By Sander Paul Zwanenburg
The latest research into self-control from the School of Business at The University of Hong Kong suggests that individuals are the best managers of their own potential distractions—neither HR nor restrictions imposed by the IT Department will be as effective. But by offering training, HR can help individuals learn why and how to better focus and help achieve goals. Doctoral candidate Sander Paul Zwanenburg explains the findings further, with tips from the White House on how to spend decision-making energy wisely.
Demands on attention
Distractions at work are more pervasive than ever before. Not only our PCs but also our smartphones and tablet computers constantly grab our attention with incoming messages, the latest software updates and news from social networks. Notifications keep people from focusing on their task, but many people also distract themselves by suddenly turning their attention to what is new online.
The danger of distractions is in not getting the work done, which can be very frustrating. This danger looms even when the distractions are work-related. Workflow experiments have shown that frequently switching between tasks—multitasking—may feel productive, but always costs more time to finish; 50% longer, compared to attending to tasks consecutively.
The muscle of self-control
Fortunately, research on self-control can offer some help to achieve better focus. Decades of experiments and surveys have gradually revealed the inner workings of self-control, or our ability to override our impulses. This insight has had major implications for theory, but has great potential for practical use at work as well.
Psychologists have found that self-control works like a muscle. Like using a muscle, controlling an impulse consumes an amount of energy. Coping with stress, resisting temptation, or deciding based on goals rather than habit or intuition all require the same type of energy. But we only have a limited pool of this self-control energy. When it is depleted, we cannot control ourselves anymore: we become more impulsive, acting out what comes straight to mind, rather than following goals or plans. When we take rest, we replenish energy. This is why it is at night and not in the morning when people break their diet or commit more serious sins.
This theory predicts when focus on work is a struggle. For example, if you make many conscious, thoughtful decisions in the morning, making many more in the afternoon is harder. You are more likely to make these later decisions without much conscious effort, or push them to tomorrow. Similarly, a gamer on a diet may resist eating a birthday treat, but as a result, the temptation of playing a game later that day in the office can become irresistible.
Tips for top performance
This insight teaches us two lessons for better concentration at work. First, take sufficient rest to fully replenish your self-control energy. For instance, if you want to work but you cannot focus, spending twenty minutes on a nap is a better investment than spending the same time wandering around the web.
The second lesson is to spend your self-control energy wisely. Spend it on things that deserve it. Having many important decisions to make, Barack Obama applies this lesson to the extreme--he tries not to decide what to wear or eat anymore to fully focus on his big job. This goes a little far for many people, but there are many more practical tips for wisely spending energy:
- Abate your alerts. By switching off the notifications that do not need your immediate attention, you do not need to resist the temptation of promptly responding to them, saving self-control energy. If you would not have resisted anyway, you save time by attending to tasks consecutively.
- Routinize recurring activities. Going to the gym in the early morning is perhaps something to make a regular plan for, rather than deciding every morning. With positive habits you save more energy for the decisions that need it most.
- Delegate the details. If you passionately lead a team, chances are you are involved in the more detailed decisions, but this can come at the cost of your energy for the big picture. If you become stressed about important decisions, consider delegating trivial decisions to your team members.
- Regulate your own web restriction. If certain websites are particularly distractive to you, software can help you stop visiting these online places when you want to work. After a while, you get used to this restriction, and do not even think about going there anymore–again saving energy.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
