5 Ways To Pay Attention: White Space for Your Life

Distraction is the new enemy of success. Everyone is consistently interrupted by emails, text messages, phone calls, and meetings--some called to discuss future meetings. That's not breaking news.

But the result of this may be something you hadn't realized: mental exhaustion followed by frustration. Why frustration? Because you never properly finish what you started.

How you focus your attention determines what you think about and ultimately do. Jumping from task to task isn't a sign of workplace excellence and productivity; it's an indicator that you may not being doing much of anything very well. 

Each of us has 100 percent of a time allotment. OK, so we'll divide our time between two projects, 50-50. But hey, we like Project X a little more than Project Y, so now it's a 65%-35% arrangement. Then, the boss comes in to discuss a new idea, someone from the family sends a text message, and the printer needs a new cartridge. Do the numbers.

White Space is a design concept most of us are familiar with. Good page layout allows for breathing room, or "white space", so the reader can attend to what's important. Doesn't it make sense to do the same for ourselves?

 Since All Things Workplace is about practical solutions, here are:

Five Ways To Create Personal White Space

1. Know your own priorities. Then, hold fast to them.

Yeah, you were expecting that one because you already know it's true. Why it's important is the key. When you have clear priorities and are in the habit of acting on them, other people notice. Then, when you take time to explain why you can't do something else at the moment, they're more likely to understand. 

2. Schedule Thinking Time. Put it on your calendar the same way you would anything else of importance. Why would you spend a day, week, or lifetime working at anything that's not a result of some purposeful reflection?

3. Start creating the habit of "Singletasking" vs "Multitasking. Tackle things in sequence and  complete each one--or reach some sensible break point-- before moving on to the next.

4. Manage distractions. Be clear with people: "I'm not always available." Turn off the mobile, Skype, Twitter, and email for set periods of time. Figure out how often you really have to check them in order to remain informed. 

5. Make "paying attention" a conscious part of your life and worklife. Observe how much of your time is being orchestrated by you and how much is being pilfered by others. The very act of doing this will anger you just enough to do something about it. 

White Space is a design concept most of us are familiar with. Good page layout allows for breathing room, or "white space", so the reader can attend to what's important.

Thought for Today: Create some White Space for your work life.

If you're thinking along the same lines, you might also enjoy:

Leadership: When "No" Is More Important Than "Yes"

Comments

[Jackie Cameron]

For the past few months I have turned off all business tools at the weekend and really felt the benefit. And as I set out into this week I realise I have designated it a white space week - before I knew I was doing it. Thank you for making it clear for me!

Thinking time is hugely undervalued. I work with students who are required to submit reflective reports on their workplace learning. They tell me that the biggest challenge that they have is finding the time to reflect...to allow them to write the report. But when they do - the results are pretty good.

[Steve Roesler]

Jackie,

Pleased to get this real-life example from you, as you are a professional person with many interests and activities.

I've sometimes wondered if, in business, part of the issue is terminology. It's ok to go off and "think through something" but not quite as acceptable to "reflect". Go figure.

As for disappearing each week: absence makes the heart grow fonder:-)

Good for you.

[Jo Jordan]

@ourfounder has been working on personal kanbans and introducing them at the World Bank, or somewhere like that.

Basically, no one is allowed to have more than 3 things in progress at any time and these are decided in stand up scrums prior to the "sprint".

The beauty of this system is that once the tasks are set, people are left in peace to finish them!

The alternative is a busy shop, say, where the workflow is determined by the essentially random arrival of customers. It is so important in that environment to do every thing fast, because its not known when you will have to drop the task, and to focus on one customer at a time so things aren't messed up. The norms are strong. Customer. Pay attention until finished/everything else waits. If a task needs doing, do it straight away! Even if you need a break, take it.

Being of a structural turn of mind, half the secret is understanding the rhythm of the work and applying the old rule-of-thumb of respecting the line. Basically, don't interrupt work! Managers of course have very short tasks (30 sec to 10 min ref Mintzberg). They sometimes forget that other people have to get the work done!

[Steve Roesler]

Hi there, Jo,

That's exactly the kind of leadership that allows people to focus and is a good model for others to follow. Thanks for showing it for all to see.

[Jim Benson]

Thank you Jo for the mention!

Steve, I love the 5 ways you describe.

The 6th I would add is: cognitively unclutter. When we have a lot of tasks on our plate (often way more than we realize) it's tremendously difficult to focus. We are just paying attention to too many things simultaneously - simply by trying to order all our work.

The trick is to get our brains to see the work we have and then the steps to complete it.

Your #5 is, to me, the most important and the easiest to overlook (which is why it's in the title, I assume). People think they are paying attention - when in reality they are merely observing. And there's a big big difference.

Thanks for the article Steve and the mention of Personal Kanban, Jo.

Jim

[mindflex]

I always find 4 so difficult!

[Steve Levinson, Ph.D.]

The biggest culprit is actually the human mind itself. Despite it's awesome capabilities, the mind has some leftover primitive wiring that causes us to react too readily to things inside and out that throw us off course. To be as productive and effective as we'd like to be, we need to be able to exercise greater control over our attention than our "original equipment" allows us to.

A clinical psychologist, I spent years developing a way for people to achieve greater control over their own attention. I invented a simple electronic device known as the MotivAider (http://habitchange.com)that has enabled users of all ages to keep their attention focused on whatever they decide matters most.

[Tanveer Naseer]

Steve, I think you offer some great points here for people to think about in how they manage their lives. And I live the allegory you make to that white space, of how it causes us to focus on only the essentials - and not all those shiny, sparkly things trying to draw our attention away.

I think it's a great exercise for people to actually sit down and generally map out how much time they have in a day for work, for eating, for sleeping, for "me" time, etc. That way, it becomes even more obvious that we can't do everything as time is not something we can go down to the store and buy more of.

So we have to learn to be more selective about how we spend it and what we want to focus our attention on as being truly important and necessary.

Again, a great piece Steve. Thanks for sharing these points.

Tanveer.

[Steve Roesler]

Jim,

You know, I hadn't thought of "cognitively unclutter" as a separate category. For me, the cognitive part takes place first, which opens the way to the other 5. Yet as I think about it, the "cognitive uncluttering" is a distinct element that is useful as a conscious undertaking.

Keep up the fine work with Personal Kanban, Jim. . .

[Steve Roesler]

Steve,

Thank you for the reference.

[Steve Roesler]

Tanveer,

In Jim's comment, he talks about "cognitively uncluttering." So, when it's time to sit down and map out the day, maybe it's a good idea to "unclutter the mind" before dividing things up.

Maybe we'll find that some things disappear as a result, eh?