Staying focused while working from home can be even more challenging if you’re struggling with a chronic illness.
The average time a person spends on a screen before switching to another is 47 seconds, according to Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity. That’s down from 2.5 minutes, measured in her 2003 study.
So, why did our attention spans drop considerably over those twenty years? In her book, Mark discusses a number of reasons why we’re finding it more difficult than ever to stay focused. Multitasking is a big one. How often do you allow yourself to do just one thing at a time? Changing social dynamics is another. Do you feel obligated to answer all texts and emails ASAP, regardless of urgency or importance?
But the monster attention sucker is technology—primarily, social media. Algorithms are designed to get you to look at one targeted ad after another, phones are set to constantly ping you every time someone you follow on social media posts new content, and your computer joins the fun by ensuring you’re notified every time you receive an email.
Sure, you can change the notification settings on all of your devices, but then you have another focus buster to contend with: self-interrupting behavior. That means that even when you’re not being nagged by other people or technology, you’ll interrupt yourself by stopping what you’re doing to check your phone, email, and news feeds.
Considering all this, it’s no wonder we can barely make it through a blog post before switching to the next piece of information to consume.
But you don’t have to resign yourself to a continually shrinking attention span.
When striving for work-life balance with chronic illness, it helps to sort the necessary from the unnecessary. The more you can cut out unnecessary tasks or distractions, the less time you waste fighting the diversions that threaten to throw you off course. Then, you can focus on what’s important during your work time and get done what needs to be done in less time. And that means freeing up more time for non-work things.
If you work remotely, you’ve probably already been able to easily eliminate some of the most common time wasters at work, like your commute, chatty coworkers, and maybe even waiting for the restroom to be available. But there are still plenty of other things trying to steal your attention away from your work.
Maybe those chatty coworkers now email or message you constantly. Or they could have morphed into family members who don’t understand that when you’re in the middle of a work meeting, they can’t chime in on the conversation. (Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. . . .)
Now that I freelance, I don’t have any coworker disruptions. But I did shift my schedule to start a bit later in the morning since my husband doesn’t usually leave the house for work until around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. I find it easiest to work when it’s just me and the kitties at home.
I understand that it can be tough for some of you out there if you have a partner or roommate who also works from home. In that case, I think I’d have to resort to wearing noise-canceling headphones to tune out extraneous sounds. And also have an agreement with the other person that when the headphones are on, you’re unavailable.
But what about if it’s just you and your computer, and you’re still getting distracted? Even with external human interruptions gone, the digital world finds new ways to pull you in. I’ve fallen victim to many MSN News stories that take over my screen anytime I move the mouse over the bottom left corner of my screen. It’s maddening, and I know they know what they’re doing. Those headlines seem to know exactly what to say to get you to click on them.
And once you click, down the rabbit hole you go, only to return 10, 20, 30 minutes, or an hour later to see that you’ve gotten absolutely no work done and your life is no more enlightened than it was before, perhaps even less so.
Sadly, I’ve rarely been distracted by a news story that actually gave me something to smile about or feel hopeful for. It’s all just aggravating, divisive news that generates a stream of negative, combative comments from people all over. Not a party I want to attend.
Whether it’s the siren song of rage bait or the allure of vacation photos in your feed, you’re losing a precious commodity every time you allow yourself to switch to social media while you’re working: your ability to focus.
In my next post, I’ll provide some solutions if you have a chronic illness and struggle with focus while working from home. Until then, what are your biggest attention suckers when you’re trying to work remotely?
