Digital distraction is destroying every aspect of our professional lives, according to Curt Steinhorst, the author of the best-selling book Can I Have Your Attention? Inspiring Better Work Habits, Focusing Your Team and Getting Stuff Done in the Constantly Connected Workplace.
Steinhorst is on a mission to rescue businesses from distracted employees. After years of studying the impact of technology on human behavior, he founded Focuswise, a consultancy that equips organizations to overcome the distinct challenges of the constantly-connected workplace.
“Our relationship with devices is more than an annoyance,” Steinhorst said. “It’s altered every aspect of how we work and our relationships with customers.”
The Data of Distraction
The average person gets distracted every six minutes (150 times a day). Millennials are distracted more frequently at every three minutes. “We live in an age of unlimited access,” Steinhorst said. “At any given moment, we can connect and have the offering of the infinite.”
When people are distracted by their devices, what are they doing? The average millennial sends and receives 4,000 texts per month. Almost 2.8 million videos are viewed on YouTube each minute. Half-a-billion tweets are published every day. Facebook content receives 2.5 million “likes” every minute.
When it comes to work, the average professional receives 240 emails and spends 2.5 hours working on those emails each day. In one survey, 87 percent of employees admitted to reading political social media posts at work. Other research shows that 60 percent of online purchases occur between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
And if none of that convinces you that your employees are distracted at work, perhaps this will: Facebook’s busiest hours are 1-3 p.m.—right in the middle of the workday.
“We have lost our ability to choose where we spend our attention,” Steinhorst said. “And each instance of distraction comes at a significant cost.” The Costs of Distraction in the Workplace Humans do not have the capacity to attend to many things at once, which leads Steinhorst to believe “the way we are working isn’t working.” Distraction in the workplace results in:
- Decreased employee effort and efficiency
- Slower work production (time loss)
- Poor work quality
- Reduced engagement
- Lost sales
“We have never had so much within immediate reach… or been so immediately reachable,” Steinhorst said. “We’ve never been responsible for so much information… or retained so little. We’ve never been more connected… or faced so many interruptions. We’ve never been so distracted.”
The Solutions to Digital Distraction
Distraction arises out of a lack of focus. “Regaining focus—becoming focus-wise, as I like to call it—doesn’t require a rejection of technology,” Steinhorst said. “Becoming focus-wise only requires we re-configure our tech usage habits.”
For instance, instead of expecting employees to be 100 percent available throughout the day to emails, chats and other interruptions, have them intentionally set time aside in “focus vaults” where they are completely unreachable to the outside world for a set period of time. When they emerge, they can have complete freedom to check emails and Facebook, batching these communications so they’re not switching back and forth between the tasks at hand.
Companies should also take control of how technology is used in the workplace. For instance, if employees can’t resist checking their phone when it dings—have them turn off the sound. Ask them to disable their computer’s internet connection for a period of time. Even something as simple as asking them to work with one browser tab, program window or application at a time helps the brain focus.
Normalizing simple, focus-wise habits like these in a company’s culture can reap huge rewards in workplace productivity.
Keep Your Customers’ Attention
Living in the digital world has also altered customer relations. “We have to think differently if we want to adapt,” Steinhorst said. “Customers used to come to businesses to ask for information, and now they come to tell you what you already know.”
Customers have more access to information than ever. While humans are consuming 400 percent more information than the average person in 1986, we are incapable of processing it all. “We become victims of whatever we read last,” Steinhorst said.
To adapt to this massive shift in the way people communicate and consume information, company leaders have to strategically think about how to keep customers’ attention. “Attention has become the most valuable, limited and precious resource for individuals and organizations,” Steinhorst said. “In an ‘Attention Economy,’ we must become focus-wise.”
To keep customers’ attention, company leaders and employees must understand attention. First and foremost, employees have to avoid distraction when taking care of customers.
“Companies must also understand that customers are increasingly relying on visual cues to make decisions,” Steinhorst said. “To keep their attention, we have to shorten the format in which we present information. We also need to give customers the information they need when they need it.”
Infographics and concise, focused conversations will help, but in an increasingly automated-for-convenience world companies also have to serve as valuable resources for creative thinking and problem-solving to retain customers’ attention.
“They must see you as an expert,” Steinhorst said. “They must see you as someone who knows what they need. When you are seen as a trusted expert, you will generate more sales.”
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To win the battle against one-click purchases, offline companies must also distinguish themselves and provide customers with experiences they won’t get elsewhere.
“Create a physical experience and opportunities that make them want to be there,” Steinhorst said. “Make adjustments so they are surprised every time they walk in.”
Emotions play a large part in customer decisions. “Our attention follows what we care about,” Steinhorst said. “We can expand our attention’s capacity when we care and destroy it when we don’t. People 35 and under are more likely to refer a business to others if they feel connected to it. Allow them to see the humans behind your business rather than brands they don’t care about. Do everything you can to remove the gap between the purchase and the person it benefits.”
If businesses do not make habit-changing moves to take control of technology and retain employees’ and customers’ attention, they risk losing control of their fate, and they will be lost to digital distractions and the sea of limitless information.
“Use technology to accomplish your goals,” Steinhorst said, “rather than letting technology use you.”
What does it take to thrive in the age of distraction? In Can I Have Your Attention, Steinhorst explains step-by-step how to overcome distraction and reclaim focus in every aspect of your life and work. Get Chapter 9, “The Vault,” to learn a simple habit to dramatically increase your focus by visiting the website cihya.today.
