Homeostatic Response and the Art of Distraction
Author: Jenyse Ramage, Operations Manager and Product Lead, BioSymetrics
Author: Jenyse Ramage,
Operations Manager and Product Lead, BioSymetrics
BioSymetrics is not unlike other work environments. As the Operations Manager and Product Lead, I am constantly challenged with finding enough time in the day. Bombarded by deadlines, meetings, emails, notifications and external distractions, finding spare time can be an elusive endeavor.
What if there was enough time in a day? How much do you think we could get done? What would that feel like?
Imagine you have the day off and you’ve found a new series on Netflix. You make an agreement with yourself that at the end of the episode, you’ll get up and cook dinner. You’re watching the show with intent and interest, getting involved in the story of each character. As you watch the show, you notice that there’s only 5 minutes left, but the story isn’t over! What’s going to happen next? How can they finish the show in 5 minutes when the story complete? Then it happens, the show ends on a cliff hanger.
So what do you do now? You can either get up and cook dinner, or you can let Netflix continue to the next episode. We know what we should be doing, but then we get a notification on our phones from Instagram. Oh wait, there’s another one from Facebook and another from tik-tok and then we absolutely have to check our email because what if we missed something from work earlier. The list can go on and on and before we know it, we’re now 6 episodes in to the show, checking emails on the side and watching reels on Instagram for a quick laugh during the boring scenes but haven’t cooked dinner yet.
We do the same thing with work, unfortunately. We create to-do lists but don’t set time to complete these items. We become so overwhelmed with the daily tasks that we pull ourselves to distractions, unknowingly. Burnt out before we even begin usually.
Now, we’ve all read the books about being distracted and the external forces that cause this. We’ve all been given advice of putting our phones down, technology is bad and addictive, having the will power to just say no! But what if those are all wrong and unrealistic? What if will power isn’t a limited resource and we can’t truly be burnt out without feeding the mindset of self-depletion?
Author Carol Dwech and Veronica Job wrote a piece of Ego-depletion and how will power and the capacity to exert self control may not be a limited resource, as we are trained to believe.
“Childhood behavioral self-regulation is the capacity to focus and maintain attention on tasks and follow instructions to consciously regulate the self in line with goals, including the capacity to inhibit unwanted thoughts, feelings, or impulses; it is a key predictor for successful learning and adjustment to school and life (McClelland et al., 2007;Moffitt et al., 2013;Baumeister et al., 2018). Research suggests that successful self-regulation and goal striving depend on people's beliefs -or implicit theories -about the nature of willpower. These implicit theories capture whether people think of their willpower as a limited resource that becomes depleted easily and needs to be replenished by taking a break, eating, or resting or as something that is more stable and even becomes energized by previous strenuous self-control tasks”.
Now this is not to say that distractions or doing things that don’t naturally better our interests are completely and solely the result of self-regulation. There are external factors that must be taken into consideration. Depletion may result in a lack of true resources before, during and after an exhausting task. But these resources may be less limited than is commonly supposed.
When we really think about our lives and daily tasks (work and otherwise), we do not do things for the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain (quote freud here). Everything we tend to do, every behaviour carried out - traction or distraction, is motivated by the desire to modulate our mood to escape… discomfort. It's called the homeostatic response. This is the tendency of an organism or cell to regulate the chemical processes that take place internally to maintain health and functioning regardless of outside conditions (ie. temperature). Neurologically, we do this by avoidance of discomfort both emotionally and physically.
Now, all of this is very fancy writing and theories, but when reading this you want me to get to the point right? Let’s get there.
If we accommodate all items above, we can come up with a simple equation:
Time management (External Factors/Life) + Behaviour (Ego) = Pain Management (Homeostatic Response)
We can walk through steps to help ease the pain and discomfort that also helps us change our views and behaviour. Being burnt out is not the goal.
Identify Internal Triggers : Identifying internal triggers are imperative when we view external factors (work, tasks, people). If we can’t manage the boredom, uncertainty, fatigue and stress then no device, technique, life hack will save us.
Make time for tasks: Have a Calendar!! Now, not everyone likes calendars because they seem rigid and confined. Many of us love spontaneity. But calendars helps with that too. Allot time for free space to do whatever it is you like. Then build around that free space to add in your tasks from your to do list. The to do list is your output, the calendar is the tool to help you achieve them.
Decrease external triggers: Most think about the amount of pings we get in a day, so we need to put our phone away but those aren’t the distractions we want to turn off. Try thinking of the meaningless distractions that take you away from the actual task itself. This doesn’t mean sit in a quiet room with 1000 tabs open on your laptop because those are just as bad and distracting. Identifying the triggers that throw you off in your day (ie watching YouTube in one tab and coding in the other).
Make a pact: This comes after we identify internal triggers. Making a pact with ourselves to become AWARE of the external triggers. Do not make promises to AVOID them (this is like a fad diet that just doesn’t work). Once we form habits to be aware of what distracts us, we can focus on replacing them with things that benefit our overall interest.
Our desire is to be as productive as we can be during the day. But this doesn’t mean the exerting ourselves beyond our capacity is required. Our mindsets determine how much of our will power and overall mentality we can access at any given time.
References
Ego Depletion-Is It All in Your Head? Implicit Theories About Willpower Affect Self-Regulation. (2010). Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46579000_Ego_Depletion-Is_It_All_in_Your_Head_Implicit_Theories_About_Willpower_Affect_Self-Regulation
Willpower With or Without Effort is Sugar Coated Brain Body Cognition, 2020, vol 9, issue 4. (2020). Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344630610_Willpower_With_or_Without_Effort_is_Sugar_Coated_Brain_Body_Cognition_2020_vol_9_issue_4
Eyal, N. (2019). Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (Illustrated ed.). BenBella Books.