The Better We Manage Our Mental Resources, the Better Our Ability to Handle Distraction

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When our mental resources are low, you can think of that as the time when we're very susceptible to being distracted. We don't have that defense up against distractions and it's very easy for us to do something that's easy. A study where we measured people's sleep the night before looked at this concept called sleep depth. It found there was a correlation with the time that people spend on easy activities the next day like Facebook. Why? Facebook is easy activity, doesn't involve mental resources,. People get distracted and go to Facebook because their mental resources are getting depleted through sleep depth.

Gloria Mark is Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology and studies the impact of digital media on people’s lives. She takes a deep dive in examining multitasking, interruptions, and mood with the use of digital devices. She has published over 200 articles, and in 2017 was inducted into the ACM SIGCHI Academy which recognizes leaders in the field of human-computer interaction.

Gloria's book, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, is available now!

Find more about Gloria at gloriamark.com.