Focus your attention for a better life
Author Winifred Gallagher talks to Kai Ryssdal about how focusing your attention can improve your quality of life.
Author Winifred Gallagher (Nina Subin)
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Kai Ryssdal: Like a lot of you, I spent my morning doing about five different things at once: e-mailing, writing this show, making phone calls. My producer came in, my wife called, my producer came in again, and then again later. So there were some distractions. Everything got done eventually. But maybe not as well as if I'd been paying attention to just one thing at a time. That's exactly the point Winifred Gallagher makes in her new book, "Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life."
WINIFRED GALLAGHER: Attention is the brain's process of spotlighting the most compelling thing in your world, which could be a stop sign or a sudden feeling of jealousy and suppressing all the competing stimuli. The good news is that by screening your experience attention creates order from what would be potential chaos. But the bad news is that little piece of reality that you focus on is more fragmented and subjective than you think. So, whether you're aware of it or not, your brain can only focus on one thing at a time.
Ryssdal: But how is it possible in this world, when truly there are so many things that you have to pay attention to, not necessarily simultaneously, but in very quick order. How do you make order of that?
GALLAGHER: You have to prioritize. Multi-tasking is a total myth. You cannot do two even mildly skillful activities at the same time, except in very, very specific circumstances with a lot of training and a lot drilling.
Ryssdal: So if my producer is talking into my ear right now, and I'm having a conversation with you at the same time, which one do I pay attention to?
GALLAGHER: You can't process them both. So you have to decide. You either have to put a silencer on your producer, or you have to put me on hold. When you think you're doing two things at once, what you're really doing is switching back and forth between them, which actually takes longer and makes you inefficient, error prone. We've all had that experience where we've tried to talk on the phone while we answer e-mail, and we end up either forgetting who we called when they pick up, or we end up sending a disastrous e-mail that we meant to hit forward, and instead we hit reply. So when you have something important that you need to do, an important piece of work, block off about 90 minutes, turn off your machines, do that work for 90 minutes, then get up and do something else. When you go back to your task, you'll approach it with a fresh mind. And you can answer your e-mail and your phone calls at that 90-minute break.
Ryssdal: Turning off the machines for 90 minutes is great. But in a lot of places, not this one, but in a lot of places, if you don't respond to your e-mail quickly, if you don't answer that cell phone, you're out of a job.
GALLAGHER: That's true. And it's not a perfect world. And I think one of the reasons why I wanted to write the book was to try to help people see how important attention is, how finite it is. You have enough attention for a 173-billion bits of information in your whole life. It's life money; it's like cognitive cash. And you've got to spend it carefully. And I think as a culture, we have to become more realistic, the same way we've gone through a banking mess that's going to result in some new rules and regulations, I think we're going to have to go through a focusing crisis, and just recalibrate how much we're able to do.
Ryssdal: What are the other steps then? Once you've gotten your 90 minutes, what else do you do? Because it can't be that easy as turning off the computer and closing the door.
GALLAGHER: Well, if you're attention fades have some coffee. Coffee actually is an attention booster. It works. Another good trick for fading attention is to refocus on your target or your task, and try to notice new things about it. This is actually a tip from very creative people. Creative people don't just glance at something and move on. They look at it and notice stuff that doesn't seem important. Creative people engage and elaborate on what they're focused on. By engaging, you make things more interesting.
Ryssdal: The book by Winnifred Gallagher about paying attention, I suppose you could say, is called "Rapt." Thanks a lot for your time.
GALLAGHER: Thank you. It was my pleasure.
Comments
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From Chicago, IL, 04/27/2009
I'd suggest The Myth of Multitasking by Dave Crenshaw. He goes into great depth on the difference between background tasking and switch tasking.
From Oakridge, OR, 04/26/2009
Ms. Gallagher's point may be valid in an office or high tech setting, but for the rest of working America her multi-tasking theory is a myth.
Consider the cooks who make her lunch. A professional kitchen is usually staffed with one cook not the brigades seen on TV. Two tasks? A cook must juggle nearly 10 responsibilities or get booted before dinner.
Delivering even a simple meal requires everything to arrive on the plate simultaneously seconds before it is delivered it to your table.
Two tasks? Ha! A cook must handle a lot more than that to keep a job.
Sorry Ms Gallagher, your ivory tower has a few cracks in its foundation.
From Amelia, OH, 04/26/2009
Having worked in a variety of businesses which found multitasking to be a valuable asset, I long ago realized that while one may be performing several tasks concurrently, the quality of each of those tasks declines proportionately. And yet we are expected to put out our best effort at customer service while not fully paying attention to the customer. I found her comments intriguing, especially since I just finished reading Distracted by Maggie Jackson. Let's take off our blinders and realize that intelligent people can draw correct conclusions even if they don't have the educational credentials we expect. Even us.
From Portland, OR, 04/25/2009
Regardless of her credentials, I do in fact think there is merit to Ms. Gallagher's observations. I work in a HIGHLY stressful high-tech environment and repeatedly hear complaints from co-workers that if they could just focus on one thing at a time, there would be less stress, higher quality work, and better efficiency. Yet we are inundated with email, cubicle crawlers, and the constant nag of our cell phones. As for the BrainTwitter findings, the inventors claim that it is only possible with the utmost level of focus and intention. Where do I get my device?
From Austin, TX, 04/24/2009
A little focus on Google would answer many of the commenters questions: she is a journalist and author who seems drawn to what makes us who we are based on psychological, sociological, and spiritual moorings. She is not a psychologist, yet a Yale psych professor gives her credit for an "engaging book" that cites "elegant research," before critiquing the limits of her thesis.
From Stewartstown, PA, 04/24/2009
I don't know if this author ever had a baby, since, if she had, she would know that not only is multitasking possible, but absolutely essential when you are nursing the child and maybe loading the washing machine, stirring the gravy etc.
You just HAVE to concentrate on both jobs and of course, there's always radio on at the same time!
From CA, 04/24/2009
The key to her statement was "two COMPLEX tasks." Driving a car in this society is no longer a complex task. I would venture to guess that if you were dodging wrecked cars and swerving to miss debris while listening to this program you would not have remembered enough of it to complain about. If you actually pay attention to what you're focusing on throughout the day I believe you'll find she's more correct than you'd care to admit. She was also talking about efficiency, not walking and chewing gum. Though most jobs require multitasking, that might not be the most efficient use of time.
From nashville, TN, 04/23/2009
I would like to know more about Gallagher's research & credentials before passing judgement on her findings.
From IL, 04/23/2009
Gallagher's simplistic analysis let me know right away that she's not a psychologist of any kind. According to her illogic, I shouldn't have been able to drive mt car and listen to your show. There's a substantive body of research that indicates that humans in fact are capable of performing complex tasks simultaneously. I'm sure she's flown on an airliner; how does she think pilots keep up with the multiple demands of flying a plane?
From Lexington, MA, 04/23/2009
First I find it ironic that you had this story on the same day you had the story about the Wisconsin student who came up with a way to Twitter just by thinking. When that goes mainstream we will all be doing email while we do everything else.
As for this story, I'd love to have time to turn everything off and focus on something. I think email is distracting us from real work, but it never stops.
From Edwards, CO, 04/23/2009
Her assessment has zero validity or reliability with me or the people that I work with. If I couldn't do 2 things all of the time at once, I would never accomplish anything in a timely manner.
Where's her scientific research to prove this? What are her assumptions? What is her data? Thanks for irritating me.
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