Find It Hard To Concentrate? That’s Because You’re Actually Really Clever

I call it too-many-tabs syndrome. Too-many-tabs is the state of being and mind and computer desktop where you have a dozen things whirring around your brain. You’re a buffet dinner of distraction. You’re a bit all over the place, but that’s okay, you just read the entire Wikipedia entry on Dallas, the television show. It might come in handy someday.

In ways, the thought of remedying the tendency to be that sort of person is tempting, especially when January hits. And yet, maybe being of the too-many-tabs school is a good thing, if one study is to be believed. According to research, those who find it hard to concentrate fully on the task right in front of them might actually be more intelligent than other souls, particularly in the workplace.

In fact, these distracted folk are not 100% there because they have some many new ideas brewing in their brains. Marie Claire quotes psychiatrist Dr Ned Hallowell, who fears that these people may feel inadequate as they are being held to a different standard, hence their ?inabiliity to deal with the workload as a whole? and the perception they don’t meet other people’s expectations.

This conclusion comes courtesy of workplace solutions company Steelcase, who looked at the concentration levels of 10,000 workers in 17 countries, with the following findings also coming to light:

• Most surveyed found it difficult to concentrate, with the majority saying they got distracted once every three minutes.
• People check their email on average every two minutes.
• Office workers have eight programmes open on their computers at once.

The takeaway: space cadets might be hidden genuises, but considering we’re all becoming distracted prisoners to our email it might actually mean nothing in the near future.

Via Marie Claire