Improving Concentration in a World Full of Distraction
Stefan van der Stigchel
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
Book a demo →from €2,250 for your whole company
This one runs as an interactive workshop: the hour includes exercises your colleagues do themselves, not only a talk.
Attention expert and cognitive psychologist Stefan van der Stigchel helps you to emerge victorious from the battle for your attention. He shows how concentration works, makes clear how we sometimes misuse our working memory and explains the latest scientific insights. But above all, he teaches techniques that allow you to maintain your concentration for longer, both while working from home and at the office. Stefan van der Stigchel is a professor in Cognitive Psychology at the department of Experimental Psychology at Utrecht University and principal investigator of the research group AttentionLab.
All sessions by Stefan →Emails, apps, banners, push notifications, trending topics and cat videos – today it's harder than ever to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. Is that a problem? Yes, because concentration is indispensable to be able to work creatively and productively.
Time for science to come up with answers. In this interactive session, Stefan teaches you how to increase concentration while working hybrid.
During the expert session, Stefan engages the audience through a Q&A session, live demonstrations of productivity techniques, and interactive exercises using the Mentimeter app. He shares insights into improving focus and productivity by taking breaks, engaging in mindfulness meditation, and creating healthy habits while acknowledging individual differences.
The audience learns about various productivity strategies, such as background noise and music, and the importance of collaboration and conversations with colleagues. Stefan also emphasizes the role of good nutrition and cautions against excessive use of caffeine.
Understanding how background noise and music can enhance concentration is essential, but individual differences play a significant role in what works best for each person.
Taking regular breaks throughout the day is crucial to maintain focus and productivity, with activities such as walking or engaging in mindless tasks allowing the brain to recharge.
Avoiding multitasking and instead focusing on one task at a time leads to increased productivity and improved overall focus and performance.
Engaging in conversations with colleagues about working together in the office setting fosters teamwork, creativity, and enhanced problem-solving abilities.
Proper nutrition, exercise, and limiting caffeine intake are all essential aspects of maintaining an optimal brain function for peak focus and productivity.
In this expert session, Stefan Van Der Stigchel discusses the significance of attention and concentration in our daily lives and how modern technologies have influenced these cognitive abilities. He explains that our working memory, which is responsible for carrying out complex tasks and relying on sustained focus, can only handle one thing at a time and is easily disrupted by distractions and interruptions.
Moreover, motivation plays an essential role in maintaining focus, and individual differences exist regarding people's ability to concentrate.
Stefan expresses skepticism towards the popular claim that today's generation has shorter attention spans than before, emphasizing the need to understand the underlying mechanisms of concentration and learning techniques to improve our focus. He highlights the importance of recognizing the impact of technology on our capacity for sustained attention and suggests practicing mindfulness meditation as a helpful tool to enhance focus.
Transitioning to the current context, Stefan discusses the challenges of maintaining productivity and focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly while working from home. He advises creating clear boundaries between work and personal life, taking breaks throughout the day for physical activity or engaging in activities with minimal focus, and setting aside dedicated time for focused work to minimize distractions and improve concentration.
Stefan also shares historical examples of influential figures such as Darwin, Beethoven, and Beeson, who had unique habits and routines that contributed to their success and creativity. He recommends practicing mindfulness meditation during breaks, engaging in activities with minimal focus during downtime, creating healthy habits, avoiding multitasking, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to boost overall productivity and focus.
In summary, Stefan's insightful session sheds light on the importance of attention and concentration, both personally and professionally, and provides valuable context for understanding the challenges posed by modern technologies in this regard. He encourages learning techniques to improve focus, emphasizing individual differences, and shares practical advice on maintaining productivity while working from home.
From the survey every participant gets when the session ends, in their own words.
Very good session - quite engaging and came away with a couple of ideas. Thank you!
Interesting session. Thanks Stefan
Really good session, very insightful - excellent clear speaker
What working memory is responsible for, concentration training tools, multi-tasking vs gender = a myth. As a recently diagnosed person with ADHD the entire talk was super beneficial for me. Thank you.
The 50 minutes meetings is something to be more aware off. Was very interesting, thank you!
I enjoyed it, I appreciate that this was available to tune into.
Thanks for the leqtures you are proposing to us
Great session! Stefan is very easy to listen to and is able to present things in a clear and understandable way.
No prior knowledge is assumed. It is built for a general working audience, and people who already know the subject get the research and the practical side rather than an introduction. What the hour itself covers: Emails, apps, banners, push notifications, trending topics and cat videos – today it's harder than ever to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. Is that a problem?
A workshop. The description of this session says so itself: the hour includes exercises and activities that participants do, not only an expert speaking. It still runs live and online, for as many colleagues as you want to invite.
Stefan van der Stigchel is one of the experts we auditioned ourselves, and we produce every session so we see how each one lands. Participants rate this session 4.2 out of 5, across 443 responses, and rate Stefan personally 4.4 out of 5.
It is interactive, and the block higher up on this page says exactly how for this session. Nobody has to speak up who does not want to: the chat and the polls carry most of it, and the questions can come in anonymously.
It runs 45 min / 15 min: the talk, then live questions. All you do is pick a date. We brief Stefan, produce the session, host and moderate it, run the Q&A, and send you the report within an hour of the end.
A team, a department, an employee network or every single employee at once, with no cap and no per-seat price. It runs inside your own Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, or on a branded page we build. No integration, no login, no company device or e-mail.
The session is delivered in English, Dutch. You can add high accuracy live subtitles in 8, 16 or 24 languages, so everyone follows in their own. That is a paid option, priced by the number of languages you need.
No, and that is by design. There is nothing to install, nothing to integrate and no connection to your systems, so there is nothing for IT to validate: we join your own Teams, Zoom or Meet as a guest speaker, or we host a page and your people open a link. No software, no accounts, and no data of yours that we can reach. It is why hundreds of companies, among them some of the largest technology and financial firms in the world, were able to start within a day.
We never receive or hold personal data about your employees. Because the session runs in your own environment, attendance and identity stay with you, and what we report back is aggregated: numbers, ratings and survey answers, not people. That is also why IT approval usually takes minutes rather than weeks.
You keep the recording and can share it internally. You also get attendance over time, participant ratings for the content and the speaker, the survey answers, and the topics your people asked for next.
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