The hustle of staying focused and in control

It’s been a minute since you’ve received an update from my digital wellbeing newsletter, and it was for a good reason. The truth is, like most of us, I have been overtaken by the continuous overload of info, and it became almost impossible to catch up to everything, process it, and take action. By the time I do that, I would’ve already exchanged my precious focus hours with yet another “important” news headline or a non-urgent slack message. So, I realized it was time to take back control of my time and focus on what matters the most.

What is information overload and why is it a threat to your focus?

Information overload, especially at work, stands for the excess of information available when performing tasks or searching for specific details. As consequence and instead of maximizing productivity and advancing, time is wasted on info processing and localization. In fact, according to the International Data Corporation employees spend approximately 30% of the workday?just locating information.

And technology is not making this any easier…

In the era of app dominance, everything seems to be accessible at hand. We are one click away from responding to our emails, keeping an eye on the stock market, tracking our miles, and jumping on an unplanned call. Already, for employees, the impact of the high usage of collaboration apps contributed to worsening the situation. By June 2021, the collective usage of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet rose to 215%. This led to a tremendous amount of unnecessary interruptions, excessive communication, and useless additional meetings. In case this is news for you, notifications are the worst form of distraction.

They deplete the attention span and rewire the brain to be dependent, setting the stage for true addiction. They are detrimental to digital wellbeing. Gloria Mark’s research shows that It takes us 23 min on average to refocus after each interruption and that the more interruptions we get externally, the more we train bad habits, like training us to interrupt ourselves (we self-interrupt every 3 min and a half).

Result? Scattered attention for a starter

Dealing with information overflow increases time spent juggling between different apps as a response to the notifications received, creating this FOMO effect that will later drive our need to go through every bit of trivial message, in search of the most urgent one. Accordingly, the time spent processing info causes a delay in acting on the facts and making significant decisions. Also, the frequency of this toxic pattern results in an exhausted scattered mind and decreased inefficiency over time, and those might just be the early signs of an unpleasant journey towards burnout.

How to take back control of your time?

Refocusing and reclaiming control over your time happens through simple yet powerful habits.

1- Self-awareness: Any first step to dealing with a challenge requires being aware of its existence, and for a dilemma as discrete as info overload, it needs extra work to understand that it’s not the standard to give access to all external stimulants and info to make its way to your devices and eventually your mind and disrupt the flow of your attention. In contrast to what you’ve probably made to believe, you are not under any obligation to feed your focus to all that seek it. It has always been your call, and it still is. You only need to be reminded of it and be in charge again.

2- Social distancing: Only this time you won’t be distancing from people, but rather social stimulants that can be carried within your devices, including social media apps, unnecessary notifications from news platforms, and any other form of interruptions that hurts your attention and leads to hours of mindless scrolling or browsing.

3 - Setting boundaries: When it comes to working, it might be challenging to simply mute all notifications we get across the different collaboration apps at once, hence why it’s important to set boundaries and stand by them. Block time on your calendar for your focus work, and share it with your team for visibility to clarify that during that time range, you won’t be taking any meetings or responding to any messages. Nevertheless, do agree on a communication escalation process for when urgent matters arise so you are still on top of it. In fact, this particular scenario is what makes me grateful for the Veamly app every day, as I wouldn’t have to worry about missing out on important msgs when muting notifications since Veamly will make sure to alert me without interrupting my focus mode.

4- Making info accessible: Time wasted localizing info is no joke, thus the need for an optimized process to address the matter is supreme. Putting information under different categories and classes can be one way to do it, which can help any employee, including new hires to jump fast on the documentation needed at a time without having to go through countless other guidelines that might not be as urgent.

5- Choosing what works for you: As explained above, apps are dominating our workday, and we are constantly on the look for new ones promised to make our work easier, more efficient, etc. However, we are only adding to the time wasted toggling between it all, when we are not sure if it’s really adding any value to us. That’s why having this discussion with your team is crucial to understanding their true needs, work patterns, and how it can be optimized; Will a new app make it better? Sure. Will removing a certain app boost productivity? Go for it. These decisions need to be made collectively, and then it’s up to the individual to scope out specific apps if they’d like, which they proved to enhance their performance. So always leave the door open for each to experiment on their own, with little obligation to use certain tools necessary for the team's collaboration.

-- Emna

Emna Ghariani is the founder of Veamly, an enterprise digital wellbeing startup. In addition, she also co-founded Bridge Funding Global, the first platform focusing on matching programs for women emerging managers with limited partners. She has been a featured speaker at many international conferences on topics related to productivity & inclusivity as well as an advocate for digital wellbeing since day one, through building products dedicated to helping break the unhealthy work relationship and putting one's wellness upfront.

Emna Ghariani is a multi-time entrepreneur and digital wellbeing activist who spent years building solutions to fight the hustle work culture and find real ways to get to work-life balance. If you want to get on this journey, start by reclaiming?your time?using to Veamly analytics app, your Swiss army knife to fighting burnout and decision fatigue.