Where is your focus?

Where is your focus? I know mine can often be in many places at once, otherwise known as not being focused! That’s probably why I came upon this article last week when I felt the pull of the internet:

https://lnkd.in/eUJ3THb4

The article is partly about ways of helping to focus, and there are many of these, but the stark messages about how much we are constantly pulled in different directions perhaps explain why we are always so busy.

The article refers to a study which shows that it takes over 25 minutes to be able to refocus on a task once we’ve moved our concentration, and yet we can only focus our attention on one screen for an average of 47 seconds!

The truth is that there are now more distractions than ever, and we’ve also had to adapt to new ways of working which mean we’re available all the time. Worryingly we now actively seek distraction!  As Arlaina Tibensky, author of “And then things fall apart” says, “Computers are quiet and clean and totally distracting because the Internet is there, lying in wait for a moment of weakness to pounce on your creativity and progress.”

Can we actually multitask? How often do we try to do just that?  I know my partner regularly tells me she can multitask while we’re watching some awful horror movie she wants to watch while also reading on her phone, before then asking me what just happened!

However, there’s a huge cost at work. When your attention is divided it’s harder to get things done, and with the introduction of group chat and collaborative tools we are in a near constant state of partial focus and task switching. This also makes it even harder to switch off at the end of the day.

However, as leaders we are paid for the quality of our thinking. We need to make choices about where we put our focus and prioritise. If we’re conscious about those decisions we can be more productive and model the way.

(Article originally posted by Antony Allen on the Starfish Partners LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/starfish-partners-development/)