Digital Distraction Management Tips

One of 21st-century life's cruelest ironies is that technology has saved us a lot of time, which we then turn around and spend using said technology. American attention spans have dropped to a demoralizing five minutes. Most of us are constantly being bombarded by distractions, from coworkers to texts and emails to enticing Web headlines.

Digital classroom tools like computers, tablets and smartphones offer exciting opportunities to deepen learning through creativity, collaboration and connection, but those very devices can also be distracting to students. Similarly, parents complain that when students are required to complete homework assignments online, it's a challenge for students to remain on task.

December 9, 2013 by Sarah Layton Are you managing digital distractions? This is where we are today according to the article " Age of Distraction: Why It's Crucial for Students to Learn to Focu s" found on Mind/Shift. The article paints a pretty scary picture of student minds in today's digital age.

S The Pomodoro technique is a productivity method that utilizes timers and breaks, emphasizing working in focused bursts. Marketing consultant Greg Head explains how to use the Pomodoro technique to train your brain to work in spurts for better concentration and better work output.

More and more iPads are finding their way into classrooms. They are a wonderful tool for students, allowing them to practice, create, and play (they are learning without even knowing it) . Teachers are becoming more and more familiar with the iPad and how they can productively use them in their classrooms. A few issues...

There's no doubt that technology can be addictive -- seeing that someone liked your Facebook post literally gives you a hit of dopamine. But these temporary distractions can waste hours. Here's how to cut the techno clutter and take back control of your time. More from Health.com: The New Energy Foods: Helpful or Hype?

Posted on Jul 23, 2013 | 1 comment While cell phones, iPads and computers provide great ways to stay connected and informed, they can also limit quality time between teens and parents. Nancy L.

At some point in the last decade, computers - laptops especially - have become a part of the classroom experience as important as having a chair to sit in and a book to read. Their multiple uses make school supplies such as pens, notebooks and planners seem like tools of the dinosaurs.

The research is now clear - multi tasking is not efficient or effective. And yet we continue to attempt it. Jumping from email to SMS, report writing to telephone call, tweet reading to article, and back to email and text at the end of the 20 minutes just described!

Recently a reader asked me, "Pete, I dig and the whole accountability thing, but I'm having trouble holding myself accountable. I often need to focus on computer tasks when no one's watching and things aren't especially urgent...and that's the perfect storm for me getting totally distracted by Facebook / funny links / email / texts / dumb stuff.

Between today's devices, apps and online tools, office workers are pretty set in terms of resources for getting a job done. Unfortunately, such digital support isn't without its downers, including a hefty amount of data, numerous alerts, and other distractions that periodically steal the spotlight over the course of a work day.

Let's face it-digital tools are constantly competing for our attention in this business. Paying attention to how we're spending time is becoming more and more important for companies and individuals. Here are some ways to avoid digital distractions so you can buckle down and get some work done. 1. Avoid multitasking.

The One Step Checkout Extension is an extension that allows your customers to fill in all the details required during checkout on a single page rather than redirecting them on multiple pages.

More Details: http://bit.ly/1rlVL12

It takes one frustrating class period with students to cause the idea of using devices in the classroom to go to the back burner. They were distracted! They wanted to play games, take pictures of themselves, text their buddies.....

From fidgeting to shifting between different tasks, six techniques to help distracted ADD/ADHD students focus at school and on their homework. ADHD symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment information for adults and children from experts in attention deficit and learning disabilities like dyslexia.

In the course of researching this post, my phone vibrated seven times. I checked Facebook three times and my email twice. An article that should have taken me at most ten minutes to read took me double that.

This school year I joined the staff of a 1:1 high school here in Philadelphia. Students at the school have access to their own devices, which they take home with them. Although I've taught for many years in classrooms where each student had a school-issued device, the experience of my new students taking their devices home has forced me to reflect on the issue of distraction.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - On the eve of a pivotal academic year in Vishal Singh's life, he faces a stark choice on his bedroom desk: book or computer? By all rights, Vishal, a bright 17-year-old, should already have finished the book, Kurt Vonnegut 's "Cat's Cradle," his summer reading assignment.

This morning I learned a new word for information overload - "content fried" from a colleague at the Packard Foundation. It resonated. We have so much content in our professional lives. I'm talking about the stuff we consume daily to keep inform of our professional fie

How often do you check your smartphone? Does it join you on the sofa, at dinner, or even in bed? It wasn't so long ago - relatively - that we were learning how to switch on our first mobile phones.

Children, parents, and teachers all have to fight the number-one enemy of school productivity-and that is distraction. A distraction is anything that shifts attention from where it needs to be. Avoiding distractions during school is especially important because effective learning takes time, energy, and motivation.

A week ago, I shared a post asking parents and teachers how they manage digital distraction in the classroom and at home. We've had several replies in the comments section. Be sure to check them out and add yours if you haven't already!

Having so many great web-based tools at the tips of our fingers makes learning, researching, and discovering new information wonderfully easy. However, all of this comes with one caveat: there are an equal number (if not more) of distractions available just as easily. The internet, for many, can be a huge black hole of procrastination.

"Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus." - Ann Voskamp Our world has become a constant feed of information, noise, and entertainment. Our phones live not just in our pockets, but in front of our eyes. The influence of the Internet and its constant stream of information is accessible from nearly corner of our world.