Listener Favorites: Gloria Mark | Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity

The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

Srinivas Rao

Society & Culture

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2025

⏱️ 64 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Psychologist Gloria Mark shares her groundbreaking research on attention span and introduces the concept of "kinetic attention" as a new framework for understanding how our brains function in the digital age. In this podcast episode, she offers practical tips for restoring balance and improving our mental resources to find success and wellness in our daily lives. Tune in to take control of your attention and boost productivity, happiness, and overall well-being.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	As you probably notice, this month, we're bringing you our Life of Purpose series and revisiting
0:04.6	some of our most transformative episodes. Tune in to explore expert insights and practical
0:09.4	strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve
0:14.4	personal and professional fulfillment. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll not only get
0:18.5	recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free Life of Purpose ebook.
0:24.5	What you have to do is go to UnmistakableCreative.com slash LifePurpose.
0:28.1	Again, that's UnmistakableCreative.com slash Life Purpose.
0:32.2	And every time we switch attention, think of it as erasing the information you needed for that last task and having
0:40.8	to write new information for the current task you're doing. And that's a switch cost. That takes
0:47.0	time for our minds to come up with this new information. Sometimes, just like with a real
0:53.1	whiteboard, we can't erase it completely,
0:56.6	and there's a residue. And so if I'm reading some gripping news story, and then I try to go back
1:04.4	to work, that new story, parts of it might stay with me and interfere with my task at hand. So that's another kind of cost.
1:14.3	And of course, you're right. It causes stress. We know in laboratory research, it increases
1:20.8	blood pressure. There's a physiological marker that's associated with stress that rises.
1:34.8	In my work where we've used heart rate monitors, we see a very strong correlation with stress and attention shifting.
1:37.4	And people report subjectively that they have higher perceived stress when their attention shifts.
1:49.0	I'm Sreeny Rao, and this is the Unmistakable Creative Podcast,
1:53.0	where you get a window into the stories and insights of the most innovative and creative minds
1:57.0	who started movements, built thriving businesses, written bestselling books, and
2:01.6	created insanely interesting art. For more, check out our 500 episode archive at UnmistakableCreative.com.
2:11.5	Gloria, welcome to The Unmistakable Creative. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us.
	...

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