[Tech&No Stress] Are we losing our minds? Staying productive in a chaotic world
We all cherish our concentration, memory, and social interactions, and yet our non-stop relationship with our digital devices seems to be impacting these key brain functions. How can we find a balance?
Hacks to face non-stop change
In a hyper-active life full of digital wonders, here are a few hacks to stay balanced:
Multi-task less. Return to the idea of doing one thing at a time.
Change you way of thoughtlessly checking your email and social media, by setting up specific times for these tasks.
Increase opportunities for contact with real people, as nothing replaces it.
Simplify your life and that of your clients, colleagues, family, etc, in order to not contribute to the ambient overwhelm.
Meditate and sleep. Period.
In a 2019 study, an international team of researchers found that Internet use “can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognition, which may reflect changes in the brain, affecting our attentional capacities, memory processes, and social interactions.”
The study pinpoints two key potential changes:
The endless flow of notifications and calls to action is constantly dividing our attention, which reduces our capacity to concentrate on a single task.
And, because we have constant access to factual information, we could potentially be storing and valuing facts and knowledge differently, which could have societal impacts.
For Professor Jerome Sarris, Deputy Director and Director of Research at NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University and senior author on the report, “The bombardment of stimuli via the Internet… along with the increasing #Instagramification of society, has the ability to alter both the structure and functioning of the brain, while potentially also altering our social fabric.”
He suggests, “Internet hygiene” techniques (not a very sexy term, but clear), “To minimise the potential adverse effects of high-intensity multi-tasking Internet usage.”
What stands out is that our digital usage, like all the rest, is to get the most out of all the available tools and distractions, without exaggerating, and always being aware of what we are doing.
Retro to the rescue
This makes me think of an article on Singularity Hum about “non-obvious trends” (Singularity Hub sur les “tendances non-évidentes”) influencing our future, which stemmed from nine years of research by author Rohit Bhargava.
The first of these trendies is what Bhargava calls “Retro Trust.” He says “People like nostalgic experiences.” In the face of technology that quickly replaces the old with something brand new, he deduces that people are looking for familiar, reliable things to counter all this rapid-fire change. His examples include collecting vinyl records and reducing telephones to just calls and text messages. He counsels leader to capitalise on this sentiment and look for opportunities to bring the reliable and familier to the forefront.
It makes me think of the growing interest for simplicity and digital minimalism, which I discussed in [Tech&No Stress] Digital Free-for-all vs Intentional Use.
And it also reminds me of the huge interest in meditation and mindfulness, which has taken businesses by storm. Rightly so. There are endless studies demonstrating the benefits of this practice in reducing stress. It can change your brain.
Leaders in the health and wellness world keep explaining how we cannot not meditate. All entrepreneurs, leaders and managers today should be exploring this practice. For that matter, meditation is one of the most powerful hacks available to rediscover another activity that has become a bit nostalgic today: sleep. The latter is a primary contributor to our productivity and well-being and far too neglected.