Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to tackle a demanding task but you just couldn’t bring yourself to concentrate and start working?
You must have felt overwhelmed and frustrated at the same time.
While it may be comforting to know that you’re not alone and that millions of people may feel the same every day, you still need to find out what shatters your focus and how to regain it so that you can complete your tasks efficiently and effortlessly.
Even though many may think that you only need to put your mind to the task to focus, it isn’t that easy. You have to consider numerous factors that can shatter employee focus, like digital distractions, or lack of prioritization or clarity when it comes to tasks and projects.
This article is going to show you the issues that affect your employees’ focus, offering effective ways to fix them and help your employees stay in the zone most of the time
1. Tendency to Multitask
Focus is the ability to concentrate on a single task until you finish it, avoiding distractions. But for employees working in fast-paced environments packed with digital distractions, this often seems to be a mission impossible. This especially applies to fully distributed teams who tend to jump and check every notification, trying to prove to their bosses that they are actually working.
Even though they may think they are more productive when doing two things at the same time, it’s quite the opposite. Our brain is wired to focus on one task at a time and when employees try to multitask, they spend more time working, delivering poorer results.
Solutions
Dedicate specific time to working on demanding tasks, relying on effective time management practices like timeboxing or time blocking. You can create time boxes by estimating the time needed to complete a single project or time blocks where you’ll group several similar tasks.
You can use screen monitoring to track the time spent on ongoing tasks and use this data to make accurate estimates and create efficient time boxes.
When you’re done with a specific time box, take a break. Make sure to get away from the screen, stretch out, or take a walk. Do whatever you need to re-energize and refresh after committing to deep-focused work.
2. Tendency to Monitor Inbox Constantly
Emails and direct messages are essential for maintaining communication between remote teams. But when different communication channels are misused, employees can easily feel overwhelmed, and the amount of information they need to process and respond to can easily lead them to burnout.
When employees feel the need to check their inboxes constantly they are task-switching, shattering their focus needed for creative work. When we know that they need 20 minutes on average to regain their focus, once it’s shifted, the finding that 80% of employees keep their email tab open throughout the day sounds daunting.
Solutions
Besides using time blocking to define hours for handling email and other communications, you can take the following steps to help employees fight the urge to respond to notifications immediately.
Let them turn off an email or Slack notifications while working on significant tasks that require focus.
Share your availability to communicate with your employees and encourage them to do the same. In this way, they’ll ensure nothing interrupts them while focusing on meaningful work.
Setting appropriate status on Slack that informs your colleagues that you’re immersed in focused work can also effectively convey the “do not disturb” message.
3. Tendency to Host Long or Unnecessary Team Meetings
Running remote teams is a demanding task requiring managers to be on top of things more than ever before. This is why many of them tend to host numerous meetings only to check out on employees or projects. While meetings are important so that everyone is in sync with the company’s goals and objectives, and intentions, you shouldn’t use them to manage projects or overlook employees.
According to medical experts, employees need more brainpower to focus during a video call than during an in-person interaction. Then it doesn’t come as a surprise that employees are talking more and more about the Zoom fatigue that decreases their engagement and motivation to go back to their tasks.
Solutions
First, you need to decide whether you need the meeting to discuss specific topics, or you can convey this message via email. Once you start doing this, you’ll reduce the number of meetings significantly, letting your employees spend more time on their tasks.
Also, ask your team members when it best fits them to attend meetings. Use this feedback when you’re scheduling meetings.
Final Words
Keeping focus in hectic digital environments may not be a mission impossible after all. You just need to recognize the factors that shatter employees’ focus and replace these practices with effective solutions listed in this article.
Once you do this, you can watch how your employees become more productive and time-efficient, and more importantly more invested and satisfied with their work.