"I was working on something and then my phone beeped. It was a new message. I quickly checked it and then tried to go back to the task I was working on. But for some reason it took me a long time to get back to the same level of focus I was at only a minute or so before my phone beeped. "
This appears to be a reality of modern life and it is an area that many people struggle with. Research is emerging (article & research) that distractions like this can take us over 20 minutes to regain the same level of focus that we had before the distraction. This fact is quite astounding and it becomes even more so when you think about the number of times a day you get distracted (by technology or anything else) from the task we are completing.
Read the section above and discuss the following questions:
What have we gained with all the technology we have in our daily life?
What have we lost, specifically in terms of focus, with all the technology we have in our daily life?
What strategies have you or could you try to help maintain longer period of focus?
How could you decrease the number of distractions when you are completing tasks where you need to focus?