Yesterday I Googled the term information overload. There were more than two million listings. So now we’re safely in an era of information overload about information overload. No wonder America, among other nations, has serious attention deficit problems.
All that information, and the multitude of ways it comes at us, adds to the clutter in our offices and homes and brains. It makes it more difficult to concentrate on the task at hand when you’re worried about all the other things that need your attention.
You try to focus on the budget figures you have to digest for the afternoon meeting, but what with your email dinging and your cell phone vibrating, and all that downloaded research you have to sort through, you mind keeps interrupting you…. Did you ever return your mother’s phone call?...... hey, you’ve got to call George and go over these figures before the meeting…
You tell yourself to concentrate on the Excel spreadsheet on the screen in front of you…..oh, spreadsheet on the screen in front of you… oh, wait, did you RSVP for that party on Saturday?......... there’s something you’re forgetting…. Your feet hurt… maybe you shouldn’t have walked from the train in spiked heels, and…. Running shoes, did you forget your gym clothes, and was that what you forgot to remember?...... You concentrate on concentrating on this budget, you go over the figures for the advertising department…. And…. Not another IM, haven’t you told your son not to instant-message you at work…. You really, really try to focus, but you can’t because your brain’s spam filter has gone on strike.
Sound familiar?
WHEN YOUR FOCUS FAILS
You, my friend, are suffering from directed attention fatigue (DAF). (Yup, they’ve even got a name for it). That catchy term was coined by a husband and wife team of environmental psychologists from the University of Michigan, Stephen and Rachel Kaplan.
“When people talk about mental fatigue, what is actually fatigued is not their and as a whole, but their capacity to direct attention”, says Stephen Kaplan, Ph.D. “Sustained directed attention is difficult and fatiguing”. That constant demand for concentration in the face of distractions – internal and external – fatigues our inhibitory attention system (translated: the part of the brain that directs our attention so we’re able to concentrate and ignore distractions).
Besides an inability to focus, other symptoms of DAF include forgetfulness, impatience, and general crankiness.
FOCUS ON THE FLORA AND FAUNA
But there is something you can do about it – reboot your brain. When you can no longer concentrate, when your stream of consciousness floods your mind with distractions, there’s an easy fix: Shift your attention to the outdoors.
See, most of what we experience as mental fatigue isn’t realty our brain saying, “I need to veg out in front of the TV”. Rather, it’s our brain saying, “I need to stop concentrating on this task that’s been taking up all my mental energy and focus. I need relief!” It’s the mental energy and focus. I need relief!” It’s the mental energy equivalent of being full after dinner, but perking up when the waiter brings the Death by Chocolate brownie. Something new? Bring it on! All of a sudden our energy comes back. (How else do you think Oprah has the energy for a TV show, a radio network, a magazine, and Harpo Productions?)
For us mortals, the solution is easy. If you’re I a from with a view, pay attention to nature and focus on the greenery outside. Work in a windowless cubicle? Then hang a picture that depicts a beautiful setting. Studies by the Kaplans as well as other researchers in this burgeoning field as well as other researchers in this burgeoning field of environmental psychology have shown that merely having a view – or even a picture of nature – can get that inhibitory attention system of ours back on track in a New York minute. In fact, a number of studies have found a correlation between a view of nature and relief from stress, boredom, and anxiety, as well as increased productivity at work and even a speedier recovery for hospital patients.
In other words, nature nurtures us in a multitude of ways.
THE ENERGY OF GOING GREEN
In this book Biophilia, sociobilogist Edward O. Wilson proposed that we are genetically hardwired to seek out natural settings. If that’s so, and it seems to be, it would account for the restorative effect of living, green environments (think: a walk in the woods).
“For human survival and mental health and fulfillment”, Wilson says, “we need the natural setting in which the human mind almost certainly evolved and in which culture has developed over these millions of years of evolution”.
For more than thirty years, sociologists, biologists, psychologists, and architects have studied the effect nature has on us and looked for ways to bring nature – or facsimiles of nature – into public spaces, hospitals, and offices. But as great as nature is, there are other ways to take advantage of the energy-boosting properties of attention shift.
EAT THAT ATTENTIONAL DESSERT
While exploring these other ways, remember that your goal is to take advantage of the energy-restoring power of an attention shift. If you’ve spent hours poring over stock reports, go read a book of Peanuts cartoons. If you’ve run errands frantically all afternoon, take a hot bath. If you’ve talked all day, try a half hour of uninterrupted silence. If you’ve been writing at the computer, borrow you kid’s coloring book and go to town (see page 248 on using crayons).
The point is, you can recharge your energy batteries by simply “closing down shop” on whatever task you’ve been totally focused on, and engaging a new set of skills, changing your focus, moving into a new environment, or taking on a different project. A long, focused about of attention on one task or project is like doing biceps curls with the left arm only. That arm is going to fatigue after a while, but when you pick up the weight with your right arm, you find it feels pretty light. That’s because there’s plenty of energy available in the right hand; it’s been resting while you’ve been lifting with its opposite.
In much the same way, there’s plenty of mental energy available – the trick is to know how to spread it around.
Bonus benefit: Once your mental energy is restored, you can always get back to your spreadsheets and really focus on those budget numbers. (Or not). If you choose to go to the original task, you’ll be able to do it with even more energy than before.
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