Do you send text messages while you watch television? Perhaps you listen to music while you read? There are so many mediums of communication and entertainment available these days that it is tempting to overlap your use of them but that overlap can come at a cost. People who often multitask their media usage are known to have difficulty maintaining focus and attention on tasks. In a new study however, it has emerged that a simple mindfulness technique can enhance focus for those habitual multitaskers.
For the study subjects were classified according to whether they reported frequent media multitasking or if they rarely combined media. The subjects all spent parts of two days doing tests that measured their attention. On one day the tests were interspersed with internet surfing while on the other day each test was preceded by ten minutes of a breath counting exercise. This exercise simply involved sitting and counting breaths. Subjects were instructed that if their mind wandered from the task they should just bring themselves back to it and continue until the ten minutes had elapsed.
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The mindful breathing exercise is almost the polar opposite in terms of mental operations to the sorts of media multitasking we regularly engage in. No-one is able to stay engaged in the breath counting indefinitely and so it requires active practice in adjusting and refocusing attention.
The results showed that habitual media multitaskers did worse than others on the attention tests. However, after the mindful breath task all people showed better attention scores and heavy media multitaskers showed even greater improvements than others.
Whether the improvements will be long lasting remains to be tested but in short term the remedy for your poor focus might be–ooh, look I just got an email…what was I saying? Oh yes, your remedy for your poor attention span might be as simple as every breath you take.
