为何你的生活总是碌碌却无为_大学英语阅读

为何你的生活总是碌碌却无为

Are we, though after reviewing thousands of books, articles and papers on the topic and interviewing dozens of experts in fields from neurobiology and psychology to education and literature,8 I don’t think so. When we accept this new and permanent ambient workload—checking business news in bed or responding to coworkers’ emails during breakfast—we may believe that we are dedicated, tireless workers.9 But, actually, we’re mostly just getting the small, easy things done. Being busy does not equate to being effective.

And let’s not forget about ambient play, which often distracts10 us from accomplishing our most important tasks. Facebook and Twitter report that their sites are most active during office hours. After all, the employee who’s required to respond to her boss on Sunday morning will think nothing of11 responding to friends on Wednesday afternoon. And research shows that these digital derailments are costly: it’s not only the minutes lost responding to a tweet but also the time and energy required to“reenter” the original task.12 As Douglas Gentile, a professor at Iowa State University who studies the effects of media on attention spans13, explains, “Everyone who thinks they’re good at multitasking is wrong. We’re actually multiswitching [and] giving ourselves extra work.”

Each shift of focus sets our brain back and creates a cumulative attention debt, resulting in a harried workforce incapable of producing sustained burst of creative energy.14 Constant connection means that we’re“always at work”, yes, but also that we’re “never at work”—fully.