On Attention...

When I was growing up, we did not have much as kids... The one thing I had - despite both of my parents studying and working - was their attention.

I always knew that I could approach them with any problem and they would make the time to help me.

No matter whether it was preparing for an exam or the need to talk about a certain challenge I was facing, both my mom and my dad always made time for me.

Beyond that, they prioritized their tasks in life to ensure that they get to spend quality time with my sister and I.

For my dad, there was nothing other than his studies, work, a bit of exercise (1-2 times swimming per week) and us as his family. That was it... No time out with friends to hang around at a bar, watching a football match, or anything else that would reduce his time

If he watched a match, then because I wanted to watch it and he chose to spend time with me.

Fast forward to 2024...

Many parents today - including my wife and I - are so drowned in their work that the easiest way to keep everything under control is to have their kids spend a lot of time on digital devices.

Be it the Playstation, Nintendo, iPad, or whatever... it makes the kids happy and let's the parents focus on their important work.

There are two (if not more) downsides to doing this... I want to focus on the aspect of attention.

First, despite kids being "happy" while they are on the devices... most of them lack the attention from their parents. The lack of attention results in a lack of connection. The lack of connection does not build the trust needed to support the kids throughout puberty and later, in their adult lives.

Second, kids that get used to being on devices have a significantly lower attention span. They become incapable of focusing. Yet focus is one of the most important characteristics humans need to have - especially in a fast paced world.

In February of this year, we took away all devices from our two younger kids (10 and 8 years old). Both of them have thrived ever since.

During our recent vacation they read books for hours without needing to context switch. Also, they picked up the game of chess which requires a lot of attention.

At the same time, I have made more time for the kids... This has not been easy - given my workload is probably higher than ever before and I try to sleep more than I used to.

But somehow this all worked out... we spend intentional time with each other and do things that benefit the kids' and my own mental and physical health.

Looking at this transformation of my kids, I wonder how do our work routines contribute to more or less attention and focus.

Looking at how people are constantly jumping from one task to the next, being interrupted by Teams/Slack messages, moving from one (virtual) meeting to the next one, and keeping their laptops open during meetings (not for note taking) is a nightmare...

I am confident that a) the vast majority of organizations are consistently underperforming due to multitasking and that b) the multitasking takes away people's ability to really think through hard problems as that would require longer attention spans.

Fortunately, there are organizations that are doing something about that... In my own company, my team members have no scheduled meeting other than a 2h weekly session which we refer to as RPS i.e. Review & Planning Session.

Their entire calendar is empty which means a) they can spend long periods of time thinking through problems and implementing solutions, and b) they can pick up critical things that suddenly pop up e.g. an urgent bug to fix or client offer to make.

Unfortunately, my own calendar is way more packed given the number of clients I work with, meetings I choose to participate in, and trainings I deliver. But I still aim to do zero multitasking as the context switching is a true productivity killer.

There are some simple things people can implement:

1. When you are in a meeting, be in that meeting i.e. don't take out any devices other than a device that you take notes on. I usually have my iPad for that as I religiously take notes in the Good Notes app. But on that same iPad I do not run Slack or my email... so during a meeting, there are no interruptions from that device.
2. "Stop starting, start finishing" is the best reminder I have found to keep myself focused on getting things done. Sometimes it sounds easier said than done... but honestly, if you have a sticky on your desktop monitor with that saying it becomes a really good reminder to move things across the finish line before taking on new things.
3. Turn off all notifications and instead create an agreement within your team about how quickly you expect to respond to each other's requests. Also state what is your communication channel for truly urgent matters e.g. my team knows that if they need my immediate attention they should call me. Everything else will be responded to within the same day, but not within the same hour.
4. Once such an agreement is in place, schedule dedicated email/chat slots in your calendar so that you do not have to look at those applications over and over again... twice a day is absolutely sufficient.
5. If you have multiple things that you are working on at the same time, use the natural context switches e.g. lunch break or end of day for moving from one thing to the next. This can mean that in the morning you work on project A and after lunch you switch to project B.

There are lots of other ideas... but as usual it is not about the number of ideas one can generate but with how much consistency and discipline one can live those things.

And that consistency and discipline is where cultural change happens.

Just imagine how your meeting culture changes if you ask everyone to put away their phones and laptops.

Imagine how your culture changes when you implement the law of 2 feet in every meeting i.e. people are encouraged to leave if the meeting is not adding value to them and they are not adding value to the meeting.

Imagine how behaviours (and thus culture) change once people turn off all of their notifications and instead focus on moving tasks across the finish line.

Imagine how your culture changes if you implement library rules i.e. everybody is working quietly for certain days of the week.

The topic of attention requires attention... we need to pay attention to the things that matter and we need to increase our attention span to really think through topics and solve difficult problems.

The solutions to that challenge are out there... as with most things, it is just a matter of doing it.

#FromNothingComesNothing