According to author Brian Solis, digital distractions are taking a significant toll on businesses, with 36-percent of Millennials and Gen Z workers reporting to spend two hours or more each workday "looking at their phones for personal activities." And while distractions can negatively influence creativity, they can also help propel forward the creative process.
"...leaky attention may underlie both costs and benefits of creative cognition; noise and other environmental stimuli can serve as distractors for creative people, and lead them to make errors on some tasks. At the same time, leaky attention may help people integrate ideas that are outside the focus of attention into their current information processing, leading to creative thinking,” Solis quotes from a research study on the topic.
He contends is that we should "embrace the desire to check notifications, read various media, or even watch videos." That scheduling short breaks where we allow ourselves to indulge in these impulses. He calls them productive distractions. "Because I know these breaks are coming up, I find it easier to stop myself from giving in to every distraction. I can simply tell myself that I’ll have the opportunity to follow that impulse when the next break hits," he writes.
In architecture, much of our office work takes place in the digital landscape. If we accept our tendency to get distracted and take steps to manage it, we might find our productive efficiency positively improving as a result.
9 Comments
I don't get it. It's not hard to just put the phone away and get to work. No need to trick yourself with fake facebooking rewards. Kids these days....
Focusmate
My partner swears by this, and judging from her experience and positivity, I have to begrudgingly agree.
Nice!
This has kept me sane for most of the past decade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique
Pomodora Technique is awesome. Every 25 minutes or so I do a chess puzzle or text my wife ;). Just like a 3-minute break or so for me at least.
I still don't understand why you need to trick yourself in order to work.
That's okay
ADHD.
I also don't understand why other people have different strengths and weaknesses than me.
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