Time to read: 60 slow and luxurious seconds
You sat down to focus.
Then you noticed the laundry. A Teams message caught your eye. Your phone pinged. Forty-five minutes later, you've done everything except the thing you sat down to do.
Your environment did that.
We like to think focus is a matter of willpower. But willpower is a limited resource, and it’s easy to drain it with distractions. Instead, how about you design your surroundings so you're not burning through your willpower in the first place?
This applies to....
- your physical space, the clutter, the noise, the phone sitting face-up on your desk.
- your digital space, the tabs, the notifications, the apps, engineered to grab your attention and keep it.
- the people around you, the open-door culture, the colleague who drops by, the meeting that could have been an email.
All these things are necessary at times. Left unmanaged, they will run your day.
The good news: small changes have a big impact. Close the tabs. Put the phone in a drawer. Signal to the people around you that you're heads-down. Clear your desk. Open only what you need and get to work.
Make focus the path of least resistance.
This week: Pick one thing in your environment that consistently pulls your attention and change it. Move your phone. Turn off notifications. Find a quieter spot, and see what happens.