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by Travis Swicegood.
Original Post: Mountain bikes and singletrack focus
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I’ve been mountain biking for a decade and a half. Seems crazy, but knobby fat
tires have been a part of my life since the early 2000s. When I started, 29ers
weren’t a thing, single speeds were the province of those crazy few animals who
needed an extra challenge, and there was still a debate between full-suspension
and hardtail bikes. Sure, having a spring – remember, this is the dark ages the
air suspension setups weren’t common yet – helped smooth out the trail, but the
loss in efficiency slowed you down. Everyone knew that.
Then someone decided to test this out. If memory serves, it was Giant Bikes
around 2001-2002. Giant had two cross country (XC) racing bikes: their hardtail
and dual-suspension. Most of their competitors had a similar lineup. Two models,
both were super light, both had been engineered for speed.
Giant put men and women from their pro team on a loop course with both bikes.
Team members would ride one lap with one bike, then switch, then repeat. They
collected two important pieces of data: the actual time on the lap and the
perceived effort from the racers.
Across the board, the pros thought they had been faster on the hardtail bikes.
Across the board, they were wrong. They had perceived the bumpy ride – the
feedback – of the hardtail bikes as proof that they were moving faster. Each
root and rock they bounced off of gave them feedback. They were moving, and so
fast they could barely maintain control. By contrast, the dual-suspension bike
soaked up the rocks and roots keeping the wheel planted on the ground. This lack
of feedback was perceived as slowness.
I love this story. It underlines something I’ve seen time and time again. Lack
of feedback makes you think you’re moving inefficiently. That feedback comes in
a lot of forms: rocks and roots on a mountain bike, how many unread emails
you’ve got waiting in your inbox, or how many reactions to posts you’ve had
since your last check.
The key here is that they thought they were moving faster, but in reality they
weren’t. I know people who thrive on a phone (and now watch) that’s constantly
buzzing. They feel connected. They feel alive. Like the pro mountain bikers
before them, they often misread the constant feedback as proof they’re being
efficient.
A stream of constant interruption might work for the Jack Dorsey’s of the world,
many of us need a bit more space to gather our thoughts. That constant feedback
that “life is happening and you’re a part of it” is fragmenting our attention.
It’s drawing our focus away from the deeper, more meaningful work that we’re
capable of.
My reading and listening this year has forced me to re-evaluate what I let grab
my attention. I now have all notifications turned off on my phone, save the few
things that I intend to allow as interruptions: SMS, phone, and so on. Social
networking tools have all of their badge numbers and push notifications turned
off. My home screen has only the apps I intend to use every day and the second
screen has a handful of large buckets that all of my apps are stored in – the
largest of which is the catch-all Extras.
I activated the do-not-disturb feature of my phone while writing this. Those few
notifications that have come through (I just checked — there were a couple) will
still be there when I’m done. This let me focus my attention on getting these
thoughts down and edited into a cohesive post.
Interested? Set aside some time during your day for focused work. Turn off your
phone and cut wifi. Even better, change your location to some place where you
don’t have access to wifi at all to avoid all temptation. Figure out what you
want to tackle, then dive in. It might seem odd at first, but having stretches
of time to focus, intently without distraction is a huge productivity booster.
I’m not suggesting anything new on the technology side, but maybe this tale will
help you reframe the issue and realize it’s pretty universal.