Scatterbrain. Henning Beck

to the constant warning of the observant system (“Whatever you do, don’t picture that silly rabbit!”) and suddenly the picture of a red plush rabbit springs into your consciousness.

      What helps is to turn your attention away from the concrete threat. A little bit of distraction at the right time can help the overactive observant system to relax. If this is done with little warning, the operative system doesn’t have time to go in the wrong direction either. However, this only applies to simple and automated types of activities—for example, golf. The basic movement of golf—though I don’t mean to offend any readers who might be golf fans—is relatively simple. Nevertheless, when one is under pressure while putting, it’s possible to miss the shot even at close range. But if experienced golfers suddenly stop paying attention to the action of tapping the ball, but instead focus on playing faster, they tend to hit better than when they are concentrated on hitting the ball into the hole.² The result is the same when golfers are told to listen for a particular tone while they are putting. This small amount of distraction reduces mistakes, as long as the physical action is well rehearsed and can be done on autopilot. When our cerebrum is suddenly given a new task, it can no longer interfere with our cerebellum.

      If you find yourself concentrating too much and thereby tensing up under pressure, it might therefore be wise to try distracting yourself a little with something else. Pause and look out the window briefly, let your thoughts drift to something else, recall a pleasant memory, play it through and linger for a few seconds and then, as you turn back, don’t concentrate on your task deliberately but simply act. Just as my track coach always said to me: “Henning, you think too much.” Such a criticism is offered far too seldom in the modern world.

       The distraction trap

      Mental misfire #2: the distraction trap. This typically occurs whenever we are required to carry out a sophisticated mental performance during an exam or in an interview. While it’s best in a penalty kick or golf tournament to avoid thinking directly about the step-by-step process and to allow ourselves to carry it out automatically, an exam is a totally different situation. In this case, conscious thought can actually help, and requires focus rather than distraction. Someone who loses their concentration during an exam risks sacrificing mental strength to unbeneficial nonsense thoughts. For example, you start thinking about the consequences of the exam, pondering everything that could go wrong, or wondering what type of impression you might make on your potential future supervisor during an important job interview. Or, even worse, you get scared of saying something wrong and in that very moment you really start to freeze up.

      As we have just learned, our brain does not have unlimited mental reserves for a task. The more complicated the problem, the more we require the frontal region of the cerebrum (the so-called prefrontal cortex) to find the solution. The only thing is—the reckoning capacity of this brain region is limited and distracting thoughts eat up its mental resources.