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The constant ping of messages that keep us connected to chatter at work might do more harm than good. We think we have to react – it's a job, after all. But always being lit means that we never have the opportunity to think deeply. And it's a problem for companies that want to make the most of their employees.
The next big revolution in the office will have to correct that, according to a man who wants to redefine the way we work. He believes that the value that anyone can bring to a business will be judged not by his skills, but by his ability to focus. But how do you find the time to cut off the distractions and do our best?
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Our workplaces are designed for convenience, not for making the most of our brains, says Cal Newport, best-selling author of books including Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, and a professor at Georgetown University. In knowledge-based jobs, where products are created using human intelligence rather than machines, we must be on at all times and ready to multitask. These are two things that are incompatible with deep, creative and insightful thinking.
"In the work of knowledge, the main resource is the human brain and its ability to generate new useful information," said Newport. "But we are not good at getting a good return."
Some people swear by multitasking, even when we intuitively know that our brain is struggling to focus on more than one thing at a time. Psychologists thought that busy multitasks had an abnormal control of their attention. But the evidence suggests that multitasking does not have a special gift for juggling multiple projects. In fact, in many cognitive tasks, heavy multitasking is underperforming. Our brains have a limited capacity for what they can work on at any time. And using tips to work as much as possible in our work day could do more harm than good.
According to Newport, being lit at all times and waiting to pick up everything immediately makes us unhappy. "It does not correspond to the social circuits of our brain. This makes us feel bad that someone is waiting for us to answer them. It makes us anxious. "
Because it's so easy to initiate a quick response by email, by Slack or by other messaging apps, we feel guilty about not doing it and hope to be able to do it. According to Newport, this has significantly increased the number of things on people's plates. "The average knowledge worker is responsible for more than before email. It makes us frantic. We should think about how to pull things off their plate, without giving people more to do. "
Fight for concentration
What can work always do at any time? Inevitably, burnout. Newport describes this way of working as a "hyperactive mind." Unstructured conversations about email applications and meetings written in diaries on the fly clutter our day. His goal, to give people the necessary space to do their job without distraction, is the focus of his forthcoming book: The World Without Email.
Newport's idea is to allow workers to work less, but better. Removing unnecessary discussions is important, but only if the organization's culture allows for slower communication.
"Managers spend 85% of the day in meetings, on the phone or talking to people about work, but not work," says Newport. "It's flexible and adaptive, but it's in conflict with how the human brain works. These contextual changes are devastating and exhaust you. People then try to deal with "hacks" like Fridays without email. But it does not work because there is no workflow to not send emails. "
Managers spend 85% of the day in meetings, on the phone or talking to people about work, not work. It's flexible and adaptive, but it conflicts with how the human brain works – Newport
Go to turkey on email or Slack will only work if there is an alternative. Newport suggests, like many others now, that physical communication is more effective. But the important thing is to encourage a culture where clear communication is the norm.
Newport advocates a more linear approach to workflows. People must completely stop one task in order to move their thought processes to the next. However, this is difficult when we constantly see emails or remember previous tasks. Some of our thoughts are still on the previous work – an effect called attention residue.
Unfortunately, the more we are busy, the more we change tasks. So, feeling busy does not promote deep concentration. Estimates of the time needed to refocus after distraction vary. However, one study found that on average, it takes us 23 minutes and 15 seconds to regain our concentration after an interruption.
The flip side is that it's very convenient to engage everyone in an ongoing conversation, according to Newport. But convenience is never the goal of business, it's a value. The assembly line has revolutionized automobile production but it is not a practical system. It is the system that produces the most cars quickly.
Our workplaces should learn production lines
According to Newport, the areas of knowledge that operate in the most targeted way are areas such as software engineering, where the goal is to produce a product. "Agile executions mixed with scrum and sprint have been used in these areas for a while," says Newport. "They work on one thing for three days and during this time, the product is at the center of their concerns. Software engineers never let things happen on an ad hoc basis. It's more sensitive to how the brain works. "
They work on one thing for three days and during this time, the product is at the center of their concerns. Software engineers never let things happen on an ad hoc basis – Newport
The analogy with the industry is useful because of the time it took to find the best solution to efficiently produce products. Historically, products were manufactured from the beginning to the end by skilled workers. It's convenient, but not fast. It was not until the 20th century to arrive at the production line. By focusing on something for which the worker is a specialist for a short, intense period of time before passing it on to the next worker, he can focus on his strengths. There is no reason to think that we currently have the best work practices for knowledge workers after only a few decades.
Some sectors are better suited to production line models, such as software engineering, as Newport says. But anything you want to produce, such as a pitch for a customer or ideas for a new product, can be run in a sprint. Bringing together only the most essential people to work on a project from start to finish, without distraction and with clear goals, will contribute to the efficiency of the process.
"We are in the gentry phase of the knowledge sector," says Newport. "We have not yet reached our industrial revolution. In the knowledge sector, the main capital investment is the human brain, not the factory equipment, but otherwise, we should think in the same direction. "
Who does it well? Newport says that he has found no big business that operates according to his vision – not yet. But that will change quickly. In the meantime, companies that encourage their workers to remain involved in multiple tasks at once will find themselves lagging behind those who favor a slower, deeper and quality thinking.
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