The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance

Attention Span: How It’s Getting Lost & How to Get it Back – Gloria Mark, Ph.D. : 1011

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Jan 13, 2023

In this fascinating discussion, Gloria Mark, a Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine, dives into the alarming decline of attention spans in the digital age, now averaging just 47 seconds. She shares insights from her book, exploring how constant interruptions impact stress and productivity. Gloria outlines the four types of attention and offers practical strategies to regain focus and establish flow states. Listeners will also learn how to navigate decision fatigue and combat the anxiety spurred by constant digital engagement.

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INSIGHT

Four Attention Types

There are four attention types: focused, rote, bored, and frustrated.
Rote attention, characterized by low challenge and light engagement, leads to the highest levels of happiness.

ANECDOTE

FreeCell and Focus

Dave Asprey's GPA increased when he played FreeCell during classes, suggesting rote activities can aid information absorption.
Gloria Mark explains this by suggesting rote work doesn't use full attentional capacity, leaving room for other information processing.

ADVICE

Strategic Rote Work

Incorporate rote activities strategically to replenish mental resources.
Instead of prolonged hard focus, use rote work to refresh and return with renewed focus.

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IN THIS EPISODE OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™…you’ll meet Gloria Mark, Ph.D., who studies how digital media impacts people's lives. Her research specifically covers how attention is affected by, and has changed, with the rise of the digital age. She’s found that attention span now averages 47 seconds on a screen—and even that’s shrinking.

As a Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California-Irvine researching human-computer interaction, Gloria examines how people handle multitasking, task-switching, interruptions, and emotions. Her new book “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity” looks at human technology use from a psychological perspective.

“In the thousands of hours that I have studied people in the course of their daily work, I have heard a common sentiment,” Gloria says in her book. “People report that they are overworked and exhausted because they have to deal with too much information and too many messages.”

This conversation gets into the science of attention, the stress it’s causing, plus real solutions for how you can regain focus with your personal technologies. You’ll learn:

How to recognize the four main types of attention;
What consequences of constant interruption do to your stress levels and productivity;
How to achieve focus, rhythm and balance in a day filled with attention-switching;
How to structure a flow state within your day; and
What four things you can do to gain agency in the digital world.

Watch this episode on YouTube!

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