Career & Money

Make technology work with—not against—you in your quest to improve your focus A ping, a buzz, a phone call, a banner notification, a badge alert. These and many other attention-grabbing elements abound! This point in time may just be the most distracted we as a society have ever been. According to new research by the American Psychological Association: “Our digital lives [are not only making us more] distracted, [but] distant and drained [as well].” And this state of being hyper connected in the age of the internet is taking a toll on our overall wellbeing. Over in the workplace, this has a direct impact on our levels of productivity and how well we perform our tasks; small breaks dedicated to checking social media or surfing the internet can add up to a colossal amount of time lost if we look at the big picture. Apart from wasting hours that could be devoted to something worthwhile and meaningful, it is proven that distraction also kills morale. In  Udemy’s 2018 Workplace Distraction Report , surveys showed that “the constant barrage of interruptions actually makes 34% of our survey respondents like their jobs less.” This study arrives at the conclusion that companies must take it upon themselves to keep workplace distractions at bay as these can “damage employee morale and retention because it’s hard to win people back once they’ve reached their limits.” But the other issue here is people’s willingness to be distracted. And with our mobile devices in arm’s reach almost all hours of the day, the enticing temptation of smartphone-related distraction has just become harder to curb.