Attention span (2)
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May 22, 2006
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I think I have a frighteningly short attention span. This is mostly a bad thing. As I sat through hours and hours of meetings last week, I was constantly surprised at how certain people could pay attention and continue to be involved in presentations and conversations for hours on end. I couldn't stay focused for more than a few minutes at a time. Probably 2 or 3 to be exact. And even at the end of a long day of meetings, certain people wouldn't quit. They'd still bring up topics and ask questions and make their speeches long and drawn out. I don't know how they do it.
I have a possible explanation: What if years of TV-watching and school-attending have turned me into a time-abiding robot? What if I can only focus for 30 minutes at a time, or more accurately 23 minutes (the running length of a typical TV show, sans commercials)? What if my attention span is limited to 44 minutes because that's how long every class in high school and junior high lasted for? It makes some amount of sense. In high school, you knew when class was over. You didn't have to look at the clock. You could feel it. Maybe that sixth sense has continued into my post-school life, forcing me to switch gears every 40 minutes or so. I wonder if there's a way I can undo this... #psychology
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Comments:
2006-05-23 10:50:12
This has been a growing problem for me as well.
I'm pretty sure its the multitasking that is ruining me. Normally I'm doing about 5 things at one time during work. Email, "working", RSS feeds, fantasy baseball, general surfing etc. Even when I am away from the computer, I have the BlackBerry and Cell Phone to divert me from driving, walking, etc. One of the unintended benefits of this running thing I started is that it during that time, I'm only doing one thing and it's pretty refreshing.
Blame the Internet!
Pretty good article on the subject.
2006-05-23 16:37:35
That Time article is actually really cool. It says that the brain doesn't really multitask; it toggles between different tasks. That same idea came to me about a year ago, but I ain't no scientist, so I had no way to prove it.
Also the thing about stimulation and performance is something I've written about before:Other research shows the relationship between stimulation and performance forms a bell curve: a little stimulation--whether it's coffee or a blaring soundtrack--can boost performance, but too much is stressful and causes a fall-off.
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