Concentration: Staying Focused in Times of Distraction

As someone who has looked back at days-weeks-months and wondered where the hell the time went, the subtitle is outright mispractice on the part of the publisher. I was hoping for a way to regain the focus I used to have, after all, these books won’t review themselves.

Instead, what we have is a summary review on the psychological literature of distraction. In short, multitasking is impossible, context switching increases errors, and the high accessibility of addictive technologies, primarily social media and the endless feed, makes concentrated effort very very hard.

Against this onslaught of distraction, there are a few bits of good news. Task performance is positively associated with a medium level of psychological arousal, between boredom and terror. Setting reward breaks can work, say fifteen minutes on and five minutes distracted. And listening to music, at least familiar music, doesn’t impede concentration.

Otherwise, if you were hoping for techniques to build the muscles of focus, you’ll be profoundly disappointed.