In a new book, The Art of Concentration, the health writer Harriet Griffey argues that we are experiencing an attention crisis. Office workers are interrupted every three minutes, so at best we have a three-minute attention span, and 62% of us are addicted to email. Meanwhile, a recent study at the University of California calculated that we are bombarded with 34 gigabytes of information a day, including roughly 100,000 words (a figure that has more than doubled in the past 30 years). What’s more, the trend-spotting agency The Future Laboratory talks of “filter failure”, “information anxiety” (fretting about awaited emails) and “stuffocation” (the state of being overwhelmed by years of consumption). No wonder we self-diagnose attention-deficit disorder.
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From the man who thought five hours’ work a week was too much — Timothy Ferriss, the author of The 4-Hour Workweek — comes the “low-information diet”, where you focus on output (work), not input (news, emails, surfing). Ferriss talks of “attention management” — which, he argues, we need like time management. “Information consumes attention,” he says. “ The only option is selective ignorance — one of the few common traits among top performers.” De Botton supports this notion: “My real work happens in bed or in the bath — away from the infernal machine.”
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If we want results, we need to “single-task”, says Ferriss, finishing one task before starting another, and resisting instant gratification.
PAY ATTENTION NOW
Practice the five-more rule Force yourself to read for five more minutes, write for five more minutes or learn five more things before getting distracted.
Exercise Mental activities such as sudoku and memory games promote agility. Try meditation, t’ai chi and yoga.
Rest Relax constructively: sports, games and hobbies are good; television is not. Twenty-minute naps refresh the brain.
Be cyber-savvy Only check your emails once an hour and turn off any alerts.
Go rustic Urban settings put you on high alert. If you can’t take a country walk, take lunch in the park.
Know yourself Find your chronotype (are you an owl or a lark?), so you can work when you’re most alert.
Prepare Envisage your desired outcome (as golfers do); keep a notepad to hand to record other thoughts and focus on the task.
Don’t try harder, try differently To beat a mental block, pique your interest — tweak your imagination, find your hook.
To read the full article click the following link;
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/mental_health/article7096165.ece
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