“A persistent feeling of being rushed or in a hurry.”
“An inability to sustain lengthy attention to a thought.”
“A tendency to hop from task to task, idea to idea, even place to place.”
Does any of that sound like your workday? Most likely it does, and you’re far from alone. Millions of Americans find themselves unable to focus at work, constantly pulled in multiple directions by the demands and distractions that have become a part of everyday life.
How do you refocus, even when it seems impossible? That’s the topic of Driven to Distraction at Work: How to Focus and Be More Productive (Harvard Business Review Press) by Dr. Edward M. Hallowell, released this month. Hallowell has spent years studying ADD and ADHD, and says that many individuals who come to him for treatment believing they suffer from one of those conditions are actually dealing with
Employers need workers. Young people need jobs. So why aren’t they getting hired?
ADT, identified by Hallowell in 1994, is caused by one’s environment, rather than genetic makeup. Many of the habits associated with ADT are actually coping mechanisms that can remain even after stressful conditions have subsided.
A lot of people view their difficulties—feeling “distracted, rushed, or impatient”--as “a severe case of modern life,” said Hallowell, a conclusion that can lead them to throw up their hands.
“They end up spending their day data processing instead of thinking, or creating,” said Hallowell. “The book was a wakeup call. The solution is not to work harder, but to work smarter.”
Hallowell spoke to FORBES about the problem he calls both “a worldwide epidemic” and “eminently solvable,” and how you can identify your specific challenges and begin to change your responses to them right away.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Q: There’s a ton of advice on becoming more focused already out there. Why don’t the “10 Ways To End Distraction Today”-type methods work?
A: They’re very surface-oriented. It’s a lot of Band-Aids. I’m not opposed to lists and reminders, they’re great. But it’s not enough, you really need to go deeper and get to the root cause.
For example, the person who’s psychologically inclined to take care of other people—that’s a psychological issue that she needs to come to terms with before some of these more practical solutions will work. Or the worrier. Some people are just predisposed to have a low threshold for toxic worry. We live in a world that’s teeming with bad news, the perfect storm for the avid worrier.
The point is, I want to invite people to look into their own selves and see, what is their proclivity, what is their vulnerability, and combine that with practical solutions.
Some people literally waste hours and hours on end “screen sucking.” As a result they don’t get anything substantial done.
Q: Why do people think they become distracted? Are their perceptions of the problem accurate?
A: They usually don’t go deep enough. They blame it on modern life. Most people, that’s as far as they go and then the next step is, “There’s nothing I can do about it.” It creates in most people a kind of helplessness. They feel they have to be run ragged and start everyday with a mountain of work—they take it as a given.
It’s more than electronics, and you can do a lot about it.
Q: Is there a primary culprit you can pinpoint? For example, technology, or widespread employer expectations now that everyone will deliver super-productivity?
A: If there is one central culprit, it is technology. When you ask people now, “Where do you do your best thinking?” the most common answer is “In the shower.”
The great benefit of modern life is you can do so much. The great curse is that you can do so much.
Q: You write about “the sensational six” things that can help you be more focused: sleep, nutrition, exercise, meditation, stimulation, and connection (positive human contact). But what if you know your optimized routine will be thrown off by, say, jetlag? Are there ways to compensate?
A: Absolutely. There is going to be something that takes you off your perfect plan, and you want to have in your mental rolodex ways of assuaging that—sleep, exercise, meditation, vitamin C.
Sometimes just talking to someone instead of looking at the news can help. Call home, talk to your child, your grandmother, someone who’s not in your business life. Getting exercise also—even walking up and down the stairs a few times. There are things you can do on the spur of the moment.
Realize [interruptions to your routine] are to be expected in today’s world. Crisis is the norm, and stability is rare.
Q: If people could do just one thing tomorrow to improve, what should it be?
A: Create boundaries.
The boundaries have to fit the job situation. It may be email boundaries, closing your door, a schedule where you prioritize and don’t allow meetings to run on endlessly. That’s key to allowing your brain to work at its best.
We don’t live in a world short on opportunities. We’ve got way too many, so don’t worry about missing them. When opportunity knocks, you better not answer for most of the opportunities, otherwise you’ll just be chasing your tail.
