One of my classes is tech-free: phones, laptops, tablets, smart-watches, and all other digital devices are banned during class time. Although the professors cited evidence suggesting handwritten notes are superior to electronic ones, their main concern was digital media “addiction” and its negative impact on attention. I’ve seen this phenomenon both inside and outside the classroom, including compulsive email checking and frequent Facebook study breaks. Although technology offers us unprecedented educational and workplace benefits, we must be mindful of its potential negative health impacts. Later in the post, I’ll provide some workplace practices for organizations and individuals to improve flow and time management in the midst of incessant technological distractions.
Technological Distractions in the Workplace
In addition to negative effects on mental and physical health, technology-driven distractions can detract from workers’ productivity. Digital devices used for entertainment, social media, or even email frequently disrupt individual workflow. This is especially true when entertainment devices are also used for workplace communication. For example, many people work on their personal laptops or sync both work and personal emails to their cell phone. This integration makes it easy to switch between personal and business device usage. Less serious impacts include losses in productivity and efficiency, both at the individual and organization level. It’s been proven that constant distractions shorten our attention spans and ability to focus over the long term. Shorter attention spans fuel a negative feedback loop and make concentration even more difficult.
In terms of employee health and well-being, technological distractions can be a substantial source of stress and frustration in the workplace. These high stress levels cause many mental and physical health issues. Many people have work-related stress, and unregulated technology usage has the power to exacerbate its consequences.
The Theory of “Flow”
One of the best ways to think about technology and the workplace is through the theory of “flow.” The preeminent psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as a state of intense involvement where nothing else matters, except the task at hand. Flow is said to consist of three components: absorption, enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation. This blog post will primarily consider absorption, or “total concentration and immersion in the activity” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Absorption is a necessary prerequisite to enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, and therefore, flow in general. Even if one would enjoy the task and is intrinsically motivated to start, the only way to build up to the state of flow is to become absorbed in the task. Technology often interferes with such absorption. Lack of focus prevents an individual from getting into the work. It’s like reading: it’s hard to get lost in a good book if a reader can’t make it past the first few pages.
Additionally, Csikszentmihalyi maintains that a task’s difficulty must match an individual’s skill level in order for them to experience flow. Attention span and focus is key to absorption, as it can be difficult to overcome the initial inertia of starting a difficult endeavor. Working on a challenging task before the payoff state requires mental stamina, much like making it through the initial miles before experiencing the endorphin rush of a long run. It is thus important to learn about the long-term impacts of technological distractions: distractions affect our tasks at hand and also our general capacity to work and focus.
Facilitating Flow
Although organizations and individuals can both benefit from cultivating flow in the workplace, it can be a difficult state of mind to achieve in practice. With this in mind, the recommendations below may help to facilitate mindfulness, or even “micro-flow” as a precursor to entering flow in the modern workplace.
1. For some individuals, clearly separating work and personal spaces—whether those spaces are physical or technological – is a useful strategy for facilitating flow. It can also help to identify “flow-facilitating”environments, like a bustling coffee-shop or quiet library. Another strategy is to clear a personal workspace from potential distractions and specifically dedicate it to a job or project. Finally, facilitating flow conditions requires uninterrupted work-time, so it’s important for workers to ensure they have a designated period of alone-time to generate flow.
2. Employees should be wary of technological distractions that seem like work (so-called “productive procrastination,” such as constant email-checking) that take away from time dedicated to projects. Defining blocks of time dedicated to working on a specific task—and only that task—is a helpful solution to this problem. Time blocking includes independent assignments and teamwork while at work, as it is hard to enter flow while doing group work.
3. Limiting social media and smartphone use at work is another productivity-enhancing strategy: even when taking a break, going down the “rabbit hole” of social media often ends up taking more time than intended. Using lunch and work breaks for activities like meditation, spending time outside, or calling a friend are great alternatives to a technological recess.
4. Taking on too many commitments can also fragment one’s attention. Where possible, people can try to say no to new assignments when they already have too much on their plate. If a project seems promising, people can weigh the return-on-investment of time and energy. Developing a “checklist” to assess project utility might be a good strategy for determining the ROI. In my view, it’s better to devote physical and mental resources to a few, well-done projects rather than haphazardly or half-heartedly doing too many things at once.
5. According to Peter Drucker, “what gets measured gets managed.” The same applies to personal timekeeping. That is, the only way to accurately assess time management is to measure it! For example, tracking time spent genuinely working on certain tasks, identifying strategic break times, and noting productivity barriers. One way to split work and break time is through the Pomodoro Technique: use Tomato Timers or something similar to have a “time on, time off” approach to working or studying. Additionally, tracking screen time provides an accurate count of how much time is spent on phones—and on which specific apps. This information can be used to formulate a workflow strategy to increase effectiveness and happiness at work. This could even be a competition among co-workers to incentivize and improve organization-level productivity.
6. Practicing mindfulness is known to facilitate long-term attention span and focus. Specifically, mindfulness regarding technology usage strengthens individual capacity to focus on a task and avoid distractions. People become more patient, productive, and mindful— both in and outside of work. Facilitating conditions to improve focus at work is helpful, but individuals can do much more outside of the workspace to complement and support those improvements at work.
One of the simplest ways to increase mindfulness is through meditation. This practice is scientifically proven to increase the ability to focus. Setting a timer for ten minutes a day to be mindful of thoughts, physical sensations, and the breath is all it takes to get started. For those who want more guidance, there are some great apps that have lesson plans. I personally love the Waking Up podcast by Sam Harris.
7. Embracing boredom is another way to increase mental bandwidth is to. There’s a huge body of literature suggesting that boredom increases our ability to focus and exercise creativity: here’s one example. When in class or a meeting, people can try to resist the urge to go on Facebook or browse the Internet. The mind might wander, or it might be surprisingly easy to pay attention. Giving our brains a break from constant stimulation, especially from digital sources, gives us a respite from information, an opportunity to build focus, and a chance to reflect and linger in our own original thoughts.
Cultivating Flow: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Cultivating flow in the workplace entails more than prioritizing productivity and focus. At ICHW, we’ve reviewed literatureand conducted studies on the effects of workplace design. We are committed to finding ways to improve people’s health and productivity. I hope this post was a useful introduction to the concept of flow at work, and has offered a few practical ways of enhancing flow in the pursuit of your productivity and wellness. Readers are encouraged to comment and share their personal strategies for enhancing flow at work!
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