Immersive single-tasking: Can virtual reality end distractions?

Look, smartphones are great. But let’s be honest, they can be a bit of a distraction.

We use our phones while we converse, while we watch TV, when we’re eating, and while we work. In many ways, our phones enhance those experiences, but when you really need to focus, it can be difficult to untether yourself from the blue light and the myriad of other non-phone distractions.

Thankfully, we have virtual reality.

Imagine yourself in surroundings with no distracting stimulus whatsoever, a completely focused environment.

VR can do that.

Georgetown’s Cal Newport has dubbed it “immersive single-tasking.” To be clear, the focus here is not on what Newport calls “shallow tasks.” What we’re talking about is deep thinking, conceptual development, hardcore problem solving.

Newport uses the example of an author working on a science fiction novel. Instead of sitting at a desk with a computer, a phone in her pocket, and an environment full of other diversions, she could put on a VR headset and transport herself to a quiet cargo bay on a space ship in the Andromeda galaxy.

The possibilities are endless. Need a minute to think? Pop on your Oculus Go for a little timeout on the Matterhorn.

Noisy upstairs neighbors?

Escape to the bleary center of a cumulonimbus.

In fact, immersion into a distraction-free environment could become part of the daily routine for some.

As companies like Facebook (via Oculus), Microsoft, and HTC target continue to target a wider market share with entertainment applications and stand-alone headsets, each is also developing tools for developers to create applications for use in the workplace. If the adoption curve is anything like that of smartphones, we will need to use the technology at work before it finds its way into a majority of American homes.

The concept of immersive single-tasking is still in its infancy. There isn’t much publicly available research beyond Newport’s articles, but the data is coming.

Technology can take whatever form we choose. Indisputably, it can be a distraction, but perhaps the solution to that problem may be contained within itself.