Limitless - Jim Kwik Page 0,10
completely reversed when a new study comes out.
I don’t need to tell you how completely inundated each of us is with digital details. Even when we try to go “off the grid,” digital information somehow finds us. While I’m writing this, I’ve shut down all my devices. But I need to have access to the Internet for research purposes, and a handful of random notifications and updates still popped up on my computer (yes, I know I can turn these off as well, but you get my point).
In Chapter 12 (Study) and Chapter 14 (Speed Reading), you will discover practical ways to catch up, keep up, and get ahead of the digital deluge of information you must process each day.
KWIK START
Take a moment and schedule 30 minutes of white space in your calendar for this week. This is time to be spent away from technology, time dedicated to clear your mind, relax, and be creative.
DIGITAL DISTRACTION
Before mobile devices, we would say “brb” (be right back) all the time when we were online. We don’t say it anymore. We no longer leave. We live here now. Because of our always-on, ever-connected devices, we’re struggling to find connection when we’re with friends and family, and we’re struggling to stay focused at work. Most of us deal with some kind of work-life situation where we don’t feel comfortable forgoing digital connection for large swaths of time every day. So we stay on the grid out of the fear that if we were unreachable, we would lose out.
The trouble is, we’re wired to enjoy it. Each successive hit of dopamine we get from the likes we receive on social media, or from the texts we get from loved ones or friends, only reinforces our behavior. But those rewards are changing our brains. Instead of relaxing into the downtime that we might experience when waiting in line, waiting for a bus or an appointment, etc., we pull out our phones and train our distraction muscles. What happens when this is our constant way of being, when every loose moment is filled with shining stimulus?
Staying connected may make us feel more secure, but it doesn’t make us happier. Ryan Dwyer, MA, of the University of British Columbia, led a study that showed how our digital habits are affecting our relationships. In one experiment, more than 300 adults and university students were asked to keep their phones on the table, easily accessible, while others were asked to put them on silent and keep them in a container on the table during a meal. Afterward, participants were asked to respond to a questionnaire that asked them about their feelings of connectedness, enjoyment, distraction, and boredom.
The survey also asked them to detail the amount of time they spent on their phone during the meal. Those whose phones were accessible used them more often . . . and they described themselves as feeling more distracted. They also enjoyed the dinner less than the diners who didn’t have access to their phones. “Modern technology may be wonderful, but it can easily sidetrack us and take away from the special moments we have with friends and family in person,” Dwyer says of the study.5
Just as few of us have learned how to learn, not many know how to process and filter the massive amount of information we are constantly seeing. We just multitask to get all of it in, and this doesn’t serve us well. “Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task,” notes neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin in his book, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. “And the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time. We’ve literally depleted the nutrients in our brain. This leads to compromises in both cognitive and physical performance.”6
From app notifications to message alerts, it’s not just adults who deal with this. With the availability of technology and social pressure to be online and active on social media, children and teenagers experience the constant distraction, too.
In Chapter 11 (Focus), you will discover the keys to sustained concentration and focus development to learn and get things done.
KWIK START
Go to the notification settings of your phone and turn off all unnecessary and distracting pings and dings. Do this now.
DIGITAL