Zoning Out? Readers' Experiences - Solutions

"I was so wrapped in a task, I hadn't figured out how to solve yet," Alina Popescu reflects, "that I went into the office and ended up going in the opposite direction." Anna says she can be so focused on a task that she doesn't hear what her husband says to her. Or perhaps you've been reading a book that just doesn't hold your interest. Do you ever experience times when you "zone out"?

"After going through an intersection," Andrew relates, "it will sometimes occur to me that I did not actually consciously check whether or not the traffic light was actually green or not. Of course, a quick glance in the rear view mirror, plus the fact that I did not actually have an accident, provides evidence that yes, indeed the light was in fact green. Nevertheless, I am amazed sometimes by my tendency to operate on auto-pilot during the driving process." That's a kind of zoning out that might be described as "unbridled reverie."

Interestingly, there are differences in the ways we "zone out" or "daydream." Jonathan Schooler finds that there's a "difference between unbridled reverie and constructive daydreaming." Only people who experience a daydream state demonstrate an upswing in creativity. How would you define the times you catch yourself "zoning out?" As you can see there's a big difference.

Here's what some readers offer on "zoning out" or "daydreaming":

If you are bored and not focused on a task you may need some guidance. GeologyJoe says that he can't "presume people working under him know the responsibilities of a job because they claim they have done it before." To avoid that he explains job details before they embark on the task. "If they were/are REALLY thinking and engaged in the task," GeologyJoe notes, "because it is new or something there is more self driven communication back to me and less errors." You can see how engagement often comes from the novelty of performing new tasks. That helps overcome the tendency to get bored on the job. Think productively daydreaming ahead of time about a new task would help?

Craig Brown asked how you would apply creativity to program/project management. Craig suggests focusing people on outcomes. You'd be interested in strategies HR World listed from productivity and time management expert Laura Stack (2006) to reap productivity from daydreams:

• Avoid using daydreaming to procrastinate.
• Pick a "designated daydreaming place." Create or develop new strategies by giving yourself some downtime in a place that offers solitude.
• Set time limits. Stack suggests that for the most effective brainstorming, allow a minimum of 15 minutes but no more than an hour.
• Give purpose to daydreaming. Consider a plan or problem to set your mind free on while daydreaming.
• To reap the most from daydreams, capture them by writing them down or recording them.
• So, don't assume that your daydreamers are costing your company money. By allowing for - or even encouraging - focused daydreaming, organizations can help keep employees creative and productive not just during the holidays but all year long.

Anna, Ed Lisbe, suggests some "you-focused" strategies to help overcome lack of focus when your husband talks to you. Lisbe says poor listening occurs because we haven't had good role models. Poor listening is a "difficult habit to break because there are so few role models around for us to copy. Most likely, our parents haven't been good listeners to us or to others. Our teachers probably weren't good listeners. Most bosses aren't good listeners. Our friends or neighbors? Doubtful. Our elected political representatives?" Lisbe provides practical strategies to grow as a listener.

Mard stopped by to share Danger! Overload!. He includes a 9-minute video by Maggie Jackson on her book, Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. This helps us to be more aware that there is a problem when we get distracted because of "Internet overload."

"I have always hated sitting in meetings that bored me, JD Walton reports. "I adopted the task of trying to write most things that were said to force my concentration. I would end up with great notes and stay awake. It got real difficult when what was being said was not worth writing down." JD, to have more fun with this task, I suggest you capture the main points as doodles. Most of us think in pictures so the novelty of that transfer can help you even when you feel that something said isn't worth putting down. Or better yet, you can daydream about a project you need to complete!

"We spend between 15 and 50 percent of our waking hours daydreaming -- that is, straying away from focused tasks or external stimuli to inner thoughts, fantasies and feelings," Josie Glausiusz notes in Psychology Today, April 2009.

You and I can benefit if we make those daydreaming hours productive rather than lapsing into reveries. And let's plan for strategies to stay focused if we note we've been flirting with danger!

Thoughts?

Zoning Out When Doing Routine Tasks?

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -- it is the illusion of knowledge -- Danile J. Boorstin

Ever zone out? You read a couple of pages in Newsweek and realize you missed the point. Or, on the way to a monthly meeting, 10 miles past the expressway exit, you finally come to. It's as if you were on auto-pilot.

Lack of attentiveness can occur to you and me, when we assume we know something. We're so accustomed to the route, for example, that we no longer see it. What's going on, anyway? It's connected to the way your brain works

Picture part of your brain as a filing cabinet chock-full of routines developed over a lifetime. That's how your brain's basal ganglia works. Not too surprisingly, when you read something that isn't interesting to you, your eyes routinely take in the words, but you're day-dreaming of purchasing that new HD TV you saw a few pages back. Similarly you may be so familiar with a route that you don't pay close attention to it, though you are aware of the cars around you. In some ways that's scary. But the driving routine's deeply entrenched.

Good news... we can overcome mindlessness by seeing our world with fresh eyes, according to Ellen Langer of Harvard. "To be mindful," Langer notes, "stressing process over outcome, allows free rein to intuition and creativity, and opens us to new information and perspectives." Tapping intuition and creativity stimulate your brain's working memory.

Picture another tiny part of your brain as a graph that takes in new information quickly, combines it with what's stored in the filing cabinet to develop brand new patterns. That's similar to the way your working memory works. And the problem is if you do not act on the new information, the graph can quickly lose all the data.

Override your brain's default for ruts, Dr. Ellen Weber says. Get control of your distraction reflex...Put the ordinary under a looking glass and discover a surprising element. Or, change your performance in subtle ways as Weber advises.

Test your concentration level Here's a quick test to determine your ability to concentrate on a task and whether you have a well-developed portfolio of strategies to apply yourself.

How would you Reinvent Yourself through Mindful Creativity at work? I'll include your ideas in a follow-up blog.

Tips to Overcome Wandering Brain

Ever stop to consider how much time you're wasting through a wandering brain? New research shows our brains tend to wander during mundane tasks and boring lectures. In fact, psychologist Malia Mason discovered that daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the mind and brain regions related to it. What's behind this anyway?

The research team speculates that

when engaged in a mundane task, mind wandering allows people to remain properly aroused. Alternatively, they say, daydreams could be a conduit for uniting experiences from a person's past or present to their future. Or, the brain may just have evolved the ability to handle more than one function at once.

Good news is that by zeroing on a compelling task, the meandering stops immediately, according to Harvard Research.

So, what can one do to bring focus to a boring committee meeting if you discover your mind wanders?

Here're some tactics to spark more of your brain...

1. Listen carefully to jot down just one word, beside a person's name, to summarize ideas, when a committee member speaks. [Recognizing patterns - Logical-mathematical intelligence]

2. Doodle icons which summarize ideas presented, if you're more spatially oriented. [Translating ideas to images - Spatial intelligence]

3. Keep this question stirring in your head -- Where to from here? And in an appropriate moment, be ready to share your nugget for the committee to move forward. [Reflection - Intrapersonal intelligence]

4. Do quick research ahead of the meeting to discover an insight. Share at the right moment. [Reading articles - Verbal-linguistic intelligence]

And, all these strategies involve higher cognitive brain functions.

Just think, you can be the one to change the nature of a "boring committee" if you strategize ahead for a compelling focus by using more of your brain!

Thoughts?