Most of us have tried and are unable to keep up with the onslaught of information that comes our way.
Add the deluge of distraction and it seems like a losing game. Or does it? You'll be amazed at how tiny tweaks can make a considerable difference to both learning and implementation.
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Ten years ago, I wasn't painting watercolours, knew very little of photography, and even at work, my output was a lot less than it is today.
Is it just the passage of time that makes the difference? Or is it the system of learning? I think both factors matter, but the second one–the method of learning–that makes all the difference.
Most of all, the method of learning you choose keeps you on track, while allowing for distractions when needed. To ignore distractions is a fool's game. Distractions are all around us, and it's smarter to learn to manage them, rather than eliminate them completely.
Let's get down that road, shall we? And find out how these three methods of learning help.
The three topics we are going to cover today are:
1) Why dual-tasking is often far superior to “focused-learning”.
2) Apps that Distract–And Why It Helps to Put a Restriction on Them
3) Using geolocation to get into learning mode.
1) Why dual-tasking is often far superior to “focused-learning”.
Does multitasking make you better at the task or worse? David Strayer is a professor of psychology at the University of Utah and studies attention–how it works and how it doesn't. His research didn't seem, at first, to come up with any breathtaking news. In almost all of the investigation, one thing stayed consistent.
No matter how much people insisted they were good at multitasking, each time someone switched to another task, the first one suffered. Even when dealing with hands-free devices, reaction times slowed, and attention decreased.
Yet, hidden in his research was something of a surprise.
About 2.5% of the research group were “supertaskers”. Due to some slight genetic variation, a very tiny subset of people does better when multitasking than performing a single task alone.
Most of us, even the people who are sure they're great at multitasking, are usually reasonably poor at it. Even so, it might be time to invent a term called “dual tasking”.
Multitasking strictly concentrates on the level of attention.
It rigidly looks at the attention you give to one task in comparison with another, which is to suggest that both functions are incredibly demanding. When driving, we may fool ourselves into believing we can control the car and chat on a hands-free speaker, but even back in 2010, about 28% of all deaths and accidents on highways were the results of drivers on their phones. So no, you shouldn't drink and drive, or talk and drive, or juggle and drive.
However, when doing low-intensity tasks, you may not need the same level of attentiveness.
Take, for instance, something I do almost every single day. After breakfast, I sit down at my dining table, and I paint in my watercolour diary for about 20-30 minutes.
I'm relatively practised at both sketching and painting, which means there's at least part of my brain that can handle another activity. I could, listen to a podcast, or could watch something on YouTube.
More often than not, I'll watch comedy, or go through an entire course.
In the past three-four weeks alone, I've finished entire video courses in photography. One by Nigel Danson on landscapes, one by Steve McCurry and the third by Joel Meyerowitz, all while sketching or painting.
That's 118 videos in all, all while doing another task. Part of the reason why this form of dual-tasking is possible is that both the jobs are low intensity.
Instead of trying to stop, make notes, and implement the information, I go through the entire course as an overview. If some chapters or videos are particularly exciting or require repeated viewing, I merely make a note of the sections and keep moving on.
To some, this activity of going from start to finish may seem reasonably pointless.
Yet, stop and think about how many courses you've finished recently. Or how many audiobooks lie unfinished on your device. What if you could effectively do another low-intensity activity and get right to the end of the course?
The sense of completion itself is a great achievement, but there's an added advantage. You've got a solid overview of the material. You know which parts were confusing, or which needed your full attention.
That's when your focus comes into play.
Having skimmed through the entire course, you can now dig deep into the bits that matter to you. I tend to go through parts of a course twice or thrice. In some cases, I've watched the same video as many as fourteen times, as I grapple with and implement the ideas.
It has enabled me to improve my skills in writing, in various types of software, languages, art, as well as my new found love of photography. While multitasking is usually pointless and often dangerous, dual-tasking works with low-intensity tasks.
Of course, dual-tasking isn't for everyone.
You might find watching a video or listening to a podcast highly distracting. Yet, it's something worth trying, if only for a short while. As we go through life, we find our to-learn and to-implement list getting longer all the time. To stay rooted in a method that's not working isn't exactly the way to move ahead.
Even so, there will be times when you need to focus, and no amount of advice helps. For instance, I'll happily draw and paint while listening to video or audio, but I have to turn everything off when writing the notes in my diary. The intensity required to think of what to write and then put it down on paper means that dual-tasking has to come to a grinding halt.
And here's the biggest irony of all
When I first started with watercolours, trying to watch a video at the same time was clearly out of the question. If anyone so much as came in the room, I'd indicate that I didn't want to speak, let alone see them.
In time, I got faster and better at watercolours. The same applied to my writing, photography and other tasks I practice very often. The job itself went from high intensity down to incredibly low intensity. To get to dual tasking, you have to lower the attention you need to achieve a particular task.
And in doing so, you become adept at doing and learning a lot more than everyone else. How cool is that?
2) Apps that Distract–And Why It Helps to Put a Restriction on Them
There are, broadly speaking, two types of apps.
1) Scrolling apps
2) Non-scrolling apps
If you look at the apps that are generally the most significant waste of time, they fall into the first category–the scrolling app. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest are some of the apps that seem to chew into a lot of our day.
Back in 2006, a technology engineer, Aza Raskin, invented the “infinite scroll”. “If you don't give your brain time to catch up with your impulses,” Mr Raskin said, “you just keep scrolling,” said Raskin.
Apps with the infinite scroll are where we tend to waste the most time in the day.
It's not enough to put a restriction on all apps. If you own an iPhone or iPad, for example, it will send you a weekly report on how much time you've spent on your device.
The first week or two, you may feel bad about how much time you've been wasting, but you see your usage go right up shortly after. The biggest reason why that weekly report doesn't restrain you is because it's based on everything you do on your device.
For instance, I draw on the iPad Pro.
When I'm watching a movie or a series on Netflix, I tend to draw and colour at least two or three cartoons. The software that measures my usage doesn't care to distinguish between productive work and wasted time.
Hence, when I get the report of higher usage at the end of the week, it's easier to ignore the increase in device time. You and I don't need a summary of all our usage. We need just a report on the use of “scrolling apps”.
Or better still, a way to nip the usage in the bud
A report is still a matter of “shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted”. A more effective way to avoid the distraction on your app is to restrict the app usage itself. I'm not sure if there's a method to do so on Android devices, but you can quite easily do so on the iPhone or iPad, which is how about setting a time limit for Facebook at 15 minutes every day.
Sure, Facebook still chomps up over an hour every week, but at least it's just an hour.
At times I'll go over the limit, spending another few minutes, but in restricting my usage of the specific apps, it's given me more time to do other things–like paint, or learn photography, or stay focused on my work. Or better still, to head to non-scrolling apps like Procreate where I can draw cartoons, instead.
P.S. If you want to take this app control to a whole new level on your computer as well, there are many subscription-based software packages too. However, if it's just your phone or tablet, you may be able to make this change and distract yourself for a limited time each day.
3) How I use geolocation to get into learning mode.
Right next to the Japanese restaurant we frequent is a playground.
Which means that if we're going to dinner with my nieces, Marsha and Keira, we invariably end up in the playground after dinner. If, on the other hand, we go to the Indian restaurant, there are zero demands for any playground activity. Why?
Because, as you'd suspect, there's no playground anywhere close to the Indian restaurant. In short, the type of activity is being facilitated by the environment.
Which, roughly speaking, is a type of “geolocation” learning Geolocation learning is where you put yourself in a specific spot to do a particular activity. Take, for instance, one of my favourite authors, William Dalrymple.
When writing his book, he's been known to leave New Delhi, where he lives and head up to Rajasthan to a specific hotel where he writes his historical bestsellers. An activity that involves putting yourself into a particular location to write isn't foreign to most of us, but it's a valuable tactic to get a lot of activities going.
For instance, by sitting down at the dining table to paint after breakfast, I've now completed between 2500-3000 pages of art. All the elements matter: the book, the paints, the time of day, the breakfast–and especially the location. If on the other hand, I need to plan for the podcast, I will head to a cafe nearby (usually at 2 pm), so I can get two precise hours before the cafe closes.
The trick, at least for me, is to find different locations for separate activities. There is no shortage of good cafes in Auckland, which means I'll pick one cafe for planning, another for writing, a third for reading, and so on. And while I'm charging the car (yes, I drive an electric), I'll meditate or complete my Day One photo diary.
The location itself becomes the trigger.
It's not essential to leave your office or home to achieve these goals. Even in a relatively small house, you can use different locations or rooms to do a particular task. The very fact that you're allocating a space, signals to your brain that you're in that location for a specific reason. Which, in turn, leads to a strong sense of purpose and less distraction.
It also means you walk a lot more and spend a lot less time in front of your computer.
I tend to park at least 5-10 minutes away from the cafe (in most cases) and then walk, getting an additional amount of exercise. When we go for our morning walk (and we do about 10 km a day) we often chat until the traffic lights. Once we get to the traffic lights, it's our geolocation to start listening to an audiobook or a podcast.
Most of us find it hard to keep learning.
Information keeps pummelling at us like a solar storm, and yet we have to do our best to stay somewhat on top of things. We can't ever catch up with the knowledge stream, and we never could, but it does help to do what we can. Sitting in one place may, at first, seem very practical.
Yet it doesn't engage the brain and distraction soon sets in. A different location and especially one that is designated to do a specific activity is probably a better idea. Even if you've got a rented co-working space, it's better to spend just a little of the time there, and use gardens, beaches, libraries or cafes to get different tasks done.
Geolocation is a powerful trigger. Use it to your advantage. My niece, Keira, sure does!
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