WEBVTT - It's Fine to Obsess over March Madness at Work 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.480 It's hard to get anything done. It's hard to get anything. 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:09.719 It's hard to get any As you can see, it's 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:14.240 really hard to get anything done when you're constantly being interrupted. Today, 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.840 we're going to talk about distractions at work. This is 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:32.800 game plan. Hi. I'm Francesca Leady and I'm Rebecca Greenfield. So, Becca, 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:36.880 have you noticed the newsroom has seemed a little distracted lately. Yes, 0:00:37.520 --> 0:00:40.200 I know there are some sports. I care about the sports, 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.239 but it's March madness. I don't care about the sports either, 0:00:42.280 --> 0:00:45.120 but I do hear occasional shouting from various corners of 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:47.960 the newsroom, and I know it is about the college sports. 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.240 The team won the match, Yeah, they got the ball 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:53.040 in the thing. But we are in the minority. Lots 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:55.480 of people care about March madness, and March madness kind 0:00:55.480 --> 0:00:58.160 of consumes the day for a lot of people. Yeah, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.000 it seems like this particularly office focused thing because the 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.880 games happened during the day, and also people fell out 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.240 their brackets and often they're involved in these work brackets 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:10.560 that you have like a reason to talk to your colleagues, right, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.679 So yeah, it's just like all consuming office distraction. And obviously, 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:16.639 like we don't care about March madness, but this happens 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.800 periodically throughout the year. Like my version of this is 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:21.399 the Olympics. I love watching the Olympics, and I just 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.039 like I shamelessly watched during the day, so like every 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.840 four years you will drop everything to the Francesca. Oh, 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:31.360 you're a winter Olympics person too, Okay, we can talk 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.840 about that offline. But yeah, And there's always these articles 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:36.759 every March. I know this because this is my beat, 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.840 and it's always like, oh, the productivity cost of get 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.800 pitched the product story about like how March madness is 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.280 costing offices billions of dollars each year. I've read estimates 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.160 of anywhere from one point three to four billion. That 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.280 just sounds really high. Yeah, I think for that to 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.600 be true, you would have to assume that the rest 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.520 of the time, when there isn't March Madness going on, 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.560 people are using all of that time completely productive, which 0:01:59.600 --> 0:02:02.360 of course they're not. Right. That's the thing is, even 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.040 if it is not the Olympics or March Madness, there 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:08.400 are going to be things disrupting your day and you 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:11.239 have to kind of have strategies to work around them, right, Yeah, 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.480 I have this theory of distractions. So when I'm writing 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.120 a story and I'm like so at risk of being 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:22.320 distracted by Twitter or at or anything else, I listened 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:26.800 to like pretty intense hip hop music, okay, because the 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:31.239 lyrics and the beat distract me from my other distractions. 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.320 Like I'm so into the music that I can be 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:35.959 into my writing and not think about going on Twitter. 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.120 Like I have such a problem with distractions that I 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:40.480 need other distractions. This is intense, Like you told me 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:42.400 about this, and I'm having trouble getting my head around 0:02:42.440 --> 0:02:46.080 it because I'm like most people where I need music 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.320 that's the equivalent of like noise. If I'm working, it 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.800 has to be ambient kind of music that's a little 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.560 bit boring and has no lyrics because it has to 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:59.120 just be one step higher than silence. But silence is 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.799 too distracting because I like empty. Yeah, it's kind of 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:04.680 similar where it's like you want to fill up your 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.320 mind with something so that it doesn't wander to something else. 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:10.760 But in my mind is just like really needs help 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:13.680 so you don't end up writing like rap lyrics into 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.519 your stories. Though by accident, I don't know, I'm not 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:17.160 even listening to the words, I think you have a 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.600 unique mind. Oh, my goodness, so kind, thank you. Maybe 0:03:20.600 --> 0:03:23.320 even march madness in some ways can be a positive distraction. 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:26.800 Or colleague Polly Muslins wrote a story that said, there 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:30.399 is a positive element to march madness. It can increase 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.680 camaraderie and office happiness because people have something to share. 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:36.920 And like you said, you know you're being distracted by 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:39.720 something anyway, maybe it's better to be distracted by something 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:42.760 that does have these elements of team building. So we 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.560 have this theory between us that not all distractions are 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:47.920 created equal. But let's talk to somebody who's actually an 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:53.960 expert on distractions, interruptions and everything. Like Gloria Mark is 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:58.280 an expert on human computer interaction. She is a professor 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:03.480 at the University of California IRV and prolific researcher on distractions, interruptions, 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:13.040 and multitasking. Thanks for talking to us, by Gloria, My pleasure. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:15.839 So why don't we start by just talking a little 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.480 bit about this state of distraction at work today? Like 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.080 what is distracting people? Well, I would say, you know, 0:04:23.200 --> 0:04:27.600 since the mid two thousand's people were mostly distracted by 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.240 social media. I would say more recently, it's shifted and 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:38.039 it's now become people being distracted by news. People checking 0:04:38.080 --> 0:04:42.320 the news because the news is updated so frequently, there's 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:48.000 so many news sites. People participate in generating news, commenting, 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.960 sharing news. So I think this has shifted from uh, 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:57.480 you know, more general social media to more particular news following. 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.840 Are those different types of interrupts or distractions or are 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.560 they in the same category. I would say that interrupting 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:10.440 your work to look at news is a very similar 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:15.960 kind of distraction to social media. And let me explain why. 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:18.919 So we did a recent study. This was in the 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:25.000 in a workplace, and we contrasted people taking breaks, in 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.760 other words, interrupting themselves either with face to face intractions 0:05:29.920 --> 0:05:33.760 or going to social media. One of the things we 0:05:33.760 --> 0:05:39.960 were interested in was how distractions affect workplace mood, and 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.440 we found that right after people have a face to 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:47.320 face interaction, they were happier than right after they had 0:05:47.320 --> 0:05:52.080 a Facebook interaction. But when we look at the cumulative 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.560 amount of time spent on distractions, like over the whole day, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.440 people are actually happier the more time they spent on Facebook. 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.719 And this was very curious and here's why. Because the 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.479 more engaged people were in their work that day, the 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:13.720 more time they spent on Facebook. And when you go 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.920 onto social media, not just Facebook, but any kind of 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.040 social media or even a news site, you are in 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.200 control of your time, whereas if you're in a face 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:29.840 to face interaction, you're a prisoner of that interaction in 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:34.359 the sense that we have social interaction rituals that we 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:38.040 go through. Right, you can't break away quickly from a 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:41.159 face to face interaction. It's rude, right, it sends the 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:45.520 wrong social signals. But on social media, you can control 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.320 when you take that distraction, how long you spent, what 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.800 you do on that site. You know, whether you share 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.839 something or like something, or changed to a different site. 0:06:55.880 --> 0:06:59.080 And the same with news sites. So I think that 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:03.080 the main difference is that these kinds of distractions social 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:07.320 media news sites offer people a kind of control of 0:07:07.360 --> 0:07:10.280 their time. So I'm sort of surprised to learn that 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:12.120 people who spent a lot of time on Facebook during 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:15.040 the day are are happier. But it sounds like for 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.720 a certain type of employee that that you can actually 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:20.200 be a positive sort of distraction. What are the negative 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.560 effects of interruptions or distractions at work? So one of 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.760 the main effects is that it's related to stress. So 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:33.000 usually I do UH studies in the workplace, but to 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:38.480 investigate interruptions, I did a laboratory study and we interrupted people. 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.200 We had them do a workplace tasks and we simulated 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.840 workplace and we found that the more that people were interrupted, 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.240 the more stressed that they were. What was interesting, though, 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:57.640 was that the interruptions did not affect the quality or 0:07:57.680 --> 0:08:02.120 the accuracy of their task. So what happened was that 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:05.440 people sped up. They sped up the rate at which 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.800 they worked because they knew they were getting interrupted. And 0:08:08.840 --> 0:08:12.080 I think this is what happens in the workplace. So 0:08:12.120 --> 0:08:16.440 if you're in an environment and you anticipate being interrupted, 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:19.680 you're going to work a lot more efficiently. You know, 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.880 you know you've got to leave a certain time at 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.040 the end of the day most most people do. Some 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.840 people work late, and so you want to optimize what 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.280 you can do during that time. And so you know, 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:37.800 you you'll attend to distractions interruptions, but the time you 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.880 spend on task, you'll try to be a lot more efficient. 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.400 But the end result is that it increases stress. So 0:08:45.440 --> 0:08:47.600 it sounds like there are good things and bad things 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:49.920 I think people will be surprised to hear that there 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:55.280 are benefits to distractions. Are there certain distractions that we 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.079 should be trying to seek out more than others? I 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:03.520 think dist actions that relate to your context at hand 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.000 are are very beneficial. So, you know, if I'm working 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:12.840 on a very complex project and a colleague comes in 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:17.560 interrupts me with a question exactly about that project, then 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:20.680 it's very beneficial because it might help me to think 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:24.600 very differently about that project. It might give me a 0:09:24.720 --> 0:09:28.120 new inside, It might lead me to think of something 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.079 I had forgotten, you know, just a new perspective on it. 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:37.400 If we're interrupted by things that are completely a different context, 0:09:37.800 --> 0:09:41.400 we have to do what's called a context shift, and 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.600 this requires more cognitive resources to make that shift right, 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.880 because we have to orient to a completely new context. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:55.360 And this creates stress. And when you do this over 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.600 the course of a day, day in and day out, 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.880 the stress cumulates, right because you're all you're constantly making 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:07.040 these shifts. We know also from our research that people 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:12.040 have very short attention durations when they work on the computer. 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:18.040 The media attention duration on any computer screen is forty seconds, 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.480 and what that means is that people are continually shifting attention. 0:10:23.240 --> 0:10:27.520 Sometimes they're shifting to the same task, sometimes they're completely 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:33.840 changing to other tasks. So again, if you're making context shifts, 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:39.040 this plays a role in increasing stress. So if everyone 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:43.800 is constantly switching between one thing and another, should we 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:45.720 be trying to do less of that or should we 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.800 just be trying to keep the switches in the same context. 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.559 I think ideally it's best to try to shift as 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:59.680 little as possible. Of course, some things don't require much 0:10:59.720 --> 0:11:03.240 time to deal with, UH, such as email. But but 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.600 this is a whole other kind of distraction that that 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.920 creates stress as well. What kind of distraction is that? 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:16.800 So email is definitely associated with stress. We we've done 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.760 studies just focusing on the effects of email. In one 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:25.480 study that we did, we had people we we did 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:29.720 a baseline measure that this was using sensors to measure 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:34.640 their stress. UH. They worked as they did ordinarily, and 0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.880 then we had them spend a work week without email, 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:41.920 so everything else was the same, and if they needed 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.120 to contact someone, they could pick up the phone, they 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:48.160 could walk out of the office, and we found that 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:54.400 stress went down significantly. People were significantly more relaxed and 0:11:54.559 --> 0:11:58.840 we also found that their focus of attention on any 0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:04.120 computer screw mean, on any task was significantly longer. And 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:08.880 it turns out that people were quite happy to not 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:12.240 have email for that week. And at the end of 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.439 the week, we showed them their emails that they missed 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.400 for that week, and it turns out that information ages 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:21.959 very very quickly, and if you don't attend to an 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:26.880 email very quickly, very often the problem gets solved. Another 0:12:27.000 --> 0:12:31.920 thing I will say about email distractions, uh that makes 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:37.200 it a little bit different, is that email requires focused attention. 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.719 In other words, it requires work because people have to 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:46.440 very often carefully craft emails, especially if it's two people 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:53.040 who are colleagues or people who are supervisors or customers clients, 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.400 So you have to be very careful about the language 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:02.199 you use. And it requires at ten and consequently stress, 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.680 And we find that when we're measuring stress with sensors 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.880 were logging the time that that they spend on email, 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:15.800 we find a very very interesting relationship. When people go 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.480 on email, stress goes up in real time. They go 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.560 off email, the stress goes down in real time. And 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.040 we control for every possible thing we can think of. 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:34.040 We control for work, role, and gender and experience and 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.880 all these things that could possibly affect the relationship of 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:42.720 stress and email, and it's a very robust result. We 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:44.679 just did a whole episode on email, and I think 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.880 our guest would would definitely agree with you if you have. 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.800 And I'm wondering if you've replicated that with the new 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:55.559 chat apps that are now out there, Like, yeah, we haven't, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.240 but that is something that I am planning to do. Yes, 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.400 So right now, a lot of people at work are 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:07.520 paying a lot of attention to college basketball. Um it's 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.959 that time of year when people spend time betting on 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:16.360 basketball and watching games, and you often hear employers complain 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.880 about how much time it takes up and how much 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:21.280 distraction it causes. I'm wondering, is that the kind of 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:26.000 distraction that is actually possibly good for you because it 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:30.320 makes people happy and it causes camaraderie. I would say 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.720 it could be good. I would also imagine that this 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:38.760 kind of distraction is going to be really engaging for 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.480 people in the sense that it's going to be hard 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:45.360 to pull away. So I mentioned earlier that when people 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.760 go on to social media, we found that they were 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:53.520 in control of their time. I'm just wondering for these 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.880 kinds of distractions that people are very emotionally involved in, 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.400 like sports, it might be very hard to pull away, 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:04.080 and it might be hard to go back and do 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.400 work that's probably more Monday. So you should just give 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:14.080 into it. I think the best strategy is you just 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.640 a lot a certain amount of time to you know, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:22.200 go on go online, you know, look at the sports coverage, 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.440 get it out of your system, and then you cut 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:27.560 it off and then you go back to work. And 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.600 it really does involve discipline, but you've got to cut 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:33.760 it off because otherwise, uh, it'll be very hard to 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:39.359 to control. I'm wondering do certain people deal with distractions 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.800 better than others. I know there are people around me 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.320 who seem like they can both be on Twitter all 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:47.040 day and write a million articles. It seems like they're 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.200 really good at being distracted and getting stuff done. Have 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:53.560 you found any differences between people and your research. Yeah. So, 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:58.280 first of all, most people prefer what's called mono chronic work, 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.360 and that means working one task through the completion before 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:06.160 you start something else. I I am that way, but 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.280 you know, we live in an environment that requires us 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:12.600 to be what's called poly chronic, which is working on 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.920 different tasks, switching back and forth depending on the priorities, deadlines, 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.680 and so on. Now, there are some people that actually 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:26.800 prefer polychronic work, so they thrive in an environment where 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.360 they can work on several things at the same time. 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:33.240 These are the multi taskers we always hear about, right, 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:39.160 These are the multitaskers extraordinaire who can switch back and forth. 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.720 You can't, you can't physically work on two things at 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.760 the same time. People's attentional resources don't allow that. But 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:52.920 people can switch their attentional resources back and forth. There's 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:57.160 there is another thing, though, You asked about differences in people, 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:02.720 and we did find that people well who spend very 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.880 short attention durations on the computer. In other words, these 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:13.080 are people that switch really frequently. We looked at personality differences, 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:17.920 and indeed we found that these people score very high 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:23.119 on a neuroticism personality trait. They also score high and 0:17:23.200 --> 0:17:28.879 what's called an impulsivity trait, giving way to impulsive behavior, 0:17:29.480 --> 0:17:34.000 and they're all some more susceptible to stress. So there 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:38.320 there are yes individual differences among people who who do 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:42.920 switching behavior. I'm wondering if those people have that personality type, 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:45.560 or they've developed those traits from working in the type 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:47.640 of job where they have to switch between screens over 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:49.879 and over again. You basically just diagnosed both of us 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:57.720 were out. Uh. Well, So neuroticism is believed to be invariant, 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.879 So it's a it's a personality trait that is not 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:05.080 believed to change very much. The same with impulsivity, So 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:10.760 people are more or less impulsive. However, people being susceptible 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:15.240 to stress, this can change. This, This can vary among people, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.680 among individuals. One day I may be more susceptible than 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:22.960 another day. I mean, it depends not just on what's 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.399 going on in workplace, but what's going on in my 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.600 personal life. So so yeah, it's it's really a mix 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:34.439 of inherent traits and things that can vary. So I 0:18:34.480 --> 0:18:36.360 just want to wrap up by asking you whether your 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:40.160 research has given you any insight into how you handle distractions. 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:45.840 If anything, it's just made me more aware of how 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:50.639 distractable I am. I am as much a victim to 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:57.439 distractions as anyone that I study. I have tried different things. 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:03.560 I've tried, uh, catching my my email. Uh, in other words, 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:08.720 looking at just certain times of the day at email. Uh, 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:12.400 the same with social media, the same with news sites. Uh. 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.440 I have not succeeded very well, I have to admit, 0:19:17.000 --> 0:19:20.280 but but I do find that if I make a 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.520 list at the beginning of the day of what I 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:28.280 want to accomplish that day, I I generally do quite well. 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:33.000 So lists can help, and surprisingly they can also help 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.760 keep me on track from from always going to social 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:41.840 media or news or email. Well, your research is helping 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:45.200 the rest of us out here in the world fight distraction. 0:19:45.280 --> 0:19:47.440 So we appreciate all the good work you're doing. Thank 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:56.639 you so much for talking to us. It was my pleasure. 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:01.040 There seems to be more different kinds of distractions than 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:03.879 I ever even realized. Like there's a self interruption, and 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.679 then there's being interrupted by somebody else. Like there's so 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:11.760 many different I'm overwhelmed and distracted by how distracting all 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.919 the different types of distractions are. It does seem to 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.160 confirm my theory a little bit. How there's like different 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:19.840 types of distractions and my music distraction is a different 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.359 kind of distraction than the Twitter distraction. Yeah, and that 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.399 they are good ones and bad ones, And it's interesting. 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.639 All we hear about is how to get rid of 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.440 distractions like that. There are people who have their whole 0:20:29.520 --> 0:20:32.560 lives too, like our guest last week, Dan r Ellie, 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:35.000 who made an app so he doesn't check his email, 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:36.760 And when I heard about his way of life, I 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:38.800 was like, Wow, I should just do that, and I'm 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.119 going to be so much more productive and happier, and 0:20:41.160 --> 0:20:45.120 I really have like envy. Yeah. But then Gloria Mark's 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:48.320 research shows that actually people seem to adjust to the 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:50.680 distractions that they have, so that was kind of reassuring 0:20:50.720 --> 0:20:54.360 to me, Like, you become more efficient as a result 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.520 of having all these distractions, so it's not necessarily a 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:01.159 productivity cost so much as a stress induce her like, 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:03.760 her research found that people are just super stressed out 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.080 by all these distractions, and I actually related to that 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.280 now that I think about it, I think, having just 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.960 grown up working with Internet distractions, it's like I can't 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:14.800 do my work without a certain level of distractions, Like 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:17.800 I've become like I've worked them into my workflow so much. 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.280 But maybe trying to create a post distraction world for yourself, 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:24.320 which a lot of people do. They have you know, 0:21:24.640 --> 0:21:29.760 Chrome extensions installed to block certain apps, you're smiling because 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:32.240 you do this, and you recommended this to me, and 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:37.760 I wasn't successful at keeping the extension installed. But now 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.200 you can justify this behavior to yourself because maybe sometimes 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:45.600 distractions happen. And yeah, and if you try to live 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:48.040 in a sensory deprivation tank and like have a world 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:50.679 with no distractions in it, I think you're just creating 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.200 this really fragile bubble that as soon as it gets shattered, 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.840 like your your workflows destroyed because you haven't taught yourself 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.720 the coping skills that you need to with distraction. So basically, 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.720 go ahead and watch your march badness. Yeah, take your break, 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:08.520 enjoy it, and know that if you were doing that, 0:22:08.560 --> 0:22:12.720 you would just be doing something else distracting. And let's 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:18.879 distract ourselves with some half big takes half fake takes, 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.200 a little bit of housekeeping before we get to our 0:22:21.280 --> 0:22:24.520 half big takes. You can leave a message with your 0:22:24.560 --> 0:22:27.840 half big take by calling two and two six zero 0:22:27.880 --> 0:22:30.960 one six six. This week, a listener called in with 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:34.199 a story and reaction to our episode about crying at 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:36.240 work from a couple of weeks ago, and her own 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:40.080 half big take. Hey, I just heard your podcast about 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:42.000 how it was okay to cry at work, and it 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:46.160 made me think of a funny, tragic story that happened 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.600 to me. I had a phase in my life where 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:50.960 work would make me cry almost every day, like I 0:22:51.040 --> 0:22:54.200 would spend almost an hour a day in the bathroom stall. 0:22:55.080 --> 0:22:56.800 And there was one night where I ended up having 0:22:56.800 --> 0:22:59.040 a panic attack and it wentn't hit in a cube 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.840 for someone that hadn't been there. Because I work second shifts, 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:07.160 of the entire building, essentially upstairs or downstairs is cleaned out. 0:23:07.200 --> 0:23:09.520 So I ended up going and crying in a cube 0:23:09.560 --> 0:23:14.520 somewhere and someone walked up and found me, and it 0:23:14.600 --> 0:23:18.240 was like the most awkward conversation ever. I'm sitting there 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:22.000 with tears running down my face, hyper ventilating, just like 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:26.320 I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, And so she goes, oh, well, 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:28.320 you did a great job because you scared the crap 0:23:28.359 --> 0:23:32.240 out of me. So yeah, that's my story about crying. 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:36.040 In case anyone ever had like a major crying incident, 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:40.560 I can totally relate. And also, my half baked take 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:43.840 is that I work in an office where for a 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:47.440 shift and second shift have to share cubicles and desks. 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:50.439 So my half bake take is that no matter what 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:53.600 time your shift starts, you shouldn't have to worry about 0:23:53.600 --> 0:23:56.080 your someone sitting in your seat when you come into work. 0:23:57.160 --> 0:24:00.520 And yeah, that's it. Thank you by so much in 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:02.440 that message that I even came up with my own 0:24:02.480 --> 0:24:05.359 half big take off of her crying story, which is 0:24:05.400 --> 0:24:07.639 that if you work in a really toxic environment, you 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:10.320 should probably have your crying spot picked out. Um, and 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:13.280 that's for her half big take. Yeah, if you have 0:24:13.320 --> 0:24:16.840 to share a desk already, you should be extra courteous 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.080 of your co workers if you're in a desk sharing situation, 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:22.680 because desk sharing situations kind of suck. Yeah, there's they're 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:27.400 kind of hip now, Yeah, there's hot desking, hoteling, hot desking. Yeah, 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.200 hot desking. It's like when you have their own desk. 0:24:31.560 --> 0:24:34.320 So yeah, tidy up your desk and leave your desk 0:24:34.400 --> 0:24:37.639 on time so that the next shift that seems like 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:41.280 a reason start to their shift. Becca, what is your 0:24:41.720 --> 0:24:44.320 not fully fleshed out thought that you'd like to share 0:24:44.359 --> 0:24:47.760 with the world. So there's some sad news that we 0:24:47.800 --> 0:24:51.760 need to share that Sam Grobart, who was taking over 0:24:51.800 --> 0:24:54.399 while you were on maternity leave, has moved on to 0:24:54.480 --> 0:24:57.680 a new job, but he inspired me in so many ways, 0:24:58.119 --> 0:25:01.160 but also for this half big take and that if 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:03.600 you are starting a new job you should be a 0:25:03.640 --> 0:25:06.560 little bit scared. I'm with that, Okay, go on, And 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:08.720 I think it's like, you know, if you're leaving a 0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:10.320 job that you I think if you're leaving a job 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:13.080 you like, which I think Sam liked it here, it's 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:15.920