“The antidote for mind wandering is meta-awareness, attention to attention itself, as in the ability to notice that you are not noticing what you should and correcting your focus. Mindfulness makes this crucial attention muscle stronger.”
Daniel Goleman, Focus: The hidden driver of excellence
*Note: Italics font and numerals link to evidence source
If you looked at the 6 minute read time and groaned or don’t have enough time, then I suggest what matters most as we head into 2022, is your attention, please!
Margaret Heffernan states, in manufacturing and engineering businesses, everyone learns that the top priority is asset integrity: protecting the machinery on which the business depends. In knowledge-based economies, that machinery is our mind (1).
However, our mind is under a constant bombardment in an attention economy that is abundant with information but scarce for quality attention (and perhaps even quality information at times!)
The fact is, we do not have enough mental capacity to do all the things that we think we can do. As our attentional load increases, attentional capacity gradually diminishes (1). Our attention is a resource, and we only have so much of it (4).
Every time we stop to look at social media, emails or a text, it takes 23 minutes to refocus correctly on the job at hand. However, time lost in task re-focusing is only a part of the problem. As the resource of our attention starts to deplete, our mind starts to economise its resources. In this mental economising, higher order thinking is expensive, so our ‘cognitive elaboration’ becomes disabled. What does this mean for us at work? It means we become susceptible to our biases, which affects how we discern information, relate with our colleagues and our customers/clients.
If you are not protecting your attention, and keep on doing whatever you like, eventually you will be a success at that!
Like all outstanding achievements, it takes discipline. The etymology of discipline comes from discipulus, the Latin word for pupil or disciple. To be a disciple is to be devoted. After the last two years of lockdowns and the impact it has had on mental health, I think we can all safely say how important it is to be devoted to our mental health and ensure well-being at work. Especially when we are required to be autonomous in working remotely, without colleagues in proximity to encourage productive workspaces.
Evidenced – based tips for improving performance in 2022
Your environment
1. Smartphones require smart users
Keep your phone off your work desk and out of sight at meetings. If your phone is in your field of vision, it drains your resource of attention. We all know by now what weapons of mass distraction our so-called smart phones can be. Professor Cal Newport of Deep Work proposes to delete all of your social apps and turn off all notifications. Highly recommended.
2. Reduce friction for good habits and increase friction for bad habits
James Clear of Atomic Habits outlines how motivation isn’t enough. Reduce friction on good habits, e.g. join a gym that’s on your route to work. Increase friction on bad habits, e.g. Lock your phone in a drawer during work sprints.
3. Know you sleep Chronotype and align your deep work times accordingly
Professor Cal Newport of Deep Work outlines the importance of knowing our best sleep times and then configuring our deep work cycles around those times. For instance, I’m a Lion on the Chronotype Quiz, so my best deep work times are early mornings, so much of the higher order thinking work is done then, with admin late in the day.
4. Environment beats Willpower
Willpower is overrated. Want to drink more water? Put water on your desk. Want to meditate more? Put the mediation cushion next to the bed when you get up. Want to go to gym on the mornings? Put your gym clothes beside your bed the night before. You get the picture, set up your environment to facilitate success.
5. Social Engagement to Override Stress
Human beings are wired to connect – and we have the most complex and interesting social behaviour out of all animals, states Michael Platt, Ph.D. The impact of isolation and the vicarious trauma in our environment due to COVID must not be underestimated. This lack of connection is a huge problem, states Michael Platt, Ph.D. Stephen Porges outlines how ‘social engagement’ is a primary way to improve executive functioning in the brain and override stress hormones. Pick up the phone and talk, get out of from under your desk and discuss instead of habitually using slack and emails, where practical. Connect empathically with your colleagues in person as much as practically possible. With no agenda other than creating connection! It’s not a time to gossip, it’s about being human, it’s about being real which is often awkward, but worth it. Brene Brown outlines;
The challenge is to stop using gossip, the common enemy of intimacy, and oversharing as a way to hot wire connection.
The science is clear that authentic connection with colleagues overrides stress and improves executive functioning, which facilitates productive work. It also builds organisational trust; win/win.
Processes
1. Systems
Have overarching goals, but focus more on systems. Of course, go ahead and set written weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual and five/ten year goals. However, focusing on everyday systems that support goal attainment. James Clear of Atomic Habits states
“you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems”.
2. Do one push-up
Finding it hard to smash that big task? Chunk it down into psychologically manageable parts. Say to yourself, I will just do this one part. Once you have committed to focus on the task, it’s common to be able to do more.
3. Single Handle Stuff
Impulsiveness is the greatest threat to productivity. Decide before beginning the task that you will complete that single task with no interruption. However, the odds are that you’re going to be impulsive and get distracted sooner or later.
“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom” John Kabat-Zinn.
Use these five (deceptively simple) mindfulness steps when you get distracted;
Step 1. Pause, breathe and allow everything to be as it is
Step 2. Recognise and ‘Name to Tame’.
E.g. Name the behaviour out loud. “Here is distraction, Here is resistance, Here is procrastination”.
Step 3. Accept, turn toward your experience with non- judgmental awareness
Step 4. Refocus and resume the task until completion
Step 5. Reward your task completion
4. The Eisenhower Matrix
We all know this old but gold model, yet I’m constantly amazed how many forget it and keep wasting attention resources. You know the drill…
Do, Decide, Delegate, Delete!
Sean Covey calls this focusing on what is wildly important.
5. Work above the line!
Watch this 3 – minute video on working ‘Above or Below the Line’. It’s my first video, I’d rather be delivering in person, however I am moving with the times. It’s a rough diamond and unpolished. However, I want to demonstrate the value of focusing on progression not perfectionism.
6. Make some S.P.A.C.E.
For some, task focus and completion is not an area for development. It’s more about finding time and space from the massive workloads. Either way, the resource of attention can get depleted, inevitably succumbing to our biases. Resulting in frustration, exhaustion, impatience and the internal narratives of our default mode network. David Rock outlines when the internal narratives occur, “We will often think about what’s easy to think about, rather than what’s right to think about.” David Rock of Your Brain at Work discusses how mindfulness practices can reduce the allostatic load/stress hormones.
Remember to not underestimate the value of taking S.P.A.C.E.
- Slow the breath
- Pause
- Allow everything to be as it is, accept all feelings
- Connect with curiosity
- Evaluate the options
7. Go ahead, make your day
You’ve heard it all before, how you start the day influences the quality of your day. If you sleep with your phone near your bed and look at it in the mornings, you’re addicted. You’re smarter than that, don’t let big tech highjack your attention. Keep your phone out of your bedroom and do not look at it until you’ve paid your dues with your morning routine. If you don’t have solid morning routine yet, Daniel Goleman of Focus: The hidden driver of excellence states;
“You need the negative focus to survive, but a positive one to thrive,”
So you could let the negative bias drive you, however determining the positive reasons for a morning routine and how it will support your day and your future ideal self, may possibly improve your chances of staying with it. And within the alchemy of time, and the right combo of healthy body and mind routines, you’ll be hooked on all sorts of chemicals that not only help you relax but also lower your stress and anxiety levels including, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins.
There’s no one morning routine that fits for all. You’ve got to find your own and modify over the years.
In conclusion, the story of the Chinese Bamboo tree
Like any plant, the commonly known Chinese bamboo tree (actually a grass/poaceae) requires daily nurturing – water, fertile soil and sunshine.
There’s numerous personal development/motivational parables claiming that the Chinese bamboo has no sprouts, then after five years it suddenly grows exponentially.
It’s a great story, however I’m yet to find corroborating evidence to support this widespread claim, however what I do know so far is that the bamboo sleeps, creeps then leaps!
After planting the seed there are exceptionally slow signs of development that can been seen above ground and in the early stages, a hard knock to the tender shoots (culms) may kill the plant. Importantly, the Chinese bamboo is also colony plant, so it needs others support to grow. If you stop nurturing at any time, the Chinese bamboo tree will die.
After the seed sleeps in the ground, with seemingly slow creeping shoot development for the first three years – the bamboo then leaps to a massive 27 meters around year four to five.
In those first years, the bamboo has been developing its roots, its foundation for exponential growth.
Your daily effort, your discipline will never go unrewarded, it’s also imperative that you have others support (like a good coach) to thrive.
You may not see the immediate reward daily. However, you are building the strength of character required for greater future success.
