by Chris Bailey
38 daily checks: Gloria Mark et al., “Focused, Aroused, but So Distractible: Temporal Perspectives on Multitasking and Communications,” in Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (New York: ACM, 2015), 903–916, doi:10.1145/2675133.2675221.
stresses us out: Gloria Mark, Daniela Gudith, and Ulrich Klocke, “The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM 2008), 107–110, doi:10.1145 /1357054.1357072.
about ten simultaneously: Victor Gonzalez and Gloria Mark, “Constant, Constant, Multi-tasking Craziness: Managing Multiple Working Spheres,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2004), 599–606, doi:10.1145/985692.985707.
before doing so: Gloria Mark, Victor Gonzalez, and Justin Harris, “No Task Left Behind? Examining the Nature of Fragmented Work,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2005), 321–30, doi:10.1145/1054972.1055017.
back on track: Fiona McNab et al., “Age-Related Changes in Working Memory and the Ability to Ignore Distraction,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 20 (2015): 6515–18.
distraction after another: Leonard M. Giambra, “Task-Unrelated-Thought Frequency as a Function of Age: A Laboratory Study,” Psychology and Aging 4, no. 2 (1989): 136–43.
engaged in the workplace: IORG Forum, “Rhythms of Attention, Focus and Mood with Digital Activity—Dr. Gloria Mark,” YouTube, July 6, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NUlFhxcVWc.
have plummeted 17 percent: Rani Molla, “How Apple’s iPhone Changed the World: 10 Years in 10 Charts,” Recode, June 2017.
check your email: Mark et al., “Focused, Aroused, but So Distractible.”
by someone else: Mark, Gonzalez, and Harris, “No Task Left Behind?”; Ioanna Katidioti et al., “Interrupt Me: External Interruptions Are Less Disruptive Than Self-Interruptions,” Computers in Human Behavior 63, (2016): 906–15.
track more quickly: Mark, Gudith, and Klocke, “Cost of Interrupted Work.”
come from others: Mark, Gonzalez, and Harris, “No Task Left Behind?”; González and Mark, “Constant, Constant, Multi-tasking Craziness.”
out of your system: David Mrazik, “Reconsidering Caffeine: An Awake and Alert New Look at America’s Most Commonly Consumed Drug” (third-year paper, Harvard University, 2004), DASH: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard.
ability to resist distractions: Gloria Mark, Shamsi Iqbal, and Mary Czerwinski, “How Blocking Distractions Affects Workplace Focus and Productivity,” in Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2017 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (New York: ACM Press, 2017), 928–34, doi:10.1145/3123024.3124558.
periods of time: Jennifer A. A. Lavoie and Timothy A. Pychyl, “Cyberslacking and the Procrastination Superhighway: A Web-Based Survey of Online Procrastination, Attitudes, and Emotion,” Social Science Computer Review 19, no. 4 (2001): 431–44.
yourself from distractions: Mark, Iqbal, and Czerwinski, “How Blocking Distractions Affects Workplace Focus.”
correlated with procrastination: John C. Loehlin and Nicholas G. Martin, “The Genetic Correlation Between Procrastination and Impulsivity,” Twin Research and Human Genetics: The Official Journal of the International Society for Twin Studies 17, no. 6 (2014): 512–15.
focus on your work: John Trougakos and Ivona Hideg, “Momentary Work Recovery: The Role of Within-Day Work Breaks,” in Current Perspectives on Job-Stress Recovery, vol. 7, Research in Occupational Stress and Well-being, ed. Sabine Sonnentag, Pamela L. Perrewé, and Daniel C. Ganster (West Yorkshire, UK: Emerald Group, 2009).
early the night before: Gloria Mark, Yiran Wang, and Melissa Niiya, “Stress and Multitasking in Everyday College Life: An Empirical Study of Online Activity,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2014), 41–50, doi:10.1145/2556288.2557361.
attention on email: Ashish Gupta, Ramesh Sharda, and Robert A. Greve, “You’ve Got Email! Does It Really Matter to Process Emails Now or Later?” Information Systems Frontiers 13, no. 5 (2011): 637.
span of a day: Gloria Mark et al., “Focused, Aroused, but So Distractible: Temporal Perspectives on Multitasking and Communications,” in Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (New York: ACM, 2015), 903–16, doi:10.1145/2675133.2675221.
and reflexive way: Thomas Jackson, Ray Dawson, and Darren Wilson, “Reducing the Effect of Email Interruptions on Employees,” International Journal of Information Management 23, no. 1 (2003): 55–65.
the forty-second mark: Gupta, Sharda, and Greve, “You’ve Got Email!”
peaceful and refreshing: Gloria Mark, Stephen Voida, and Armand Cardello, “A Pace Not Dictated by Electrons: An Empirical Study of Work Without Email,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2012), 555–64, doi:10.1145/2207676.2207754.
daily in meetings: Infocom, “Meetings in America: A Study of Trends, Costs, and Attitudes Toward Business Travel and Teleconferencing, and Their Impact on Productivity” (Verizon Conferencing white paper).
the modern office: Chris Bailey, “The Five Habits of Happier, More Productive Workplaces” (Zipcar white paper, October 19, 2016).
“compendium of information”: Shalini Misra et al., “The iPhone Effect: The Quality of In-Person Social Interactions in the Presence of Mobile Devices,” Environment and Behavior 48, no. 2 (2016): 275–98.
“connection, and relationship quality”: Andrew K. Przybylski and Netta Weinstein, “Can You Connect with Me Now? How the Presence of Mobile Communication Technology Influences Face-to-Face Conversation Quality,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 30, no. 3 (2013): 237–46.
conducive to creativity: Kathleen D. Vohs, Joseph P. Redden, and Ryan Rahinel, “Physical Order Produces Healthy Choices, Generosity, and Conventionality, Whereas Disorder Produces Creativity,” Psychological Science 24, no. 9 (2013): 1860–67.
a walk, however: Michael J. Larson, et al., “Cognitive and Typing Outcomes Measured Simultaneously with Slow Treadmill Walking or Sitting: Implications for Treadmill Desks,” PloS One 10, no. 4 (2015): 1–13.
we naturally have: Shawn Achor, The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work (New York: Currency, 2010).
not in cubicles: Florence Williams, “This Is Your Brain on Nature,” National Geographic, January 2016.
it’s relatively simple: Morgan K. Ward, Joseph K. Goodman, and Julie R. Irwin, “The Same Old Song: The Power of Familiarity in Music Choice,” Marketing Letters 25, no. 1 (2014): 1–11; Agnes Si-Qi Chew et al., “The Effects of Familiarity and Language of Background Music on Working Memory and Language Tasks in Singapore,” Psychology of Music 44, no. 6 (2016): 1431–38.
temperature for productivity: Greg Peverill-Conti, “Captivate Office Pulse Finds Summer Hours Are Bad for Business,” InkHouse for Captivate, June 2012.
your attentional space: Lauren L. Emberson et al., “Overheard Cell-phone Conversations: When Less Speech Is More Distracting,” Psychological Science 21, no. 10 (2010): 1383–88.
from a D to a B grade: Faria Sana, Tina Weston, and Nicholas J. Cepeda, “Laptop Multitasking Hinders Classroom Learning for Both Users and Nearby Peers,” Computers & Education 62, (2013): 24–31.
students aren’t engaged: Evan F. Risko et al., “Everyday Attention: Mind Wandering and Computer Use During Lectures,” Computers & Education 68, (2013): 275–83.
extroverts, for example: Adrian Furnham and Anna Bradley, “Music While You Work: The Differential Distraction of Background Music on the Cognitive Test Pe
rformance of Introverts and Extraverts,” Applied Cognitive Psychology 11, no. 5 (1997): 445–55.
the same passage: Laura L. Bowman et al., “Can Students Really Multitask? An Experimental Study of Instant Messaging While Reading,” Computers & Education 54, no. 4 (2010): 927–31.
CHAPTER 5: MAKING HYPERFOCUS A HABIT
trying to focus: Jennifer C. McVay, Michael J. Kane, and Thomas R. Kwapil, “Tracking the Train of Thought from the Laboratory into Everyday Life: An Experience-Sampling Study of Mind Wandering Across Controlled and Ecological Contexts,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, no. 5 (2009): 857–63; Paul Seli et al., “Mind-Wandering With and Without Intention,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 20, no. 8 (2016): 605–617; Benjamin Baird et al., “Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation,” Psychological Science 23, no. 10 (2012): 1117–22.
with such conditions: Gloria Mark, Yiran Wang, and Melissa Niiya, “Stress and Multitasking in Everyday College Life: An Empirical Study of Online Activity,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2014), 41–50, doi:10.1145/2556288.2557361.
like writing reports: Gloria Mark et al., “Bored Mondays and Focused Afternoons: The Rhythm of Attention and Online Activity in the Workplace,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (New York: ACM, 2014), 3025–34, doi:10.1145/2556288.2557204.
on complex tasks: Jennifer C. McVay and Michael J. Kane, “Conducting the Train of Thought: Working Memory Capacity, Goal Neglect, and Mind Wandering in an Executive-Control Task,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 35, no. 1 (2009): 196–204.
(and plan for) the future: Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, and Jonathan W. Schooler, “Back to the Future: Autobiographical Planning and the Functionality of Mind-Wandering,” Consciousness and Cognition 20, no. 4 (2011): 1604.
“favored mental destination”: Ibid.
an 85 percent correlation: Klaus Oberauer et al., “Working Memory and Intelligence: Their Correlation and Their Relation: Comment on Ackerman, Beier, and Boyle (2005),” Psychological Bulletin 131, no. 1 (2005): 61–65.
of job performance: Roberto Colom et al., “Intelligence, Working Memory, and Multitasking Performance,” Intelligence 38, no. 6 (2010): 543–51.
designed to improve!: Adam Hampshire et al., “Putting Brain Training to the Test,” Nature 465, no. 7299 (2010): 775–78.
an average of 16 percent!: Michael D. Mrazek et al., “Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering,” Psychological Science 24, no. 5 (2013): 776–81.
with personal concerns: Ibid.
“of mind wandering”: Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Science of Mind Wandering: Empirically Navigating the Stream of Consciousness,” Annual Review of Psychology 66, no. 1 (2015): 487–518.
A few weeks: Dianna Quach et al., “A Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Effect of Mindfulness Meditation on Working Memory Capacity in Adolescents,” Journal of Adolescent Health 58, no. 5 (2016): 489–96.
manage your attention: E. I. de Bruin, J. E. van der Zwan, and S. M. Bogels, “A RCT Comparing Daily Mindfulness Meditations, Biofeedback Exercises, and Daily Physical Exercise on Attention Control, Executive Functioning, Mindful Awareness, Self-Compassion, and Worrying in Stressed Young Adults,” Mindfulness 7, no. 5 (2016): 1182–92.
“Being heard is so close”: David W. Augsburger, Caring Enough to Hear and Be Heard. (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 1982).
CHAPTER 6: YOUR BRAIN’S HIDDEN CREATIVE MODE
deliberately deploy scatterfocus: J. R. Binder et al., “Conceptual Processing During the Conscious Resting State: A Functional MRI Study,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 11, no. 1 (1999): 80–93.
they were surveyed: Paul Seli, Evan F. Risko, and Daniel Smilek, “On the Necessity of Distinguishing Between Unintentional and Intentional Mind Wandering,” Psychological Science 27, no. 5 (2016): 685–91.
the shock again: University of Virginia, “Doing Something Is Better Than Doing Nothing for Most People, Study Shows,” EurekAlert!, July 2014.
pleasurable or threatening: Amit Sood and David T. Jones, “On Mind Wandering, Attention, Brain Networks, and Meditation,” Explore 9, no. 3 (2013): 136–41.
we wander to the past: Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, and Jonathan W. Schooler, “Back to the Future: Autobiographical Planning and the Functionality of Mind-Wandering,” Consciousness and Cognition 20, no. 4 (2011).
and the future: Benjamin Baird, Jonathan Smallwood, and Jonathan W. Schooler, “Back to the Future” Jonathan W. Schooler et al., “Meta-awareness, Perceptual Decoupling and the Wandering Mind,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15, no. 7 (2011): 319–26.
having food stolen: Sérgio P. C. Correia, Anthony Dickinson, and Nicola S. Clayton, “Western Scrub-jays Anticipate Future Needs Independently of Their Current Motivational State,” Current Biology 17, no. 10 (2007): 856–61.
rudimentary and limited: Dan Pink, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing (New York: Riverhead Books, 2018).
Alzheimer’s, and dementia: Zoran Josipovic et al., “Influence of Meditation on Anti-correlated Networks in the Brain,” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 183, no. 5 (2012).
“with average IQ”: Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Joanna A. Christodoulou, and Vanessa Singh, “Rest Is Not Idleness: Implications of the Brain’s Default Mode for Human Development and Education,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 7, no. 4 (2012): 352–64.
at the same time: Jonathan Smallwood, interview with the author, November 28, 2017.
is spent planning: Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna, “The Brain’s Default Network and Its Adaptive Role in Internal Mentation,” The Neuroscientist: A Review Journal Bridging Neurobiology, Neurology and Psychiatry 18, no. 3 (2012): 251; Baird, Smallwood, and Schooler, “Back to the Future.”
and more intentionally: Jonathan Smallwood, Florence J. M. Ruby, and Tania Singer, “Letting Go of the Present: Mind-Wandering Is Associated with Reduced Delay Discounting,” Consciousness and Cognition 22, no. 1 (2013): 1–7.
future a reality: Gabriele Oettingen and Bettina Schwörer, “Mind Wandering via Mental Contrasting as a Tool for Behavior Change,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 562.
26 percent of the time: Baird, Smallwood, and Schooler, “Back to the Future.”
stimulating distractions instead: Smallwood interview.
become more compassionate: Rebecca L. McMillan, Scott Barry Kaufman, and Jerome L. Singer, “Ode to Positive Constructive Daydreaming,” Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 626.
think more expansively: Jonathan Smallwood et al., “Shifting Moods, Wandering Minds: Negative Moods Lead the Mind to Wander,” Emotion 9, no. 2 (2009): 271–76.
the negative past: Baird, Smallwood, and Schooler, “Back to the Future.”
grows even stronger: Jonathan Schooler, interview with the author, November 28, 2017; Jonathan Smallwood, Louise Nind, and Rory C. O’Connor, “When Is Your Head At? An Exploration of the Factors Associated with the Temporal Focus of the Wandering Mind,” Consciousness and Cognition 18, no. 1 (2009): 118–25.
taking no break whatsoever: Benjamin W. Mooneyham and Jonathan W. Schooler, “The Costs and Benefits of Mind-Wandering: A Review,” Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale 67, no. 1 (2013): 11–18; Benjamin Baird et al., “Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation,” Psychological Science 23, no. 10 (2012): 1117–22.
aware of your thoughts: Paul Seli et al., “Intrusive Thoughts: Linking Spontaneous Mind Wandering and OCD Symptomatology,” Psychological Research 81, no. 2 (2017): 392–98.
about the future: Giorgio Marchetti, “Attention and Working Memory: Two Basic Mechanisms for Constructing Temporal Experiences,” Front
iers in Psychology 5 (2014): 880.
“possible future events”: Daniel L. Schacter, Randy L. Buckner, and Donna Rose Addis, “Remembering the Past to Imagine the Future: The Prospective Brain,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 8, no. 9 (2007): 657–61.
5.4 times every hour: Schooler et al., “Meta-awareness, Perceptual Decoupling and the Wandering Mind.”
“recognizing its occurrence”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 7: RECHARGING YOUR ATTENTION
the same effect: Kenichi Kuriyama et al., “Sleep Accelerates the Improvement in Working Memory Performance,” Journal of Neuroscience 28, no. 40 (2008): 10145–50.
you genuinely enjoy: Jennifer C. McVay, Michael J. Kane, and Thomas R. Kwapil, “Tracking the Train of Thought from the Laboratory into Everyday Life: An Experience-Sampling Study of Mind Wandering Across Controlled and Ecological Contexts,” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, no. 5 (2009): 857–63; Paul Seli et al., “Increasing Participant Motivation Reduces Rates of Intentional and Unintentional Mind Wandering,” Psychological Research (2017), doi:10.1007/s00426-017-0914-2.
have three characteristics: John Trougakos and Ivona Hideg, “Momentary Work Recovery: The Role of Within-Day Work Breaks,” in Current Perspectives on Job-Stress Recovery, vol. 7, Research in Occupational Stress and Well-being, ed. Sabine Sonnentag, Pamela L. Perrewé, and Daniel C. Ganster (West Yorkshire, UK: Emerald Group, 2009).
do resume working: Ibid.
groups of people: Sophia Dembling, “Introversion and the Energy Equation,” Psychology Today, November 2009.
day as well: Rhymer Rigby, “Open Plan Offices Are Tough on Introverts,” Financial Times, October 2015.
“gain in income”: Florence Williams, “This Is Your Brain on Nature,” National Geographic, January 2016.
allow your mind to wander: Peretz Lavie, Jacob Zomer, and Daniel Gopher, “Ultradian Rhythms in Prolonged Human Performance” (ARI Research Note 95-30, U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, 1995).