Continuous Partial Attention.
The very reason I fell short of publishing this blog much early.
By simultaneously listening to a conference call, writing a few notes and mails while snacking at the desk; we might not even know it’s happening to us.When is the last time you went 20 minutes without getting distracted by a device?
If you only work on a project 10% of the time in partial mode, instead of the 25% of the time in full-focus mode, then it’s going to take you longer to get the project done.
Dividing time,hurting ‘focus’ — at the cost of brain power & motivation.
The constant ‘cognitive demand’ created by email notifications and daily distractions, leaves you with your attention flicking from thing to thing, in the vain attempt to pay attention to everything.
Multitasking (despite all its faults) is driven by a ‘desire to get more things done’. But, Continuous Partial Attention is driven by the ‘Fear of Missing Out’.
It creates the desire to feel connected, to matter, to be recognized and the danger of living in an always-on, digitally native world.
Observed that chronic stress that’s always simmering in the background?
The unconscious practice of holding your breath,taking shallow breaths while reading or responding to email — like me, you might find that you’re depriving yourself of oxygen with irregular breathing habits.
I want to consciously destroy that “Prayer Neck” posture hunched over looking down at my hands while holding my mobile phone.
The truth is that our brains are not capable of multi-tasking. Brains don’t work like a computer, which can have many programs running simultaneously.
A price is being paid by how this constant contentedness is affecting our real-time relationships.
I met a 50 old year old Japanese engineer, who employed me to write articles for his website. His presence and attention to the present moment, flabbergasted me.While we got talking, I learnt that he works straight upon waking at 4:00 AM. In the afternoon, he runs , does errands, reads, and listens to music. He sleeps promptly at 9:30 PM. No wonder he was so calm and collected. He made me realize that increased creativity is one of the major benefits of slowing down.
Using Downtime
Downtime might be when you are waiting in a line. Waiting for a train, waiting for a meal.Learning to be at peace with waiting. I too get antsy for waiting.… but waiting offers an increasingly rare experience in our always-on digitally native world — a moment to pause and reflect.The sun on your face. A small person walking a big dog are tough things to appreciate if our heads are always buried in our smartphones, swiping away notifications.
Probably, there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Thank you for taking time out to read.
