From Distraction to Traction: Mindfulness at Work

'How might we be more present at work?' is a question we often ask ourselves at Intelligent Futures. Interruptions ranging from email and Slack notifications to kids and animals running around the home office have become part of the new normal for many of us. This post provides some ideas we have explored at IF to practice mindfulness at work during challenging times.

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(a blog post originally created for Intelligent Futures)

Why do we distract ourselves in the first place? Looking at the incredibly complex, technological, and fast-paced world we have created, one would think we would have evolved to be indistractable beings by now. However, the reality is that part of our mental hardware - our reptilian brain - is still wired for some of its basic functions like it was thousands of years ago.

Let’s look inside our skulls for an explanation of why we are distractable. Our reptilian brain is primarily concerned with avoiding pain and maximizing pleasure. There’s also the limbic brain that deals with our emotions and our prefrontal cortex - the rational part that allows for abstract thinking and planning. Yet, the reptilian brain is the fastest one to act. It has helped survive by rapidly detecting threats.

The paradox of western society is that even though most folks have their basic needs assured (which means that the most primitive part of our brain could chill the hell out) we are still servants to our reptilian brains.

Why? The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma does a great job at explaining this issue. Instead of using our technological advancement for continuing to create more intelligent futures, we have designed an ‘attention economy’ that gets our reptilian brains hooked to the immediate pleasure of mindless scrolling and notification checking. Disconnected from our neo-frontal cortex, much of our virtual connection is about getting one more dopamine hit.

A research study conducted in 2018 by Ofcom, the UK’s telecoms regulator, found that people check their smartphones on average every 12 minutes during their waking hours, with 71% saying they never turn their phone off and 40% reporting that they check them within five minutes of walking.

I am currently reading Indistractable, by Nir Eyal and Julie Li, who introduce the refreshing idea that the opposite of distraction isn't focus, but traction. He defines traction as "an action that pulls us towards the things we want to do with intent" while distraction as "the thing that pulls us away from the things we want to do with intent."

Therefore, mindfulness consists of noticing when we get off our chosen track and learning to return smoothly and without judgment. Put another way, mindfulness is all about getting out of the auto-pilot mode of the reptilian brain.

Here are a few suggestions that I have found helpful in trying to be more mindful at work.

Start with why.

Make sure to connect with your intention before you begin your chosen task, especially if you’ll engage with technology - an idea explored in our previous post on Digital Collaboration.

When you notice yourself getting off track, return to your why. Reflect on your intentions. Yes, checking your WhatsApp notifications might be connected to your motivation to be a present family member, friend, or even business partner, yet isn't your intention at this moment to be fully present in your chosen task?

One concept that resonates with our practice at Intelligent Futures is Slow Web - Like slow food, this concept stands for the mindful use of the internet. It's all about using technology to serve our purposes and not the other way around. As Arielle Pardes writes: “The ‘slow web’ is all about experiences we can really savor: reading one long article rather than skimming a thousand tweets, or catching up with friends who live far away rather than thumbing through Instagram.”

Get Out of Autopilot.

By observing your thoughts, feelings, and actions that trigger distraction and disconnect you from your intention, you're practicing self-awareness. By mastering self-awareness, you will be able to reconnect to your most essential why - aligning your intentions with your behaviors and hopefully learning to overcome distraction and procrastination. Creating this space for self-regulation (without beating yourself up when there are inevitable hiccups) is the key to mindfulness.

Switch To-Do Lists for Schedules.

At a more practical level, to-do lists can turn into a distracting stress machine if you do not assign a specific time slot to complete your tasks. Looking at the list and not knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. This approach to work is why at Intelligent Futures, we prefer to assign time slots to specific tasks.

Turn Off All Notifications.

Just do it. Seriously. An experiment conducted at the University of London found that we lose as many as 10 IQ points when we allow our work to be interrupted by seemingly benign distractions like emails and text messages. That’s the equivalent to missing a whole night’s sleep and more than double the 4-point fall seen after smoking marijuana.

At Intelligent Futures, we organize our time into distinct blocks. We don't constantly check email or messages to give our clients our full attention and focus. As a result, email is not an instant messaging system for us. This allows us to provide our clients with our best thinking and fullest attention. To learn more about our corporate culture, check our Culture Deck.

Create Windows for Deep Work.

In his newsletter, Adam Grant introduced the idea of protected hours. Drawing on insights from the HBR article by Nancy Northbard, he suggests teams ask members what times they need to safeguard. Sharing work schedules amongst team members might be useful here.

Have a Purposeful Pause.

It can be easy to find ourselves on the hamster wheel of multi-tasking. One thing that helps me is to create triggers to return to my intentions and have a Purposeful Pause instead of continually running in auto-pilot mode. Every time you're triggered, remind yourself to have a Purposeful Pause and ask yourself: Am I on my chosen track? Where does my focus need to be? If there is no clear answer, that usually means it’s time to get up, move my body, clear my head and reset. (Note: this has happened twice in the writing of this post).

The idea here is that these triggers become habits and that you return to your center without much active thinking. This is the kind of relationship yogis aspire to develop with their breath - which can instantly bring them back to the present moment.

Be Patient.

Be patient with yourself and others. Getting upset with yourself as you notice your distraction will only generate more distracting feelings that won’t assist you in the process of getting back on track.

Similarly, if you are on track and someone interrupts you, such as a family member, don't take it personally. Instead, why don't you turn the situation into a self-regulation practice - an opportunity to get back to your chosen task mindfully.

Ultimately, practice makes perfect. I know from experience that practicing traction in the age of distraction might feel like an impossible task, given the technological, societal and cultural forces at play. Yet, neuroscience is showing us that we can change the wiring of our brains. No question, it’s an uphill climb, but being mindful and present in your work is possible with intention and patience. The hope is that presence will become our default mode, and the result is better work, more clarity and a higher quality of life.