31 seconds to work: why your brain has become even lazier and how to deal with it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Research into procrastination is becoming increasingly common. Scientists closely monitor the subjects to find out why we are constantly distracted from work. It has not been possible to find out yet. But it turned out that our brain has become even lazier and more cunning. It's good that we can fight this. And here's how to do it.

All people procrastinate. One way or another, almost all of us are distracted from planned activities to do something else.

Therefore, we know for sure: there is no more urgent cleaning of the apartment than before an important exam.

One of the biggest mysteries of the life of a modern working person is not yet ready to reveal itself to us: we still do not understand why we are easily distracted from urgent matters. But we know something more interesting.

Through scientific research, we understand the dangers of being distracted from work. For example, it takes your brain about 15 minutes to concentrate on an assignment after you interrupt your work with something like a social media check.

What does it mean? Is it that bad? After all, 15 minutes, it seems, is not a very long period.

This is actually very bad. After all, the researchers managed to find out something else, more frightening.

We don't have even 5 minutes

Early studies of procrastination determined the average number of minutes we can work without pauses. Then it turned out that we are able to keep our attention on a work task for about 5 minutes, and then we begin to get distracted.

However, a new experiment was recently carried out, the results of which are disappointing. It turned out that the average student is able to concentrate on a task for no more than 31 seconds. Then he checks social networks - reads the Facebook news feed, for example.

Here's a diagram of how this average student learns. Time spent studying is marked in blue. Red is the time spent on social media.

And it's not that we don't want to study or work - we really try to devote as much time as possible to these activities. The trouble is, we can't resist the temptation to check out social media. This is what the researchers believe is the trigger for our multitasking.