• On Good Things Utah this morning – Is it tough for you to stay on task? Here’s why – your attention span is shrinking, studies say. One author says this: “I’ve been working steadily for hours now, but feel as if I haven’t even started. My attention is being pulled from my assigned task — writing this story — by a myriad of what I believe are necessary work interruptions. My kids and I call days like this “squirrel” days, in honor of Dug, the talking dog in (squirrel !!) the 2009 Pixar movie “Up,” who (squirrel !!) was constantly distracted by well, just about (squirrel !!) Unfortunately, all too many of us are having “squirrel” days, according to Dr. Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, who studies how digital media impacts our lives. In her new book, “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity,” Mark explained how decades of research has tracked the decline of the ability to focus.
    • “In 2004, we measured the average attention on a screen to be 2½ minutes,” Mark said. “Some years later, we found attention spans to be about 75 seconds. Now we find people can only pay attention to one screen for an average of 47 seconds.” Not only do people concentrate for less than a minute on any one screen, Mark said, but when attention is diverted from an active work project, it also takes about 25 minutes to refocus on that task. (Wait, what??)” We hope you tune in as the ladies dive into this Hot Topic (while keeping your attention:) and so much more this morning on Good Things Utah.