Focus: The biggest distraction in your future work strategy

So you’ve developed a Future of Work (FoW) strategy that covers all the bases: a range of factors such as business practice trends and workplace transformation. But no matter how solid your current plan may be, you’ve probably forgotten one part of the job that requires more than just a written plan to fight it: attention.

Technology is one of the key players in the concept of FoW, because it is the future. But when it starts to interfere with the success and results of what is being produced, we have to wonder if we will ever find a perfect balance. If we have to do that, how?

Does attention span the problem?

In recent years, talk of a shrinking attention span has made headlines. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing insight point to cognitive overload rather than a shorter attention span. In a piece of United States TodayCrystal Burwell, director of outpatient services for Newport Healthcare Atlanta, described it as our brains becoming “short-circuited from being flooded with information.”

So the growing attachment to their devices and gadgets that everyone experiences only adds to the mental overload. As Burwell went on to say, “The external stimuli and nature of the environment play an important role in attention span and building emotional resilience to combat COVID fatigue.”

To contextualize in a real work scenario, a University of California Irvine study estimated that it takes someone 23 minutes to return to a deep workflow after a simple workplace distraction. It has become clear that it is not a matter of paying attention or hyperfocusing, but of how we battle against the digital environment we surround ourselves with.

Do remote workplaces play a role?

Even nearly three years after the start of the remote work boom that accompanied COVID-19, many employers are still skeptical about its dynamics. With myriad tools digitizing communication, collaboration, management and other elements of a physical workplace, remote working should be readily accepted. But the one element that all businesses struggle to measure, whether in-office or remote, is focus.

In research conducted by The Economist Intelligence unit Analyzing the macroeconomic costs of lost focus in knowledge work, it was found that “28% of time in knowledge work is lost to distraction every year”. And to no one’s surprise, 70% of the participants checked their e-mail at least once an hour and for a total of more than one hour a day. This “toggle load” increases the total amount of time spent distracted in light of the many additional distractions faced by people in remote workplaces.

The reality is that whether a company adopts a hybrid/remote structure or remains strictly office-based, the distracting devices are all around us and are not going away any time soon. The cost of this lost time comes at the expense of the company’s wallet.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a solution for loss of focus

Think of it as AI versus AI. In recent years there has been a spike in the use of mental health apps. These systems temporarily help relieve stress, such as establishing a positive mindset. But they don’t provide real-time intervention and protection against the AI ​​targeting us to get our attention. AI can learn about an individual based on activity, and that information can also be used positively to develop personalized plans to regain focus and leave distractions behind.

Yair Nativ is the founder and CEO of Hour25.AI, outsmarting digital pollution to help employees reach a flow state and deliver peak performance in the face of technology addiction.