Many are challenged working remotely with too much information between Zoom and all the other platforms and apps for remote employees. This is a real problem for both the company and employee. By the end of the day, folks are exhausted from having to switch their attention so frequently. And, also frustrated from feeling they accomplished too little or weren’t able to produce their highest quality work.
There are costs to productivity levels with this pull between individual and team over many platforms. Research shows it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to where we left off after each interruption. That’s why productivity experts like David Allen recommend allocating a specific timeslot for project work, and doing only that during that time. When the time is up, leave yourself a note with what he calls the ‘next action’ in the file, so you don’t have to spend time figuring out where you were and what you were planning to do next.
The costs of diffused attention and all the interruptions is that people lose their thoughts and ideas, don’t explain as well as they might, or take the time to rewrite sentences for greater reader understanding. That creates more back-and forth, which only adds to the mass of emails and IMs, creating even more work and interruptions.
You need a balance between team collaboration and concentration of individual employees to create the greatest productivity. And, you need both to produce the best output. Collaboration brings a diversity of ideas and a wealth of expertise to the challenge. It drives the business by harnessing the resources within. It also increases buy-in and adoption if folks help co-create the solution. Yet concentration is necessary to outline the problem, define the right questions, put together something for the team to respond to, and deliver the final output.
So what’s the solution for finding that balance between employee concentration and team collaboration?
The most successful firms and leaders designate “focus hours” where there are no meetings, no IMs, no texts. Most do this on Fridays or the most productive block time each day. That makes it ok for folks to turn off all of their notifications and just get stuff done.
Other teams have “office hours”, where they ARE available and interruptible. David Allen, the Pomodoro technique, time blocking and many others help folks put boundaries around their time to ensure they have true productive hours without interruptions.
We have been in the learning mode over the past year concerning how to work remotely. So do what works for you and your team!
