4 Tips for frazzled learners
Anyone else having a hard time paying attention these days? (You can be sure that my hand just darted up into the air with a BIG “yes” to that!)
From songbirds and flowers in bloom to end-of-year events to intense work crunches to summer planning, there’s a lot vying for our awareness and concentration. Each one of us. And that’s not to mention all the tech- and screen-related pulls at our focus in every moment, every day. (And, that’s saying nothing of all the ads, giantly billboarded or sneakily popping up, that also pull pull pull at our attention.)
Between the 73 tabs we might have open to the hypervigilant “what am I forgetting?” feeling, it can feel so hard to stick to the task–any task–these days.
(As an aside, anyone else riveted by these court cases on behalf of school boards seeking damages for the way social media sites have gripped learners?! There are two new school boards signing on, and I think that speaks volumes about what it’s been like to be a student… and an educator, principal, and parent, with so much forceful, intoxicating digi-distraction.)
So what can we do when our minds are here, there, and everywhere… and, all the while, we need to get something done?
While I’ve got your attention 🙂, let’s get right into it!
#1: Put tasks in their place
Some of what can pull us out of a groove is remembering–while working on a task W–that we also have project X, errand Y, and report Z to do. We worry that we’ll forget, so we do that quick search, sign up, or summary, but then we’re out of the first task and onto–and into–the next. Seemingly out of nowhere, we’re now juggling task W and tasks X, Y, Z, and likely a host of other big and small to-dos and pressures. One way to temper this: when those “Oh yeah! I still have to do X” thoughts pop up, instead of opening another tab as a theoretical placeholder, pop a block right into your calendar. Give that “I’m-worried-I’ll-forget” task its own clear, labeled time. That way, you don’t have to actually start it now, you don’t have to rely on an open-tab signal, and you don’t have to worry about it at all. You have a clear time in which to tackle it..
#2: Watch the cost
When we do that back-and-forth, the this-task-then-that-task bopping around from one thing to another, we actually deplete our capacity. It costs us to task-switch. Every time we leave our current to-do, tab, train of thought, or project flow to quickly switch in and out of another activity, attend to a ping, do a swift scroll… we can lose up to 40% of our productive time. That’s mind-blowing! How many of us feel short on time, like there’s never enough time, and sense that we’re actually running out of time?! That’s quite a provocation: that we’re losing almost half of our potentially useful time to switching between tasks. So if you can linger, even just a little longer, on that original task before switching out of it, potentially even meeting the edge or end you’d intended, you’ll gain efficiency and protect your mental capacity.
#3: Group those tabs
This is a small strategy, but such a goodie. Do you already know about “tab-grouping”? INCREDIBLE! Whatever browser you’re using right now, try it (but then do come back to attend to the rest of the tips 🙂)! Right or double-click on a tab and you’ll notice an option to “Group” or “Add tab to group.” It might be phrased a little differently depending on your browser. Grouping allows you to cluster those related 5 or 9 or 15 tabs when you’re working on a project or doing some online compare-contrast shopping. When you group, the individual tabs bunch up to the size of about 1, decluttering your digital workspace without forcing you to make the “can I cope with closing this tab?” decision.
#4: Make a time confetti list
In all that we each pursue, hold, and push forward–and in that sometimes frazzled state we can experience–it can feel like we never get a break. So much so, that we might long for a reprieve in the form of a full-blown retreat or vacation. But extended time off usually comes around only a couple times a year at most. So what are we supposed to do with the rest of the year? When there are no long weekends or holiday pauses? We can consider all of the spaces in between our workloads. In between meetings, during commutes, and when a task or project finishes up a little sooner than expected. To use those micro-moments well and even restoratively, it can be handy to have what’s called a “time confetti list” on hand. It’s born from the idea that we have these mini windows sprinkled throughout the day—”time confetti”—that we don’t really notice or make use of well. What do we usually do with those? Most of us likely cram in another email reply or to-do.
Instead, we can have a list on standby of nourishing, fun, sweet, and soulful items. For example: make that coffee date you’ve been wanting to with a beloved friend (it’s just felt discouraging to find that tricky overlapping time); read 1 poem; dance party to 1 song; do a few stretches; bask in sunshine; have 1 cup of tea in your garden, with a pet, to 10 minutes of a podcast, or in delicious quietude. If you’re curious about this notion of “time confetti,” and the larger context of the time affluence we all so long for–more spaciousness and ease around our minutes and days—you can check out Yale Psych prof, and noted researcher on happiness, Laurie Santos talking to teens about it! Fun!
Wishing you such good, kind, well learning.
Deena