At Home With Distractions

by Ronel Forbes

October 28, 2021

A pot has overflowed. An iron that has been left on. Children are not being watched. Doors that have been left unlocked.

You’re probably aware that distracted driving leads to more road accidents, but did you know that the same effect may be felt at home? It’s referred to as “distracted living.”

Distracted living not only affects our capacity to focus and be productive, but it also puts us in danger. Have you ever been in the middle of preparing supper when you got a call or text that evolved into a conversation, causing you to lose track of the BBQ or stove for an extended period of time?

If that’s the case, you’re not alone.

We were perplexed as to why this is happening more frequently now than ever before. Whether it’s the kids, dogs, television, the seductive appeal of a soft couch, or a talkative neighbor, we’ve always had to cope with distractions.

In a nutshell, technology.

Alarm clocks in the morning and a phone ringing throughout the day were the two most typical sounds interrupting us fifteen years ago. The number and types of interruptions have increased dramatically as a result of our cellphones, tablets, social networking, and video conferencing.

Our attention is divided as a result of distracted living, which has serious psychological consequences that you may read about here, but the focus of this essay is on the immediate physical dangers of distracted living.

We live in a culture of interruptions, which can be detrimental to productivity. Electronic gadget notifications, for the most part, merely add to the distraction. Many people are so used to being stopped at work that when they aren’t, they go out of their way to find one!

Small-business entrepreneurs’ and children’s performance might be harmed by distraction and constant multitasking. These suggestions may assist you in increasing your focus and improving the daily situation at-home safety.

Be aware of your surroundings

The first and most important thing we can do is to acknowledge how many distractions we have in our lives. Consider your own and jot them down. Simply being aware of what is diverting our attention away from our tasks will aid us in controlling or even eliminating some of them. We think we’ve become used to them and can handle them, but we don’t get the complete picture until we take a step back and look at things objectively.

Disable notifications

The most practical remedy to the most distracting of all, our devices, is to handle notifications from our phones in advance. There are numerous possibilities available here.

You can either turn them off altogether so that you only check your phone when you want to or tweak your settings so that you only get alerts for the most critical topics. Not all alerts should be the same. We should not pay as much attention to a notification about a new like or an email as we would to a text from our spouse.

Our screen time is organized in a certain way

Not getting the results you want from your notification settings? Setting aside defined periods to catch up on news, texts, and social media is a terrific strategy to boost our cognitive health. Being reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week is not healthy nor sustainable, and it should not be expected.

Meditate on a regular basis

This may help your mind focus on one thing by allowing it to let go of distracting notions. To begin, sit quietly in a quiet spot for three to five minutes each day. Count to 34 while closing your eyes.

Sleep

Adults require seven to nine hours of sleep per night to be healthy. Many small-business entrepreneurs forego sleep in order to work longer hours and complete more tasks. Worse, this “sleep debt” can accumulate over a long period of time.

Sleep deprivation might actually make it harder to stay focused and complete activities to the best of your ability. Getting enough sleep might help you focus and enhance your overall health.

Make a plan for the next day the night before

Consider making a list of two tasks that must be performed in order for the day to be productive. The reason there are two things is that the first task may take less time than planned or may require a prerequisite, making it impossible to finish. The second task serves as a safety net. Do these things first, before checking emails, returning phone calls, or scrolling through social media feeds, as these activities can easily derail a day’s progress.

Unplug and start playing

Non-work and screen hobbies can assist you to free up your mind so you can focus on a new task later. Consider exercising out, going on a run or a bike ride, playing sports, completing puzzles, or playing chess for at least 30 minutes each day. Always keep in mind that a healthy body equals a healthy mind. When the body is unwell or the mind is depressed, it might be difficult to concentrate.

Consequences of Distracted living

Finishing tasks take longer to complete due to time spent on distracting activities and the need for the student to re-familiarize himself/herself with the content when returning to the assignment.
Switching back and forth between tasks causes mental tiredness. When switching between tasks that need different sets of demands, such as the formal, exact language required for an English essay and the relaxed, friendly tone of a text message to a friend, the cognitive cost is extremely significant.
If the attention is diverted during the encoding process, his or her eventual recall (long-term retention) of what he or she worked on will be harmed. It’s possible that the impairment will spread to surrounding peers.
When you are distracted when learning, your brain processes and stores information in less productive ways, resulting in the knowledge that is less capable of being extended and extrapolated to other situations (decreased transfer).
Non-work-related media Multitasking when learning has been shown to have a negative impact on daily performance.

There are already enough hazards to our homes and health safety. We shouldn’t add to the list by being unable to look away from our phones.

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