Support your brain to focus to increase your productivity & lower your stress

“There are few things ever dreamed of, smoked or injected that have as addictive an effect on our brains as technology” (McGonigal, 2012) and “perhaps not since Early Man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically” (Small and Vorgan, 2008). Neuroscience which itself relies on advances in technology to conduct research, suggests that the advantages of communication technology come at a price.

Our brains are wired to search for anticipation (wanting) a reward (Carr, 2010). Research on rats found that “dopamine-depleted rats still ‘like’ rewards, and still know the rewards they ‘like’. They simply fail to ‘want’ rewards they ‘like’” (Berridge and Robinson, 1998). This “salivation response” was found in humans too “what they were feeling when the reward system lit up was anticipation, not pleasure” (Knutson, 2001 cited in McGonigal, 2012). Reward anticipation is habitually prompted by using email, social networking and mobile communication devices: “it’s as if our mobile phones, BlackBerrys and laptops have a direct line to our brains, giving us constant jolts of dopamine” (McGonigal, 2012). Inzlicht (2012) proposes that “although the DSM-IV, the diagnostic bible of the American Psychiatric Association, doesn’t recognise email addiction as a real affliction, it’s just a matter of time.”

Research also highlights that in addition to being reluctant to be offline, face-to-face communication may also be affected as “a Stanford University study found that for every hour we spend on our computers, traditional face-to-face interaction time with other people drops by nearly 30 minutes” (Small and Vorgan, 2008). Powers’ (2010) exploration goes further:

“Problems were turning up in three different but overlapping places: (1) in the interior lives of individuals, where experts were describing psychological and emotional disturbances…(2) in family and personal relationships, where screen time has been replacing face time; and (3) in businesses and other organisations, where distracted workers are hurting the bottom line.”

These problems manifest themselves as feelings of stress through information overload and lack of control (Richtel, 2010). Plus, switching tasks may disturb effectiveness too: “Whereas the infrequent multi-taskers exhibited relatively strong ‘top-down attentional control,’ the habitual multi-taskers showed ‘a greater tendency for bottom-up attentional control’ suggesting that ‘they may be sacrificing performance on the primary task to let in other sources of information” (Ophir et al., 2009 cited in Carr, 2010). Multi-tasking online promotes “training our brains to pay attention to the crap” (Merzenich, 2009 cited in Carr, 2010).

Divided attention enhances cognitive overload (exacerbated by the many minute yet resource-intensive decisions involved during internet navigation), with research indicating change in brain and behaviour, not always for the better (Carr, 2010). Distractions, interruptions and multi-tasking to attention are expensive:

• “With a loss of 2.1 hours per knowledge worker per day to unimportant interruptions and distractions and recovery time from interruptions (important or otherwise).” (Goldes and Spira, 2005).

• “Constant emailing and text-messaging reduces mental capability by an average of ten points on an IQ test” (Rock, 2009).

• “A higher workload, more stress, higher frustration, more time pressure, and effort” (Mark, Gudith and Klocke, 2008).

• “Email could be costing companies more than £10,000 per employee per year” (Jackson and Lichtenstein, 2011 cited in Loughborough University, 2011).

Therefore, “always on” may not be the most productive way to work, as the brain is being forced to be on ‘alert’ far too much” (Rock, 2009). When the brain regularly experiences this over-arousal, cortisol and adrenaline levels in the blood raise, increasing the allostatic load (Rock, 2009). McEwen (1998) states this “repeated stress affects brain function, especially in the hippocampus, which has high concentrations of cortisol receptors” and “stress lasting many months or years can kill hippocampal neurons” affecting memory and accelerate aging of the brain.   Recent research has shown behavioural stress induces “neocortical reorganisation” in the medial pre-frontal cortex (Radley et al., 2004) corroborated by Arnsten’s (2009) finding that exposure to stress causes “a rapid and dramatic loss of PFC cognitive abilities” summarised as “your director seems to go missing” (Rock, 2009).

Arnsten (2009) concludes that “the detrimental effects of stress on PFC networks are particularly problematic in the ‘information age’, when PFC-mediated cognitive abilities are increasingly needed for success”. Having autonomy and therefore being in control of potential stressors appears to be critical for keeping the PFC online and allostatic load down (Rock, 2009). Contrary to this, if always open, new emails arrive according to the senders’ control, which can reduce perceived autonomy relative to workload. Plus, single task attention is preferable to the mentally exhausting continuous partial attention whereby workers “keep a top level item in focus and constantly scan the periphery in case something more important emerges” (Stone, 1998 cited in Rock, 2009) which appears to be happening when the Inbox is constantly being reviewed.

Nevertheless, neuroscience is discovering potential solutions as “human attention is a trainable capacity” with meditation showing promise for improving focus thereby reducing “task-switches” (Levy et al., 2012), and actually increasing “neural connections between regions of the brain important for staying focused, ignoring distractions and controlling impulses” (McGonigal, 2012). McGonigal (2012) argues willpower improvement encourages an even greater benefit: positively impacting heart-rate variability (HRV) and “studies also show that people with higher heart rate variability are better at ignoring distractions, delaying gratification and dealing with stressful situations.” Maintaining a single-task focus could improve general wellbeing as “depressed HRV is a predictor of mortality and arrhythmic complications that is independent of other recognised risk factors” (Malik, 1996).

What happens if the distracting yet compelling stimulus i.e. email, is actually removed? Results from thirteen subjects found “without email, our informants focused largely on their tasks, multitasked less… reported feeling less overloaded with restricted email use… and stress, as measured by heart rate variability, was lower without email” (Mark, Voida and Cardello, 2012). Other empirical studies report increased wellbeing (Wakefield, 2007; Powers, 2010; Richtel, 2010).

So instead of setting New Year resolutions, implement these habits to improve your focus, increase your productivity and lower your stress:

Focus on one task at a time: single task focus and enjoy the satisfaction from an increase the ticks off your to-do-list.

Complete the task so there are no distracting open-loops left in the brain: your brain has a limited capacity of attention and unfinished conversations, decisions not made etc will take up valuable space in its working memory and therefore deplete your energy – and attention for the next activity.

Optimise your attention: concentrate on complex cognitive tasks during the morning when your brain’s attention is generally at its highest (following a good night’s sleep) and enable working during daylight to help you (a particular issue during winter).

Avoid interruptions or distractions: this includes actually switching off digital devices. Designed like drugs for your brain, the anticipation of contact from someone else is perceived as rewarding for the brain (hence the frequent checking and addictive behaviour) and the distraction diminishes focus, energy and affects heart rate variability.

Break for your brain: you know when it is time for a break as your mind will naturally start to wander. You may feel more distracted or start looking out of the window. Notice these cues for you to take a break from the particular task. Maybe it is time for a coffee or a walk? The human brain cannot sustain attention on a task for that long (focusing for around twenty to ninety minute bursts) so rather than berating yourself, break for your brain and watch your productivity soar. This includes enjoying a proper lunch break, away from your desk and a restorative sleep every night!

As a result, you will have the brain-based skills to be more effective at managing your time (self!), demonstrate enhanced performance and move forward on your projects faster.

© Rachel Bamber, Brighter Thinking Limited, 2016

Rachel Bamber is an expert in using powerful, brain-friendly strategies to deliver peak performance. She has helped people all over the world to work with their brain to get what they want – faster and with less stress. Among the pioneering adventurers who have worked with her include people in the public eye, corporate leaders and super-ambitious small business owners. A nominee for the GLE Rising Star Award in business and one of the first six people in the world to be awarded the Post-Graduate Certificate in the Neuroscience of Leadership, Rachel’s first book, Your Brain is the Secret will be published in 2016. www.brighterthinking.com

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