Focused work in a hyper-connected world (part 2): How to minimize distractions from co-workers

Last week, I wrote about how to focus deeply by minimizing distractions from technology. Being deliberate about how (not) to use your computer and smartphone is essential during a focus bout.

Yet, our devices are only one part of what makes focus so difficult in our hyper-connected world. Today, one of the biggest sources of distraction is our co-workers, albeit well-intentioned. Again, it takes our minds 23 minutes to refocus on a task after an interruption.

So, being at the office can make focused work very hard. Every time we briefly start a chat with or answer a (non-urgent) question from a co-worker, we prevent ourselves from entering the flow state, in which we’re up to five times more productive.

Thus, minimizing distractions from co-workers during focus bouts is key. An excellent approach for concentrating intensely in (open) offices is using hideaways, which generally come in two types. The first is physical hideaways, which include moving to a dedicated location for your focused bout, e.g. a quiet room or desk. The second type is mental hideaways, e.g. via putting on noise-canceling headphones.

Wearing noise-canceling headphones has two major advantages. First, they help you focus. Wearing them supports your top-down control by limiting the number of incoming distractions it has to deal with – and researchers tell us that this is especially effective when you’re in a highly alert state.

Second, noise-canceling headphones signal to your co-workers that you’re trying to focus. And don’t worry about the impression which doing that gives off. According to a survey from 2019, most of your co-workers will view that neutrally or favorably, namely “want to be left alone” (27 percent), “focused” (22 percent) or “busy” (17 percent). Conversely, less than one in ten view it as rude or pretentious.