The Habit of Distraction
Another challenge accentuated by the pandemic is an increase in an already increasing world of information overload. It has become increasingly difficult to concentrate on the tasks at hand. Distractions not only include those from the external environment such as the kids at home or the chatter on social media, but those internal ones, from our own mind, regurgitating the news, attempting to find solutions to problems that do not exist, inventing and trying out all kinds of scenarios, and imagined conversations with people who are not in the room.
This causes a distracted and wandering mind. Where does your concentration go? You might be reminiscing about the way life used to be? Or processing the new information on the novel virus, or wishing you had made other choices? Information overload causes stress and stress reduces one’s ability to focus.
If your mind is wandering more often, you are not alone. A 2010 study from Dan Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth, shows that people’s minds wander 47% of the time, almost half the time. Mind-wandering means that instead of paying attention to the task at hand, your mind starts an inner narrative which can take different forms, such as thinking about your next task or meeting, daydreaming about your vacation, having an interior dialogue with people who are not in the room, making plans for dinner, and so on…
Besides the staggering amount of time the mind wanders off task, it is important to know that a wandering mind has a penchant for negativity. Dan Gilbert’s conclusion is that “a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.”
The Antidote to a Wandering Mind
A recent article from Harvard Business Review on how to increase focus during the pandemic, lists practical ways to deal with distraction. It suggests that one’s greatest challenge is one’s ability to control their thoughts. This is where mindfulness comes in.
“Practicing attention management is about maintaining control of where your attention goes, and recognizing when it’s being stolen, either by external distractions or internal errant thoughts, rumination, or anxiety…”
Focused attention practice, one of the several techniques used in mindfulness, has been scientifically studied. It has been shown to increase the ability to observe and control one’s thoughts. Just as exercising helps one to stay in good physical shape, numerous case studies and research have shown that a formal daily mindfulness practice trains the brain, builds focus, and increases awareness.
Mindfulness isn’t a training to stop the mind from wandering. Instead, it’s a practice that trains one’s ability to maintain their focus longer. and increases one’s self-awareness so they are able to realize when their mind has started to wander, so they can bring it back to attention.
When a mind wanders regularly, it becomes habituated to being distracted. But with mindfulness, you become more self-aware. You begin to notice that it has wandered, so you easily bring it back to the task at hand. By doing this, again and again, you create a new intentional habit, breaking the habit of distraction. Mindfulness helps with all of that.
