Last
Monday night, my boyfriend, Trey, took me out for dinner. He knows that Red Lobster is one of my
favorite restaurants, so he decided we would go there. We had great conversation, ate way too many
cheesy garlic biscuits and then mozied on out with our lunches for the next day
in to-go bags. While in bed that night, long after Trey had
fallen asleep, my brain was trying to shut down, but in the process was forcing
me to remember every single thing that needed to be done in the upcoming days. The
television was off (thanks to a particular dog that chewed the remote into a
bajillion pieces) and as these thoughts were ticking by, one stood out and
began to come to the surface as a real thought – not the dazed, sleepy stream
of consciousness: Trey and I had conversation
at dinner. I thought to myself, Why is this in the forefront of my mind? We
talk every day; we live together, for
crying out loud. The harder I
looked, the clearer it became.
As I remembered our dinner, I didn’t hear or see one television while at Red Lobster. Sure they had them there, but they were at the bar for the patrons coming to watch the Olympics while enjoying a draught beer and there was a large ceiling-high display and many booths in between us and the bar.
I didn’t hear one song on the radio.
I didn’t hear any type of white noise.
I didn’t hear misbehaving, unruly children (this was just luck!).
Nothing.
The people around us talked softly and the only interruption was when our waitress came over asking us if we needed anything. There were no distractions. After leaving our quiet, nuisance-free dinner, it was as if my psyche had been cleansed and refreshed. I stood a little straighter, thought a little clearer and was better equipped to make decisions.
In today’s world, there is stimuli everywhere. You can’t go anywhere without having an LCD screen 10 feet from your face: waiting rooms, convenient stores, fitting rooms, check-out lines, even at gas stations - there are now televisions on top of the gas pumps! I presume this is to resolve the very real problem of the 1.5 minutes of boredom a person may have while pumping gas. There is rarely a minute of life that goes by where there is not some sort of music, advertising, talking, humming, pinging, dinging or donging to alert your brain to something other than your thoughts or your family. How many times does a smart phone alert you to something in a 10 minute period? How many times does an ad come on in the middle of your “background music” Pandora station, breaking any type of concentration you might have? This world is out.of.control with its’ constant “look at me” marketing campaigns to attempt to make everything easier. Everything except thinking.
As my brain took off full speed running with this thought, I realized that it starts as young as infancy. It would be hard to find a baby these days that goes to sleep without something running – a Sleep Sheep sound machine, an iPhone lullaby station, a fan, the sound of rushing water, etc. And while they are awake – they are ambushed by the overstimulation of Nintendo DSes, televisions, radios, laptops, iPads, iPods, iPhones and anything else that begins with i. There is so much going on in our environment at any given moment, that it makes it very difficult for us to think about one thing for an extended moment and try to work through or solve a problem.
But you say, “But I’m really good at multitasking!” or “I work better when I have white noise!” Yes, we can multitask – kind of. It’s been found that doing more than one thing at once, even just listening to something else, limits the quality of said tasks. In an article from a Kansas State newspaper, he sums up that multitasking isn’t really multitasking.
As I remembered our dinner, I didn’t hear or see one television while at Red Lobster. Sure they had them there, but they were at the bar for the patrons coming to watch the Olympics while enjoying a draught beer and there was a large ceiling-high display and many booths in between us and the bar.
I didn’t hear one song on the radio.
I didn’t hear any type of white noise.
I didn’t hear misbehaving, unruly children (this was just luck!).
Nothing.
The people around us talked softly and the only interruption was when our waitress came over asking us if we needed anything. There were no distractions. After leaving our quiet, nuisance-free dinner, it was as if my psyche had been cleansed and refreshed. I stood a little straighter, thought a little clearer and was better equipped to make decisions.
In today’s world, there is stimuli everywhere. You can’t go anywhere without having an LCD screen 10 feet from your face: waiting rooms, convenient stores, fitting rooms, check-out lines, even at gas stations - there are now televisions on top of the gas pumps! I presume this is to resolve the very real problem of the 1.5 minutes of boredom a person may have while pumping gas. There is rarely a minute of life that goes by where there is not some sort of music, advertising, talking, humming, pinging, dinging or donging to alert your brain to something other than your thoughts or your family. How many times does a smart phone alert you to something in a 10 minute period? How many times does an ad come on in the middle of your “background music” Pandora station, breaking any type of concentration you might have? This world is out.of.control with its’ constant “look at me” marketing campaigns to attempt to make everything easier. Everything except thinking.
As my brain took off full speed running with this thought, I realized that it starts as young as infancy. It would be hard to find a baby these days that goes to sleep without something running – a Sleep Sheep sound machine, an iPhone lullaby station, a fan, the sound of rushing water, etc. And while they are awake – they are ambushed by the overstimulation of Nintendo DSes, televisions, radios, laptops, iPads, iPods, iPhones and anything else that begins with i. There is so much going on in our environment at any given moment, that it makes it very difficult for us to think about one thing for an extended moment and try to work through or solve a problem.
But you say, “But I’m really good at multitasking!” or “I work better when I have white noise!” Yes, we can multitask – kind of. It’s been found that doing more than one thing at once, even just listening to something else, limits the quality of said tasks. In an article from a Kansas State newspaper, he sums up that multitasking isn’t really multitasking.
“For one, it is worth noting that the human brain doesn't literally multitask. Neuroscientist Jordan Grafman was quoted by Claudia Wallis in a March 27, 2006, Time article titled, "The Multitasking Generation," saying, "You're doing more than one thing, but you're ordering them and deciding which one to do at any one time."
The human brain is analogous to a computer processor. Computers don't run multiple operations at once, even though we might have Word, Firefox and iTunes running at the same time. Instead, they jump between tasks thousands of times per second, and we can't quite keep up, so it seems like they are doing many things at once.
Our brains work in much the same way. We don't truly keep track of multiple activities at once; we jump back and forth between tasks and later congratulate ourselves for having nigh-omnipotent multitasking powers.”
These
thoughts led me thinking about my teaching of children, which naturally led me
to thoughts about training dogs (because they are so very close!). I realized that I am totally, 100% guilty of
setting up distractions for dogs without even realizing it, particularly new
dogs that come in to our home. Lights switching on and off, televisions on in
the bedroom and living room, phones alerting us to Facebook messages, emails or
texts, the dishwasher and laundry beeping when finished, iTunes on shuffle….and
this is all without children in the house adding to the chaos. What has become “everyday” noise is really a
whole lot of extra, completely unnecessary sound overload.
It can take up to 60 seconds for a dog’s brain to process a word that comes out of your mouth and the action associated with it. After teaching a dog to ‘sit’, wait a few minutes and then tell your dog to “sit” again. Do not repeat the command. Wait a full 60 seconds – I’ve tested this and believe me 60 seconds is a long time to look at a dog standing in front of you – and if you’ve properly taught the command, you will watch their brains slowly process the command and then perform the action. Amazing, huh?
If, within that 60 seconds, the television is blaring, a child walked by with a Gameboy and your phone begins to ring, do you think that the dog will ever perform the command? No way José. Their brain has already begun to follow the stimuli that it is absorbing from the environment.
Remember that our brains are simple tools, capable of complex things. So are dogs.
And both perform best when focused on one task at a time.
It can take up to 60 seconds for a dog’s brain to process a word that comes out of your mouth and the action associated with it. After teaching a dog to ‘sit’, wait a few minutes and then tell your dog to “sit” again. Do not repeat the command. Wait a full 60 seconds – I’ve tested this and believe me 60 seconds is a long time to look at a dog standing in front of you – and if you’ve properly taught the command, you will watch their brains slowly process the command and then perform the action. Amazing, huh?
If, within that 60 seconds, the television is blaring, a child walked by with a Gameboy and your phone begins to ring, do you think that the dog will ever perform the command? No way José. Their brain has already begun to follow the stimuli that it is absorbing from the environment.
Remember that our brains are simple tools, capable of complex things. So are dogs.
And both perform best when focused on one task at a time.
So,
turn off the distractions every now and then and focus on what’s important:
yourself and your family. What’s the
sound you hear when the power goes out? It’s total revival of your spirit.
