Management
constant barrage of emails that arrive at all times of the day
and night is not only stressful and draining, but it’s also incred-
ibly difficult to regain focus after an email distraction has
derailed your thoughts. Software giant, Atlassian, commis-
sioned a study to uncover the costs of email. The study
concluded that it takes an average of 16 minutes to refocus
back to peak performance after handling an incoming email.
Yikes! Furthermore, most people gravitate towards short term
pleasure and what’s more short term than looking at an incom-
ing message from a friend or new post on a social media site.
Distractions in the work environment are problems for obvious
reasons, namely they inhibit peak performance by normalizing
multitasking and they waste company time and resources in
the process. Distractions are also a problem for a not-so-
obvious reason: being bored is good for creativity. Author of
Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most
Productive & Creative Self, Manoush Zomorodi, argues that
our love for technology and our inability to have quiet moments
for boredom is making us less creative. She explains that when
we are bored we activate a network in our brains called default
mode. This happens when we’re folding the laundry or cooking
dinner, for example. Our brains during this time are actually
quite active and our mind wanders beyond the conscious into
the subconscious to make connections that wouldn’t have
otherwise been made. I find this true for myself, as my most
creative thoughts and ideas tend to happen while I’m driving.
16 | October 2018 | GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE
I’m concentrating on the road, but my creative brain has the
time and space it needs to pursue deeper work.
Unitasking for a better tomorrow
It’s understandably difficult to put down our devices and focus
on a single task when there are literally thousands of engineers
at Facebook and Netflix, for example, whose job it is to capture
our attention and keep it for as long as possible. The CEO of
Netflix recently said that their biggest competitors are Face-
book, YouTube, and sleep.
As difficult as it may be to carve out distraction-free time to
focus on a singular task, it’s critical to preserving the creative
thought that makes us human. Therefore, unitasking might be
more important than any of us imagine if it means helping to
innovate for a better tomorrow.
Ultimately, research shows that our ability to focus on one
thing at a time, pursue deep work, and leave room for bore-
dom simultaneously fosters calmness while helping us feel
more energized. Sound too good to be true? Try it for yourself.
I dare you.
Diana Varma is an Instructor at the School of Graphic
Communications Management at Ryerson University and the
Owner of ON-SITE First Aid & CPR Training Group, a health & safety
company that provides training to the Graphic Arts Industry.
graphicartsmag.com