When I found myself struggling with distraction, I decided to what many people advise and got rid of the distracting technology. Do you ever find yourself trying to concentrate and you can't seem to focus? Why are we so distracted these days? And is technology the root cause of the problem, or is there something deeper going on? 5 WAYS TO DISTRACTION-PROOF YOUR MIND My name is Nir Eyal, and I've spent the last five years researching and writing about the deeper psychology of distraction. By planning studying sessions in a way that minimises external distractors, you could improve your concentration and overall performance.NIR EYAL, Author, Indistractable: Do you ever find yourself.

#Hot to avoid distractions tv#

So while you might think you can study in a busy cafe, or with the TV on, or with your phone keeping you connected to the world, the chances are that you’re not as good at getting down to work as you think. Other options may be to avoid using smartphones and other devices before studying is completed for the day, or to keep such technology in communal areas away from the studying space. One strategy to avoid the negative effects of media multi-tasking is to take short “ technology breaks” during which you access the internet, but then restrict its use for the rest of your study period. Overall, these results suggest that using media when studying should be limited due to the decrease in performance when multi-tasking. Although teenagers and young adults reported strong confidence in their ability to multi-task, their actual performance was almost always worse compared to when they were doing just one task. The tasks involved judging whether spoken statements are correct and counting the shape of visual objects. For instance, one study asked participants to do either one task or two tasks at the same time. Another recent survey found that greater daily Facebook use is associated with an increase in academic distraction.īut while using other media when studying is detrimental to performance, students may not always be aware of this because they tend to overestimate their ability to multi-task. For example, one study found that students who were allowed to send text messages during a lecture had lower comprehension of its contents than those who had their phones switched off. Such types of multi-tasking activities are usually associated with poorer studying performance. In one study, students conducting three hours of homework engaged with an average of 35 distractors such as using their phone, accessing the internet for non-study purposes or listening to music. A and I Kruk/Shutterstock The multi-tasking problemĮven if you find an empty room and take out your headphones, studying today often means dealing with a big potential distraction in the form of smartphones and social media. But, again, recent eye-tracking evidence suggests that listening to music also reduces reading efficiency in a similar way to irrelevant speech.Īvoid technology altogether if you can.

A recent survey found that 62% of university students were listening to music while studying or doing homework. Listening to music is another common distraction that many students choose.

This distraction occurred because readers were inadvertently trying to listen to the irrelevant speech and process its meaning, even though it has nothing to do with what they are reading. The results showed reading needed more effort because participants more often had to go back to previously read words and re-examine them. However, when measured in the lab, people’s ability to carry out study-related tasks is usually made worse by irrelevant speech in the background.įor example, a recent study recorded participants’ eye movements as they read texts and listened to irrelevant background speech. But they are usually not very good at accurately estimating how distracted they will be by such sounds. When trying to concentrate on a task, people often report that the presence of nearby speech is annoying. Reading is often accompanied by background speech, such as from the television or the conversations of friends or colleagues. Here’s how you can get the most from your studies by considering your environment. The problem is that many people tend to underestimate how much they are distracted by what’s going on around them.

#Hot to avoid distractions full#

Modern life is full of distractions – and some of them can have a negative effect on our ability to concentrate when studying.