Help Your Team Focus

Recent research found that around 60% of employees rarely or never do even an hour or two of deep, focused work each day without being interrupted by a distraction. As a manager, how can you protect your team’s attention? Here are some strategies that can help.

• Inventory tasks and projects. Hold people accountable for keeping current to-do lists, and give them time each week to review these commitments so they can stay in control of their work and time.
• Clarify and curate communication channels. Most distractions are the result of internal back-and-forths on various communication platforms. Make clear what each one should be used for—as well as expectations around response times.
• Normalize “no.” Make it safe for employees to communicate that they’re at capacity. Don’t punish this kind of boundary-setting—express gratitude for it.
• Make meetings meaningful. If a meeting doesn’t have an express purpose or agenda, give your employees permission to decline the invite.
• Formalize focus. Establish a team norm of protected work time. For example, block out Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for meeting-free, deep-focus work, with looser expectations around response times.
• Respect boundaries. Don’t be the distraction. If someone you manage is in the middle of a project or task, hold off on pinging them or adding work to their plate.