Kanisa George
SINCE THE onslaught of the covid19 pandemic a few years ago, there have been concerns among psychologists and social media users alike about the rising inability to stay focused. Anxiety, often touted as the main reason behind this new-age phenomenon, has captured far more victims when compared to pre-covid days, with a record increase of not just anxiety but depression, seen particularly among millennials.
The ripple effect is that more and more of us are struggling with maintaining focus. Oddly, this lack of focus does not't only appear in areas of our lives where productivity is required, like at the workplace, but people also struggle to stay focused even in social settings. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, it is impossible to focus on tasks, and this might be mainly due to distractions, the research of one study unearthed.
Several psychological disorders might be at play when it comes to attention deficit. Depression, general anxiety disorder and attention deficit disorder can severely affect our ability to stay focused and efficiently move from task to task. Other factors like lack of sleep and poor diet can hurt our ability to maintain focus in the same way mental defects can and are equally detrimental.
For those of us who are not't affected by these afflictions, while our inability to stay focused can have detrimental effects on our lives, we might be the cause of our folly. To tackle our struggle with focus, we must first understand why we struggle to stay focused in the first place.
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argues that intense focus is possible only when a person has clear goals and the necessary capacity to complete the tasks. He believes that focus requires the ability to do the tasks at hand and deal with distractions that may take you off track. To him, the trouble at the heart of our lack of focus is our inability to ignore distractions.
Csikszentmihalyi's views directly coincide with years of research from evolutionary biologists who argue humans have evolved to avoid energy-consuming tasks by taking the path of least resistance. So instead of putting pen to paper on the report due at work or giving a friend our full attention during an intense social meet-up, we become checked out and engage in activities that are not only easier but bring instant, albeit temporary, gratification.
Nir Eyal, the author of How to Build Habit-Forming Products, wrote that doing what we know we should do is often complex, so instead we fall into a routine of avoiding discomfort by taking too many breaks. After a while we inadvertently learn that breaking our focus is more straightforward than doing what we know we should.
People who have experienced an excessive amount of brain fog over the last three years might not be surprised to discover that their primary source of distraction is technology. During lockdown, technology was our teacher, best friend, confidant and companion. In lieu of limited social interaction and productivity, technology filled a crater-s
