I click on a YouTube link for a new movie trailer on Twitter. It takes me to the YouTube page where the trailer starts playing. But, for the first 5-10 seconds I’m not watching the trailer but what else is there to watch as displayed on the left side on YouTube!
I start reading an article on attention spans and the internet. But I’m not reading it. I’m skimming it… I read the first 2 lines of the first paragraph, scroll down to read the 3rd paragraph… scroll down further to read a few more lines… and so on.
I watch about 10-20 ads (both video and print) every single day. All of them on my laptop – not on TV, as ads were originally intended to be consumed 🙂 And almost every single time, my starting point for any video ad is to see the duration! A 30-second or a 60-second ad makes me feel like giving my undivided attention, but anything above that, I tend to get fidgety, skim some parts, go back to it again, and so on.
The only things I do not skim are my audiobooks (that I listen to for about 40-50 minutes before sleeping – I have set an automated sleep timer) and my occasional OTT watching (shows that I pick after adequate research if they were worth the time), though this is only about 7-10 minutes a day on the large TV (and 40-50 minutes during my daily run on the treadmill).
A quick conclusion that I would draw from this is that this may be a device-centric problem – a laptop or a phone is always connected to the internet and the internet is literally the rabbit hole.
Initially, when this lack of focus and the ability to not give my undivided attention was affecting my work and thought process, my first solution was to unplug. That is, close all other browser windows, disconnect from the internet, and assume that such a black-box way of isolation would help me concentrate better.
But that did not quite work in my kind of work where I constantly use the internet as a thought stimulant. I use the internet/search almost like another person – bounce things on the search to see what is the thinking on those themes, look at visuals for inspiration and find newer ways to reorient my thinking, and so on. So, blocking the internet was not the answer, at least for me.
Instead, I started accepting that my mind does wander. So, I let it wander with some basic rules and limits. For instance, I may be working on a client presentation, but every 2-3 minutes, I may go to another browser tab to search which other show I had seen that leading guy from a TV show 🙂 To another person watching me work on my presentation, this may look preposterous. But I started to take this in my stride as long as I’m always consciously aware of the deadline for my work.
And because it may seem like I’m distracted… to another person watching me, I consciously switch off all other browser tabs, log out from other online accounts like WhatsApp, etc. when I get on client video calls. And I tend to keep my video always on as a method for me to force my undivided attention and also to respect the other person’s time. Even if I notice that they are looking at some other browser window while talking to me (you can always tell, looking at the eye movement), I stay on my video and fully focused on the call, for my own sake.
Is this multitasking? Or simul-tasking? Or dual-tasking? I have no idea which label is appropriate, nor do I care. For instance, simul-tasking is taken for granted for cooking – you need to do a couple of things at the same time… boil the vegetables, and while they are boiling, do something else, and so on. But there are other offline tasks that require undivided attention – gardening, for instance. Or, talking to my wife, or kids.
And we multitask too – walk and listen to music/podcast/audiobook at the same time. I watch a TV show while running on the treadmill anyway 🙂 But in these examples, I seem to tangibly gain from both tasks, while working on my presentation and letting my mind briefly wander doesn’t seem like 2 tangible tasks being one… only one, while the other is seen as time-wasting.
But I have noticed this increasingly – at least in my kind of work that involves thinking and creativity, letting the mind wander is tangibly useful. The more cues I pick up, even subconsciously, the more I am able to connect the dots in the background. I have written about this earlier. Creativity is the ability to connect things and to be able to connect seemingly (to others) disparate things, you need a larger pool of things that you can dip into.
What helps, over time, as a habit, is to hone the ability to not lose a thread of thought while the mind wanders. It’s almost like I keep the main task in abeyance briefly (like how the Police/detectives deduct that the person they were looking for in the house was there moments ago based on the cup with the steaming coffee or a lit cigarette 🙂 ), indulge the mind’s wandering, and continue the task as if no time had lapsed at all.
A few other things that I do on a daily basis help me in cultivating this habit of work-break-work process. Like watching TV shows. I have never binge-watched anything so far 🙂 I always make it a point to not watch more than 15-30 minutes on the large screen and stop after my 5 km run is over while on the treadmill. And I pick it up whenever I get back to the show almost as if there was no break. Ditto with audiobooks – I’m re-listening to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series now, and the breaks I take every night is self-imposed. But the next night, to quickly jog my own memory to where I left the previous night and bring myself into the continuity is a trait that helps me in the work-break-work routine too, I feel.
If you think about it, we had printed bookmarks for printed books. Now, we have seamless handoffs in terms of digital bookmarks between the phone and the TV, for instance – you start watching a show on TV, then you can continue watching it from where you left, on your phone or tablet. It is as if, for those devices, you had not left at all. Is there a way our mind can put a pin to where we stop an activity, wander off for a bit, and come back to the same spot with the same frame of mind?
I won’t simply blame the internet for being a rabbit hole, unlike my earlier, rudimentary conclusion. The break in my work-break-work routine is not always about another browser tab 🙂 It may be forcing myself to go to the balcony and then simply stare at the road for 5 minutes. Or go to the terrace and look at the plants. Or even pick some old printed book at random and read a few pages. So, instead of being regimental about “I NEED TO FINISH THIS TASK BEFORE I DO ANYTHING ELSE”, it helps me that I’m lenient with the wandering of the mind as long as I’m conscious that such wandering is not affecting my deadline. We tend to assume that such wandering of the mind affects productivity. But you cannot curtail the mind like that anyway 🙂
For instance, this post took almost 2.5 weeks to complete 🙂 I have about 6-7 posts in various draft stages at all times.
I’m very conscious of the fact that this is just my personal experience. Your mileage may vary.