The Dangers of Continuous Partial Attention

Continuous partial attention is the term used to describe the state that so many of us find ourselves in on a regular basis in this digital world we live in.  Email, phone calls, text messages, social media, streaming media, news feeds, and so many other distractions work to divide our attention continuously throughout the day.  The problem here is that there is a cost to our memory and mental processes every time we switch from one point of attention to another – and for those of us who are recovering from a brain injury, it can be even more costly.

Task Switch Cost

Studied as far back as 1927, task switch cost refers to the decrease in performance or accuracy, or time loss as we reorient to the requirements of a new task ⁽¹⁾.  This cost includes higher latencies and higher error rates on the tasks being performed ⁽²⁾.  Each time we switch tasks, two things happen in the part of our brain performing executive function: goal setting and rule set change ⁽³⁾.  For example, when we switch from working on email to checking our Twitter account, what we are trying to accomplish (new goals are set) changes as well as our requirements, such as how we interact with the software (rule set). 

The time loss we experience on each switch may only be a fraction of a second as our minds reorient to the new task, but when we are repeatedly switching, this adds up, as does our potential error rate.  Switching back and forth between two tasks has a cost but moving randomly between several different tasks can mean an even greater switch cost.  Our net result can be that we lose a significant amount of productivity to the switch cost associated with what we think of as multitasking.

Longer Term Costs

Studies have shown that when we practice task switching throughout our days, especially with digital media, we become less able to filter out irrelevant distractions ⁽⁴⁾.  What this really comes down to is that improving our ability to task switch reduces our ability to remain focused on a single task.  I already struggle with being able to focus because of how my brain injury changed things for me.  Combine this with the fact that the very nature of my job is reinforcing this problem, and it has become a real concern for me.

My Daily Task Switching

When everything we do professionally involves using a computer, our exposure to media and our task switching requirements can be extensive.  Here’s a common scenario for my workday: 

• I login to my computer in the morning with the intent of checking my calendar for the day.
• Because Outlook starts with the email display, I’m distracted by my inbox content.
• I start scanning my emails to check subject lines and senders to identify my higher priority requirements. 
• I’m interrupted by a notification sound and pop up that tells me I have a Teams call coming in. 
• I answer it and one of my users tells me he’s having a software problem. 
• I start my remote connection software.
• While the software is connecting to the user’s computer, I look back at my inbox to continue scanning content.
• An email pops in with an urgent HelpDesk ticket for me so I open it just as the remote connection is established.

I need to stop here, because I realize I could fill a whole page with a simple list of my distractions in the first half hour of my average day.  And here’s the rub, up until now, I had thought I was just multitasking.  Now I understand the difference.  At work, I’m just switching from one task to another throughout every workday.

I’m in the high-risk group for training my brain to be even less able to focus than it already is.  Yes, I’m good at my job, but perhaps it’s time that I looked at my work habits to see what I can change.  My basic understanding here is that I need to reduce the number of things I switch my attention between throughout the day.

Reducing My Distractions

There are some things I have no control over, but there are a few that I do.  In my role, I can’t silence my phone during the workday, or turn off the notifications for Teams chat messages or calls.  But I can disable some of my most frequent distractions, and I’ve been working on this recently.

My first step here to turn off the sound and the pop up from Outlook that was happening every time an email came in.  There are some days I may get fifty or sixty emails, so you can imagine how distracting it can be when every few minutes my computer dings and a pop up appears on my screen with the email sender and subject line displayed.  This may have been one of my greatest distractions, because every time the pop up appears, I immediately process the response priority or action requirement in the context of what I’m doing just then.  All too often, I would stop what I was doing and immediately switch tasks.  Now, I’m working to build the habit of just checking my email periodically through the day, but not while I’m trying to focus on a specific task.

I also disabled the Windows notification system that always pops up on my screen telling me I have emails waiting, or that the system needs an update, or any number of other pieces of information that are completely irrelevant most of the time.  But for clarification, I do keep Outlook’s meeting notifications active, so I don’t accidentally miss a scheduled activity.

New Work Habits

This has reduced the number of distractions through my workday but only addresses part of the problem.  Because Windows lets me have so many things open at one time, visual distractions can also plague me.  Let’s talk about Teams meetings for a minute.

Teams is a great tool for meetings in this work from home world we find ourselves in.  Every morning, we have a short department meeting, both to discuss work issues and just to connect.  But, when I look at the camera images of everyone in the meeting, I see eyes wandering continuously throughout the meeting.  They’re answering emails, writing emails, looking at their schedules or working on a project while the meeting happens.  I know… I was doing it, too.

So now, when I’m in a meeting, that’s where I am.  I minimize all open programs except for Teams, and I maximize it to fill my screen.  Now all I can see is the people I’m here to meet with – and I find it is making such a huge difference in my engagement levels.

This simple discovery prompted me to start this behavior with every application I use.  When I’m using a particular software, that’s the only thing that’s open on my screen – and it’s so much easier to maintain my focus.  I’m no longer doing quick scans across the other program windows and being distracted by the moments of processing what I’m seeing or noticing changes such as a new email arriving. 

Next Steps?

My intent now is to continue to explore my daily habits and explore what distractions I can get rid of.  I’m looking at using my daily scheduler to schedule time where I have only one activity to complete.  For example, writing this post.  I needed to set aside some time slots that were for this activity alone, and not look at my phone, not check my email.  I stayed focused very well, and this post took much less time than most of my posts do.

In Closing

My guidance is that you look at where you can reduce distractions.  The impact extends way beyond just the moment, because every daily activity we do trains our brain to be better at that activity.  I mean to train my brain to focus better so I can do the things I want to do, and so I can do them both faster and better.

References

1. Jersild, A.T., (1927), Mental Set and Shift
2. Liefooghe, B., Barrouillet, P., Vandierendonck, A., Camos, V., (2008), Working Memory Costs of Task Switching
3. Meyer, D. E., Evans, J. E., Rubinstein, J. S., (2001), Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching
4. Ophir, Nass, and Wagner, (2009), Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers