High quality output requires focus and concentration. Yet many of us are so distracted these days that setting time aside for deep work can seem like an out of reach luxury.
Those pings and dings just keep on coming. Even though we know it takes anywhere from 6 to 24-minutes for concentration to return to where we left off, we keep on responding.
I mean, its important that we respond, people expect immediate answers now don’t they and, well, we might look sloppy if we don’t answer?
Yes, but that report we are writing has taken twice if not three times longer than it should have done and, to be honest, while it’s ok, it’s not outstanding. There are a few errors and it was a tad rushed at the end.
I know, but we are just soooo busy we don’t have the time do we?
Distraction is a funny thing. The more we do it, the more we want to do it because that little dopamine shot we get by responding becomes harder and harder to resist. It’s almost as though we might, in some cases, need to re-learn how to focus attention.
But first we have to have a stern and serious conversation with our devices. We need to tell them. They have to stop pinging and dinging otherwise we will never be able to re-learn the art of focusing our attention.
Yes, absolutely, we must tell our devices that it is their responsibility to switch themselves off when we need quiet time.
Or…… maybe it’s our responsibility to press the off or mute button when needed???
Ummm, I’ll think about that.
