Getting a grip on rising tech distractions improves productivity and is good for business聽says founder of Consciously Digital and author of Homo Distractus Anastasia Dedyukhina.
Consciously Digital is a London-based consultancy that helps people and organisations have a healthier relationship with technology.
Dedyukhina’s book Homo Distractus discusses how to have聽a healthier relationship with technology and聽is聽 until Friday 17th November.
Ex-digital marketer Dedyukhina ditched her smartphone after realising it was taking over her life. She now coaches individuals and companies on how to manage tech instead of letting it manage them, a聽large part of聽which is how to improve productivity.
鈥淧roductivity is directly related to how focused you can be,鈥� she told 老九品茶Cloud.
“A study looked at what made students productive and found that the longer they dedicated to a particular task the more productive they would be.
鈥淚t鈥檚 basically a big myth that we can multitask as humans –聽we can鈥檛. Or we can but we don鈥檛 do it well.鈥�
The reason for this is that quickly switching between tasks 鈥� which includes tabs or devices 鈥� has a cost says Dedyukhina.
鈥淚f you have more than two tasks open you can lose up to 40 per cent of your productive time because it takes your brain time to go back to what you were doing,鈥� she said.
“Each day we’re all receiving聽175聽newspapers’-worth of聽information via broadcast and 20 newspapers’-worth of information via聽telecommunications networks such as the internet.
鈥淲hen you go online you鈥檙e constantly making micro-decisions. Should I look at this email or click on this link?
鈥淚t might seem like a small thing but when there are lots of them they accumulate, depleting brain power.
鈥淚f you read your emails in the morning and don鈥檛 complete all of them your brain still dedicates a bit of energy to keeping track of that.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have all your energy resources focused on the most important thing聽they could do.”
Dedyukhina鈥檚 rule is that she doesn鈥檛 reply to emails until she鈥檚 accomplished something big in the morning.
鈥淚 have one or two things that are really important to accomplish like recording a video or working on my book. Unless I have worked on them for a few hours I say no emails,鈥� she said.
鈥淭his creates my own agenda instead of surrendering to other people鈥檚. A big part of that is managing people鈥檚 expectations.
鈥淪ay that you answer emails three times a day or within two hours and as long as people know that then they don鈥檛 freak out. We just don鈥檛 have the etiquette yet.鈥�
Despite the feeling that work will suffer if users unplug, research has found that it actually has a positive effect overall says Dedyukhina.
鈥淚t鈥檚 amazing that people tell themselves they can鈥檛 get rid of tech but an experiment by Harvard convinced several BCG strategy consultants to unplug once a week for several months,鈥� she said.
鈥淭hey were afraid they might lose clients but their performance was measured against those didn鈥檛 unplug and they found that not only did the unplugged group perform better but they also had better relationships within the team.
鈥淭heir clients didn鈥檛 object at all as long as they knew that they would be available the next day.
鈥淲e tell ourselves we can鈥檛 miss anything but we tend to overestimate our importance.鈥�