Regaining focus, in the age of AI, isn't easy.
Arkansas and Utah have recently taken steps to tighten regulations on various forms of social media, and the state of Montana has banned TikTok completely. While the motivations for these moves are multi-faceted, and the legislation is considered controversial by many, one fact remains clear: multi-billion dollar international corporations are using AI, and thousands of highly-trained engineers, to capture your attention - and distract you from your job. Whether aimed at teens or titans of industry, the game is the same: it’s called “Made You Look”. The ultimate goal is distraction, as social media companies create detailed profiles of what captures your imagination so that they can do it again for the advertisers that pay them. In the age of always-on social media, distraction is the enemy of productivity. But how can you concentrate, when AI and algorithms - designed by Silicon Valley geniuses with multi-billion dollar resources - are working together to grab your attention, split your focus, and steal you away from the tasks (and relationships) that really matter?
Addicted to our cell phones, it seems we can’t look away from the notifications that are really just interruptions in disguise. Consider these statistics offered by reviews.org, in a 2023 survey:
- 89% of Americans check their phones within 10 minutes of waking up
- 69% of us have texted someone in the same room
- 75% of Americans use their phone on the toilet
- Americans check their phones 144 times per day
But distraction isn’t just about cell phones, TikTok or Facebook, according to Johann Hari. In his book, Stolen Focus, he cites research from Michael Posner at the University of Oregon: if you are focusing on something and you get interrupted, on average it will take you 23 minutes to get back to the same state of focus. Cal Newport, in his book Deep Work, points out what we all instinctively know: “To learn hard things quickly, [like strategic leadership, innovation, scientific research, finance, book writing, and the inner workings of business] you must focus intently without distraction.” Seems you can’t learn, or lead, in 280 characters or less.
Driven to Distraction: Why Can’t We Focus?
Our culture is characterized by micro-pursuits of distracted entertainment, provided easily and quickly by apps like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. We encourage interruption, because of FOMO (fear of missing out), job insecurities, boredom, a lack of time management and an inability to set personal boundaries. But who can blame you, when the world of work exists inside the matrix of social media? “When you switch from some Task A to another Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow,” Newport warns, considering all who multitask and think that there’s no real effect. “A residue of your attention remains stuck thinking about the original task.”
What’s the impact, Newport wonders, “of our current email habits on the bottom line?” Knowledge workers, he argues, “are tending toward increasing visible busyness because they lack a better way to demonstrate their value”. Is that you? Are you looking at the algorithm because you don’t know (or don’t care) about what really matters to you?
Making Your Career a Priority, in the Age of AI
One study at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Lab took 136 students and got them to take a test. Some of them had to have their phones switched off, and others had their phones on and received intermittent text messages. The students who received messages performed, on average, 20 percent worse, as Hari notes in his book.
While social media and text alerts are not drugs, there’s no question that emails in particular have an “addictive, drug-like grip”, according to The Guardian. Researchers are discovering that distraction can be just as dangerous. Especially when it comes to your productivity - and your ability to learn complex skills.
The AIs Have It: The Machines Want Your Attention
Have you ever wondered why ChatGPT has exploded in popularity? Are we looking for even more ways to hand off our creativity, strategic thinking and cognitive skills to the algorithms that seem to define our lives? Unable to focus, we can’t function at high levels - but that focus isn’t a challenge for ChatGPT.
Which makes the power inside that AI a challenge for all of us.
Hari writes, “A small study commissioned by Hewlett-Packard looked at the IQ of some of their workers in two situations. At first they tested their IQ when they were not being distracted or interrupted. Then they tested their IQ when they were receiving emails and phone calls. The study found that “technological distraction”—just getting emails and calls—caused a drop in the workers’ IQ by an average of ten points.” Consider that sparking up a fat joint and smoking it, but only in states where this behavior is allowed, would result in an IQ loss of only four points.
Undistracted, Gen Z Focuses On the Problem
The real impact of distraction is even greater, when we consider the overall impact of an inability to concentrate - especially for Gen Z. Twelfth graders are more like eighth graders from previous generations, according to Jean Twenge, author of iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy - and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. All of us - from Gen Z to your Grandpa Zeke - are adapting to an ever-changing, ever-distracting world.
Emma Lembke, a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, sees the danger - and she shared her concerns with Congress: “Make no mistake, unregulated social media is a weapon of mass destruction that continues to jeopardize the safety, privacy and well-being of American youth. The mental health crisis for young people we are witnessing will only rise.”
How to Get More Done: Slow Down and Focus
Transparency around algorithms, and how data is collected and used, is an important part of the conversation - and perhaps a subject for another article. But please don’t split your focus: we need to concentrate on some solutions.
On a personal productivity level, consider these three options:
- Time Blocking and Attention Management: a simple technique for setting boundaries, consider scheduling time around where you will put your undivided and undistracted attention. You set up meetings with your boss and your co-workers; do you block time on your calendar for yourself? For example, checking email at only 11am and 4pm daily. Or setting a timer for 10 minutes, when you decide to check Instagram - and doing it only once per day. Do these suggestions make you flinch? Are you starting to get withdrawal symptoms? Then this action plan just might be your antidote. Wharton Professor, Adam Grant, say attention management is the key. “Attention management is the art of focusing on getting things done for the right reasons, in the right places and at the right moments.” The author of Think Again tells Inc magazine: “If I'm choosing people and projects that matter to me, then it doesn't matter how long they take.”
- Unplugging Doesn’t Work - but This Does: when does a retreat lead to victory? According to Forbes, corporate retreats are on the rise. Ideally, these retreats provide a space for new ideas, strategy and innovation - in a location where distraction can be minimized, mitigated and managed. For executive leaders, and aspiring leaders, how are you making space for the kind of thinking that will create the future? Getting out of the office, and getting someone who can guide your team to new results, is the first step. After all, if you’re not using retreats to escape distraction, you know your work will suffer. Without the space for new ideas, you are destined to stay distracted, repeating the mistakes of the past, instead of focusing on the future.
- Get a Good Night’s Sleep: Hari points out that Western Society is all a bit sleep-deprived. Why? Because “we live in a gap between what we know we should do, and what we feel we can do....Many of the things we need to do are so obvious they are banal: slow down, do one thing at a time, sleep more. But even though we know them to be true, we are in fact moving in the opposite direction.” One way to reverse course is (wait for it) to reverse course. To stop doing what doesn’t work. To make yourself a priority, so that you can perform for those you care about. If you’re still not sure, just sleep on it.
The challenges around distraction are many. But the solution seems crystal-clear. While social media companies are investing billions in algorithms and AI, you must make an investment in yourself. A commitment to set boundaries around where you put your attention. Slow down if you want to go fast. Retreat to find personal victory, inside a space where an expert facilitator can help you to see beyond the distractions and split focus that rules our world. Remember, it doesn’t have to be like this - and you don’t have to go it alone. Your focus is the key to your own personal productivity, your impact at work, and your effectiveness in your life. Don’t let distractions take away your most valuable asset.
