age. And how you can help your own people become like him.
Jack isn't immune to the perils of the constantly connected workplace. What makes him exceptional is his capacity to block out noise and accomplish focused work. If you have one or more Jacks in your office, congratulations. More likely, you depend principally on Harry and his tribe. That's probably why you picked up this book in the first place.
This book is for people who know they, their employees, and their organizations can be more productive but aren't sure how to get there. It's dedicated to harvesting our most precious, and dwindling, resource: attention. The digital age has no unique claim to the problem of focus. Everyone from Seneca to Shakespeare has wrestled with it. But they didn't have smartphones, Instagram, Facebook, e-mail, Netflix, or any of the other marvels (or scourges) that constantly challenge our focus today.
And I do mean “our” focus. I was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) as a child. Distraction is the way my brain likes to work – whether I like it or not. The systems and strategies I recommend in this book started with a test subject of one.
As a father of two, I am woefully familiar with the difficult questions parents face related to connectivity and work-life balance. I am personally invested in the outcome of how we prepare the next generation for work and work for the next generation.
I run a business. I lead a team that wrestles with efficiency and empathy in the age of constant connectivity. We work with clients who expect immediate responses.
Perhaps the only difference: I've devoted my career, education, thought space, and financial resources to this challenge – so much so that I've coined a term to describe the goal of turning our attention resources into productivity. Focus-wise is what we should strive for, in work and in life. And I don't just believe this; I've made it a cornerstone of my business.
Focus wisdom is the difference between the strain of Harry and the satisfaction of Jack, between surrendering to distraction and mastering it. Between managing employees and inspiring them. Focus wisdom is a blueprint for organizational success.
This book is broken into seven sections, each section representing an aspect of the workplace that is affected by distraction. They can be read in sequence or mixed and matched to suit your needs:
• Section 1, Nobody's Working, outlines the nature of distraction in the constantly connected workplace, its hidden costs, and how we can start to address it.
• Section 2, Finding Focus, discusses the possibilities and limitations of our brain's ability to focus, including surprising truths about multitasking.
• Section 3, Focus-Wise Space makes a case for walls (literal and figurative) as a path to focus and explains the secret to Jack's success: the vault.
• Section 3, Focus-Wise Technology, describes our love–hate relationship with tech, how it can help promote focus, and the pros and cons of monitoring your people.
• Section 5, Focus-Wise Communication, unpacks the shortcomings of digital communication and how face-to-face connection can make all the difference.
• Section 6, Focus-Wise Workday, presents an alternative to the myth of work-life balance, explores useful delineation and delegation, and offers tips for extending focus and capacity.
• Section 7, Focus-Wise Leadership explores three questions to determine proper focus, the secret of a focus culture, training that works, the power of emotional engagement, and the surprising cure for employee boredom.
Although shorter is better for a book like this, useful things can be left out. That's why I've provided a host of helpful resources for you at focuswise.com/book. Here you can consult a constantly updated repository of expanded content and practical advice.
If you're like me, you may want some personal and professional high-level reflection as you dive in. Journaling has been a tremendous way for me to begin and end each of my days in a focused way. There are reflection questions for every chapter at focuswise.com/book.
Plus, I have created a deep-dive video for each of the seven sections, providing a strategic way to frame discussion with your team about that section's content. Let's be honest – few people read more than 140 characters these days. Perhaps gathering to watch the video together will help start needed conversations within your team. From there, I hope they pick up/download a copy of this book themselves! In fact, check out the intro video as soon as you finish reading the prologue.
Finally, I know many of us are ready for practical solutions to this well-known (and personally played out) problem of distraction. You want ground-level resources to begin implementation of focus-wise solutions within your team or organization. Thus, you will also find pertinent and actionable resources specific to each section at www.focuswise.com/book.
What we are asking you to do in this book isn't easy: to rethink virtually every aspect of work today. From how you lead, hire, and train to how you run your meetings and even set up your office space. We are asking you to do the hard work so your people have a fighting chance to reclaim their focus and thrive in the constantly connected workplace.
The good news is it's more possible – and way more valuable – than you might think.
The power of true focus awaits you and your people. Together, we'll learn how to cultivate and maintain it.
Section One
NOBODY'S WORKING
Chapter 1
The Curse of the Overwhelmed
Twenty-two.
That's how many e-mails have arrived in the past 15 minutes as I've tried to write this opening. And because I indulged the temptation to check, I'll work longer and get less done today. I probably won't even realize it.
Been here before? Know someone who has?
You're not alone. Ask your people how work is going and you'll hear:
I'm burning it at both ends.
So much on my plate, it's crazy.
Putting in 14-hour days.
Sure, people feel overworked, but that's not the problem. We confuse busyness and activity with actual work, so what feels like overworked is actually overwhelmed. What's the difference? To find out, let's go back to my inbox.
Of those 22 e-mails, three were from employees, one was from a client, one was from a prospect, and five were newsletters or promotions.
The other 12? They were from people who were supposed to be working. But weren't.
These are friends who work in fields like consulting, accounting, medicine, journalism, and software sales, sending
