As discussed in a previous article (Ratcliffe, 2019), utilising habits can be a powerful motivation for good and enables us to turn on our internal autopilot. By making desired habits more obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying, we can encourage healthier or more productive routines. For example, if you keep your gym clothes handy near your desk and reward yourself with a healthy drink afterwards, you make it easier and more rewarding to go to the gym, which makes you more likely to do so. In this sense, positive habits allow us to keep up the pace of our lives and work.
However, habits can also have a negative impact on our lives. For example, they can destroy our attention span. In today's connected world, we receive a constant barrage of instant notifications, in addition to physical interruptions, which fragment our train of thought. You get an email from your manager, so you stop doing what you are doing to read it, so that you can respond quickly. You receive a notification that a friend has posted a picture of you on a social media site, so you stop what you are doing to view it and review any associated comments or likes. This steady stream of daily interruptions prevents us from getting one thing done properly.
Having the ability to give tasks our full attention can allow us to focus on developing our business, but this ability to focus is constrained in two main ways. First, there is a finite limit on how many things we can concentrate on at once, typically one or two. If we were able to do more, we'd be able to hold a conversation with two people, memorise a phone number and play the piano at the same time. Second, once we have focused on something, we can only hold a small amount of information in our short-term memory–typically around 3–7 items at once. This is why telephone numbers are usually grouped into threes and fours.
Bailey (2018) referred to these two limitations as our ‘attentional space’, and this, together with our focus, is responsible for most of our conscious experiences. It has its limits, and is easily filled up—for example, you cannot safely send a text message and drive at the same time, but you are able to walk while listening to an audiobook. Given these limitations, it is essential that we manage our attentional space appropriately.
Becoming aware of what is occupying your attentional space is one of the best ways of managing it, and will enable you to override distractions and be more productive.
Research has shown that computer users will switch between applications over 500 times during the average working day, and Facebook users typically check their accounts 35 times per day. Although there are distractions we have no control over, such as certain meetings, loud colleagues or visitors, and business phone calls, we can take control of the emails, social media notifications and meetings we manage. By removing any distractions, we assert control over our surroundings and help our mind to stay focused on the task we intend to do.
Below are a few suggestions that will help you to manage distractions, or eliminate them altogether.
Put your phone out of sight
If your mind is even slightly resisting a task, it will look for an easier alternative to focus on, and smartphones are perfect at feeding you an endless stream of bite-sized information, that is much more easier to process than the task at hand. Your phone is a productivity black hole—don't leave it in the room you're working in.
Disable notifications
Disable all but the most essential notifications on your phone and computer, including email. Instead, schedule some time at the end of a task to look at them, and only do so when you have the time to deal with them properly. Spending time reading through your emails, only to flag them all to respond to later is not a good use of your time. Remember that email is just electronic mail—it's supposed to stay in the inbox until you can deal with it.
Control your environment
How likely is it that you are going to be interrupted, and can you control those interruptions? Sometimes the office can be filled with uncontrollable annoyances, such as loud office banter or interruptions from your co-workers. Try moving somewhere quieter, such as a library, café, or a quieter room in the house. It's great to involve yourself with your colleagues in the workplace, but it's also fine to prioritise your work when necessary.
Support a distraction-free working environment
Dale Partridge, the CEO of US fashion house Sevenly, equipped his staff with desk lamps and squirt guns in an attempt to create a distraction-free environment. If a staff member had their desk lamp switched on, this indicated that they were focusing on an imporant piece of work and they were not to be disturbed. If someone did try to interrupt their focus time-well, that's where the squirt gun came in. This kind of office environment creates boundaries between focused work and more social tasks, which can aid productivity.
Consider using noise cancelling headphones
If you cannot get out of a noisy environment, these can work incredibly well to limit outside distractions. There are playlists on Spotify and other music apps that can help to create a calming and thoughtful mood that is conducive to focused work.
Make a follow-up list to park distractions out of your mind
Even with your phone set away from you in a different room, sometimes a thought will come to you out of the blue and you will remember you need to do something, such as send out a meeting invitation or stock up on detergent. Keeping a notepad and pen handy so you can write these thoughts down and chase them up later will allow you to refocus quicker.
Organise your meetings
Never attend a meeting without an agenda, and never set up a meeting without one. Once you have the agenda, ask yourself whether the objectives of the meeting be done by email? Does everyone on the attendance list need to be there to achieve the objectives? Meetings can be extremely useful, but they can also be a waste of time that can be better spent on other activities.
Reward yourself
It is important to treat yourself once you have achieved your objectives. This will help to reinforce your focused time as a good habit.
Conclusion
If there is one takeaway message from this article, it is to turn off unnecessary notifications, turn off your email and leave your phone in another room so you can get some quality work done. Stick to a schedule for batching and dealing with these interruptions, and use that focused time to grow your brand.