Hey, do you have a sec? I have a quick question:
On average, how many times per work day would you say you're being interrupted?
While everyone’s mileage may vary, years of field experience working with executives and managers for companies of varying sizes and industries has shown me that the average person is either interrupted by others or interrupts themselves mentally at least 15 times per hour or more. To answer or not to answer. That is the real question!
Here’s the rub, Hamlet. All of these little interruptions are like small cuts from a poisonous dagger right to the heart of your productivity. While I teach courses on time management, I'm of the opinion that time management, in the classical sense, is deader than Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
The skill set of the future is what I would call focus management. I believe our ability or inability to protect our focus this skill will determine our career success and the success of our businesses.
Remember the “quick question” I asked up top? I call this the “Dreaded Double Q.” It's the most common offender. It isn’t just the needy co-workers bombarding you with an endless barrage “QQ’s.” A quick question can be self-inflicted when you’re the person interrupting their someone else. In fact, I find that the biggest offender of asking these little quick questions are company execs and managers, because, to some extent, they feel that their time is more valuable than their subordinates.
We besiege ourselves with these quick questions constantly, as well.
“When am I going to get that report done?”
“Do I have enough eggs to make a souffle for dinner?”
“Who’s idea was it to create a television network for gas stations?”
We ask ourselves these questions throughout the day. They happen quick and make brief appearances in the little corners of our minds. We’re accepting these questions without not realizing how extremely expensive they are.
No matter the source, the switch in attention is the problem. Basex research did a study a while back and found that the average knowledge worker loses 28% of their day due to interruptions and the recovery time associated with them. I've found that to be extremely accurate in my field experience. Twenty-eight percent may not seem like much, but, when you run the numbers, 28 % is roughly the equivalent of an entire work week every month. Put another way: one-quarter of the average company’s wages are wasted on switches and switching cost. Our inability to protect our focus is a significant challenge.
Does that sound bleak? Here’s some good news. The executives I've worked with have been able to master the art of focus. This new-found focus enables them to outpace and outdistance their peers, not necessarily because they are more gifted or better-skilled, but because their efforts are concentrated only on that which is of greatest value.
Unfortunately, the methods that many people are using nowadays to stay on top of their time management are outdated. Thirty to forty years ago these were effective tools, but they're no longer useful because of the pace of life and because we are constantly assaulting each other with quick questions.
In my new course on LinkedIn Learning on improving your focus, I talk about there are two sides to improving your focus.
1) We must protect it. We have to, in essence, play defense against all of the assaults of our attention.
2) We must grow it. Growth allows us to pull ahead of the pack. Metaphorically speaking, it's the offensive side of the ball. We stretch our muscles and become more and more effective at protecting our time.
Here are a few tips to get you started.
First, create your “finish line.” Create a clear and unchanging boundary in your day where work starts and ends. Some people, in an effort to feel that they're hard workers, will work "as long it takes" to get the job done. This attitude—while on the surface looks admirable—in reality, perpetuates a lack of focus. Instead, when you view time as precious and scarce, you force yourself to say no to most everything. In fact, the most successful people I know are champions of the of the letters “N” and “O.” When time is limited, and focus is a priority, you are only able to say yes to that which is most valuable.
Second tip: limit and schedule your time for processing. While this mostly applies to email, it also deals with the paperwork in your inbox and the ideas that pop into your head. A recent study titled “Email Duration Batching and Self-Interruption” showed that the more time you spent in email, the less productive people feel. Those who have a scheduled time, however, to self-check the email outperform those who rely on digital notifications. Create a schedule in your calendar so that you check email rather than email checking you.
Which leads to another tip: turn those silly notifications OFF! It seems that every single device that we possess ispossessed itself. The ever present beeps and buzzes divert our attention from whatever it is we’re supposed to be doing. Whether it is a text notification or another invite from a friend who wants to reconnect with you by playing Candy Crush, these notifications are slicing our day into pieces and killing our productivity.
Choose your emergency channel, one place whether it's a particular messaging app or a limited number that you have, phone number or text message number where you allow notifications to come through. For the geek-inclined: think of this as your “bat phone.” But every single other source of notification whether it is your desktop screen putting a nice friendly popup to remind you that an email came in, or it's the various apps that you have, you turn all of those to off. Disabling notifications will not only reclaim massive amounts of time in your day but will also make it easier for your brain to maintain focus. You will recondition your mind to stay locked in on important tasks.
The final tip deals with growing your focus. Create time in your day and your week for focused, strategic thinking.Your day shouldn’t be a game of Whack-a-Mole where you blindly jab at rodents popping up in front of you at any given point. Instead, make a little time for a deep dive into your mind. Focus on that which is worth the most money per hour.
“The Human Era at Work” study conducted by Harvard Business Review and The Energy Project found that only 16% of correspondents had time for creative or strategic thinking. If you want to excel in the workplace of tomorrow, you must not only allow this to happen, but you must seize the time and protect it fiercely. Your career and the success of your company depend on it. Devote at least a half an hour once per week to this kind of deep thinking.
Then as you start to grow in your focus and protect your time, increase the amount of time you're spending to 45 minutes and an hour. The most effective executives that I work with spend typically at least 50% of their time in a single area.
We’ve explored several options to get you started on your journey toward greater focus. Before you move on to the next distraction of the hour, please pause and respond in the comment section below to one question:
“What's one thing you can do today to improve your focus?”
By taking that baby step, you'll move beyond gaining a little bit of knowledge from an article, to stretching your focus muscles
