
Self-Interruption and Distraction - rbanffy
http://nautil.us/issue/48/chaos/are-you-a-self_interrupter
======
krrishd
I recently stopped using all of my social media, inspired by Cal Newport's
Deep Work, and this resonates deeply with me.

At risk of sounding like an out-of-touch baby boomer (I'm 18), I think the
portrayed utility of staying connected with people, etc etc, isn't the utility
that drives our social media usage anymore. For me at least, the only tangible
thing it accomplished in the long run was disrupting my boredom. I found that
most of the content I was consuming was the equivalent of reading a magazine
in the bathroom; I probably don't give a shit about the contents, but some
content (regardless of quality) is preferable to idle boredom.

I've found, after a few weeks of not using it at all, that the times during
which I'm bored are more easily spent on things that I'd otherwise ~feel~ too
busy for, even if I had the time to do them all along. It's not even that I
fill my boredom with productivity; I, kinda abstractly, feel less busy now
that I allow myself to idle. It's weirdly made life a lot less stressful even
though browsing social media is technically zero-effort.

It's also inspired me to tune out all of the content that relied on a push
model to reach me (unsubscribing from certain newsletters, barely any
notifications enabled, etc). It gives me a feeling of control to be able to
choose when to consume certain content instead of being made to by virtue of
notification.

~~~
Robotbeat
> I recently stopped using all of my social media...

Same here. And yet here we find ourselves on HN... :)

(In our defense, the signal to noise ratio is much better here.)

~~~
rm_-rf_slash
But in a way that's worse, because the engaging content and discussion on HN
makes it that much harder to put the phone down and get back to work.

At least with Facebook I know there's almost nothing of value and with the
news it's almost always bad, so I'm otherwise not missing much.

~~~
krrishd
That's fair, although I consider HN a value-add when I use it (once in the
morning). You're right though; if it ends up being a habit to check randomly,
it causes a lot of the same problems social media does.

~~~
sjellis
It's worth noting that Hacker News has an anti-procrastination feature: set
the "noprocrast" option in your profile to "yes", and then it will time-limit
your visits to "maxvisit" in minutes, and block you for the "minaway" period.

I don't know of any other site that does this. It's a very cool thing for Y
Combinator to have done.

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gdubs
I read a lot of dead tree books – it's easier on my eyes and after looking at
screens all day I want a break. I also tend to find devices distracting, even
if notifications are off and I'm reading something – the device itself is a
habit trigger for distraction.

But I've noticed that sometimes it will take me longer to get through my stack
of books from the library. I'm interested in them, but it made me wonder about
my reading speed. There's compelling research that speed reading doesn't
really work in the same way as reading at a pace that's comfortable for you –
and anyway, I'm a somewhat fast reader.

So I started to wonder about the root cause of my slow reading, and having
listened to an interview with Cal Newport recently – and having read a lot
generally about distraction – I had a realization: it wasn't my reading speed
that was slowing me down. It was self interruption.

Last night I tried some of the basic techniques used in mindfulness meditation
– being aware when my mind was wandering, acknowledging the random thought,
and gently bringing my attention back to what I was reading. It felt like a
form of exercise. Meditation after all is considered a 'practice'.

It made me realize that there are ways to start clawing back the capacity for
deeper concentration that has been scrambled by the constant notifications and
dopamine rewards of social media, and for me, reading is one of them.

Oh, and I burned through three chapters in relatively short time.

~~~
loco5niner
I have had the same feeling. I have noticed that my reading has slowed, and I
really struggle to get through "long form" reading these days. I really do
think the biggest influences in this are the tldr; aspect of the internet and
self-interruption. Thanks for the mindfulness meditation mention, I'll try it
out.

* also, what other things have you been reading about distraction besides Cal Newport?

~~~
gdubs
A few off the top of my head:

A book I often recommend is "The Organized Mind", by Dan Levitin. He focuses
heavily on the prefrontal cortex – executive function, etc. But the takeaway
for me was his analysis of how much it 'costs' the brain to context switch.

"Flow" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is considered a classic on the subject.

An interview that's been on my mind recently is this one from 2013 on
multitasking with Stanford Psychology professor Clifford Nass:
[http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861382/the-myth-of-
multitas...](http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861382/the-myth-of-multitasking)

------
anotheryou
I have a curious thing: When I can't concentrate distractions sometimes help
me.

For example I watch twitch (I find it kinda booring, which is good) when I
can't concentrate on work. It helps me getting started, stick to the more
booring repetetive work and when a chellange arises, I just loose track of the
twitch stream completely and focus on work.

Now here my theory: I can't focus if something is too boring (e.g. waiting for
compile times or doing something repetetive). I need to stimulate my brain
enough not to drift off, but light enough so I can still focus on demand.

This theory goes will together with my habit to listen to podcasts at 2x
speed. Lower and my mind wanders off and I miss whole passages and have to
skip back.

It even kinda forms a hierarchy:

\- reading difficult texts: absolute silence

\- writing: music only

\- programing: twitch

Interruptions from outside though are always horrible. My phone is usually
completely silent (not even vibrations) and I hate people for calling when
they could have used async communication.

~~~
Graziano_M
I do similar. To not get distracted from coding when it's compiling I often go
to keybr.com and do typing practice to prevent myself from doing something
else more engaging and forgetting that I have a compilation to check in on.

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rconti
This article is 100% me, but with an important caveat: I've always been this
way.

I've simply never been able to focus very well on tasks for an extended amount
of time. Occasionally I'm able to really dig in and work on a project for
hours on end, but that's a once-every-few-months kind of thing. Working on
technology infrastructure means that it's an endless pile of interruptions and
emergencies and fires and urgent requests and so on. I don't think it's a
_good_ way of working; on the other hand it probably suits my brain pretty
well. It makes it hard to implement truly complicated solutions, but often I
find that's not what the requests are about anyway.

I wish I was able to focus better; on the other hand, my job won't let me do
that anyway.

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emodendroket
I don't disagree with the overall thrust of the piece, but the information
about the F-shaped reading and four-second page switch doesn't imply, I don't
think, what the author thinks it does. Typically people are sifting through
tons of search results to find what they are looking for and exhaustively
poring over each source before moving on wouldn't make a lot of sense. Not
really the same as being distracted.

~~~
aesthetics1
I think what the author (and most of the piece in general) is implying is that
because this is the way these interactions with technology occur, it is
forcing us to be less focused overall.

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zitterbewegung
I agree I seem to have a smaller attention span for certain things. But, there
are other contributing factors. If I want to tune out of everything I usually
do this in the car while I am driving and put some music on. The reason while
I work I have a shorter attention span is usually when I am stuck on a task.
By distracting myself I can get back to the task relatively quickly. Also,
working in my department and helping others is a contributor. On the other
hand if I have a firm grasp of what to do and I am sufficiently motivated I
can get in the Zone and focus. I agree with the article that our attention
spans are shorter due to the over stimulation that society has created through
new technology. On the other hand the tasks that we do have also increased in
complexity so I think its a yin and yang thing. Due to the fact we have been
steadily increasing worker productivity we have created ways to overstimulate
ourselves to keep up with that productivity.

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superpope99
If you are interested in this, consider reading 'The Shallows' by Nicholas
Carr. Ironically, I have become a worse reader due to distraction, so the book
took me about a year to finish - but I definitely recommend it! You will come
away from it vowing to quit Facebook/HN/The Internet.

~~~
amelius
> You will come away from it vowing to quit Facebook/HN/The Internet.

Then why are you here? :)

~~~
superpope99
Oh, well the feeling fades... but for a short while it's quite compelling!

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wideem
Damn I couldn't even read the article without: 1\. Googling something that
came to my mind 2\. Going to reply to my friend on facebook (later completely
forgot why I went to facebook and kept scrolling) 3\. Checking Hacker News
comments 4\. Writing a comment

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pif
Shouldn't the title be "Why Our Attention-s- Spans Are Sho _r_ t?"

Short attention span on the author's side? ;-)

~~~
acqq
It seems the submitter changed the title, against HN policies.

