Stop Interrupting Me!

Here's nonsense at work #312

Now where as I?

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Reading time: about 1.2 minutes

Psst! What causes more harm to your IQ, smoking pot or being distracted?

And the answer is... no, not pot.

The correct answer is distractions.

Distractions can cause you a loss of IQ double that caused by smoking pot. That’s according to clinical trials by psychiatrist Dr. Glenn Wilson of King’s College London University. The research showed that being distracted by emails, text and phone messages can really mess with your mind. (As if you didn’t already know that.)

Dr. Wilson did the trials several years ago before pot became legal by the, well, pot load. But that does not mean that his findings are now invalid.

Just in case they are invalid, let’s consider interruptions. Other research has shown that when people or events interrupt you, it could take you as long as 25 minutes to get back into full swing. Even worse, 40 percent of the time you are likely to end up doing something completely different. (You also knew that already. From experience.)

The problem is not the interruption itself. The problem lies in what it does to your short-term memory. You simply forget what you were doing.

Interruptions don’t affect everyone to the same extent. When interrupted, men showed a larger drop in IQ than women. (Please don’t ask why. Let’s just blame it on pot luck.)

Now get back to work. If you can remember what you were doing.

Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.

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