Imagine yourself doing an important mental task and there your Whatsapp notification tone beeps. What will you do? Will you continue with your task or directly go and check your phone to see who has send you a message. Well studies have shown that the concentration and attention levels of individuals are deeply affected by such disturbances. When you do not maintain a continuous level of concentration your brain is affected adversely. Even if we try to overcome the temptation of checking the notification our mind may however keep wandering about, which in turn is ruining our focus on the current task.
Low focus levels and multitasking can lead to several brain related health problems in your later years. The notifications are the main offenders. When we are alerted with a tone, beep or vibration the level of curiosity in us are at the peak. Wondering who it will be? What news is going to be delivered? Is my family okay? And what not!. All these happens usually in split seconds inside our brain and eventually our poor brain gets diverted off from the chore at hand.
The Florida State University who has conducted a study regarding this has concluded that such short duration disturbances can disrupt our focus levels and hence badly affect our brains. The samples employed for the study were found to perform okay in the tasks given and worse when their phones were ringing or buzzing around them. The chances were so high to make a mistake as well in this scenario. The researchers also added that even though the samples believed that smartphones are the ultimate for easy living in every sphere of life, performing the tasks given was not found easy by the participants.
The 21st century humans forget to give their brains a little 'me' time since they text while they are commuting for work/college, check an email while waiting for lunch and even chart out next day's To Do list while having a family time in the evening. We keep on stuffing up everything for every single free moment we come across. Deserting your connected devices may seem to be an impossible thing to achieve in today's world. But minimizing the use and a concentrated effort to avoid distractions may help us in better work output and healthier lifestyles.
Almost a decade back, flying overseas means going to a travel agent, waiting those long queues, making constant calls to them to remind your booking and the agony is more if you want to cancel the current booking. Now everything is on your finger tips. With a wide range of travel sites floating on the internet you can actually choose the place you want, do payments easily and you are done. A smartphone certainly comes with a zillion number of opportunities.
On that note we are leaving you with a few tips that will help you to sustain your focus levels in order to perform more efficiently at your job or studies, whatever the case maybe.
Chart out a routine and stick to it - Set yourself a time-table of the things that you are to do and also when you are supposed to do that. Follow it diligently no matter what the disturbances maybe. If you stick to this routine then your focus levels will soar up higher levels.
Shut off your mobile phone – If you are about to do a very sophisticated or high level of attention required chore, then it is likely advised to switch off your mobile phones to perform well without committing any mistakes. Even if you aren't actively using the phone, the alerts and notifications may make your mind wander about and results in poor work output.
Set Reminders – In our busier lives it is natural that we forget to complete tasks, but if you set a reminder based on the work that you have to complete with the specified time limit then chances are high that you will be able to finish it without any hassles. Make it a point to ignore calls and messages until you complete your duty.
Apps and plugins - There are several apps and plugins that allow you a distraction free browsing or online work. The 'Stay Focused' chrome plugin allows you to set allot time to your favorite websites. Once the time limit is covered then those sites will be made inaccessible. The 'Leech Block' add-on by Firefox also caters the same function. The 'Inbox whiz' is also a plugin by Chrome which hides all the incoming mail in a hidden inbox until a time which is set by you. These technology helps you to deliver the maximum of your capacity without any mental hindrances.
To make matters worse, multitasking has been found to increase the production of the stress hormone cortisol which can overstimulate your brain and cause mental fog or scrambled thinking . So next time you leap out to juggle between tasks at hand and a mobile phone alert give it a second thought. Saying a no then may result in greater mental clarity and readily functioning happy brains.Therefore stay focused stay productive!!
