Issues with maintaining attention

People cannot hold their attention because they get distracted. Distractions happen unconsciously, often due to external irritants: a colleague bursting into the office door or meeting room, a phone ringing, and so on. But external distractions are only part of the problem, even more disruptive are internal distractions due to thoughts and concerns that come to mind. Concerns in general lead to exhaustion and procrastination. There is even an expression "procrastination is stretched doubts" (doubts about whether this work needs to be done, whether the chosen method will help, whether it will be possible to create a work product of the required quality, and so on).

To deal with distractions, you can implement time boxing practices (working in time slots) and the Pomodoro Technique. Even if your work involves meetings, you can still allocate time for focused work without distractions: meetings will go better if you prepare for them in advance. Typically, most people manage to allocate 25 minutes (one pomodoro) for concentrated work on a work product.

It also makes sense to allocate "chaos windows": time between completing work products or roles, which serves, on one hand, as a buffer, and on the other hand, as an opportunity to address incoming communication requests.

Furthermore, it is recommended to track "hidden works" and create a small buffer for new inputs that you need to process immediately.

Finally, dealing with internal distractions is helped by writing down the problem (formulating it in writing), possibly in a separate corner, and setting a deadline for when you will think about solving it. This helps to "unload" information from your mind, not to forget it - and at the same time, it tricks the brain, which takes such reflections as problem-solving and allows you to shift attention to the task you were working on earlier.

Helps focus on creating an environment for task execution. You can remove unnecessary items from your field of attention: close browser tabs that are not needed to solve tasks, remove documents and papers from the table or at least organize them in a folder on the table.

Additionally, it is highly recommended to set a focused mode on your computer and phone to avoid sudden distractions during task execution. If there are people whose calls need to be answered even at the cost of distraction, their numbers can be added to the exceptions list permanently or temporarily, "VIP numbers".

If you still can't deal with distractions, have difficulty concentrating at the moment, it may be worth seeing a doctor: perhaps the problem lies there.

"Frequent conscious switches" occur due to a large number of new inputs, too many roles that need to be performed, and so on. Also, the lack of organized communication in the team also causes unnecessary switches to solving a problem that colleagues could have solved on their own. Typically, problems with frequent switches are resolved through delegating specific tasks and entire roles, as well as organizing communication in the team. For successful team communication and collaboration, a common language (enterprise ontology) is needed to conveniently discuss team activities and the organization of communication in this language. Communication channels can be described, divided into regular and ad hoc (emergency), and their usage order specified. In this case, the presence of, for example, an "open-door policy" will not lead to a situation where employees distract each other from work at the most inappropriate moment through an emergency communication channel (using an open door without warning is an emergency communication option, and there should be negative consequences for its use in a normal situation).

Sometimes the switch does not happen - instead, there is getting stuck in a role. For example, a leader at work forgets to switch out of the role, comes home and tries to communicate with family members as subordinates. Or during leisure time, there is no complete switch to the role of a restful person, the individual mentally drifts far away, and physically often gets stuck with the phone. In such cases, rituals for entering and exiting a role help. For example, you can dress according to the role, like a chef putting on an apron or an athlete wearing a training suit, you can engage the necessary exocortex, for example, put the phone away in a drawer and bring up the schedule and list of tasks for today on the screen, a task tracker/project modeler. By performing this ritual, you train yourself to think about objects of attention in the required role instead of being distracted by other things.

Often, problems arise from having an old habit that needs to be overwritten. For example, a person is used to sleeping longer in the mornings but now is trying to get up earlier and exercise. They will face setbacks, even if they are trying to establish a new habit through practices of the necessary time scale (habit setup practices, not focusing practices). Periodic setbacks will occur when sleep is chosen over exercise, thoughts of "why is all this necessary," and so on. In other words, this so-called "dead zone" in learning will manifest. To deal with it, you need to:

• firstly, be aware of its presence and that what is happening is normal. Setbacks and thoughts of quitting are not signs of weakness or failure. It's just how our brain works, and learning requires some effort;
• secondly, don't expect results (of the established habit) earlier than in 66 days, and for a complex habit, it's better to assume 9 months to 1 year, that is, counting on a realistic rate of change;
• third, remember that difficulties lie in learning in general, not in learning a specific role or practice. And if you constantly avoid them because "I will fail anyway," you might end up reaching close to nothing. You will still be a year or two or three older - but you can become older with a new habit, or you can age in the state you are in now. Is such a future okay with you? If yes, you don't need to make an effort. If not, you should decide what consequences of your actions you choose;
• fourth, you can focus on skill improvement, enhancing the quality of work products, and praise yourself and the team even for small changes. This will allow you to consider such improvements in general and, at the same time, support motivation;
• fifth, find personal, emotional (not only rational) reasons to continue. For example, many serial entrepreneurs (businessmen) who eventually achieved significant business success had multiple failures in their attempts to start a business. And many of them were led not only, if at all, by a desire to "just make money," but by a desire to change the world, to create a product that could benefit others, who experience inconvenience due to its absence. Find something in learning for yourself that increases personal resources or improves self-perception. This will help you overcome mistakes and difficulties.

Keeping attention is often hindered by overly optimistic calculations. For example, people often underestimate the amount of effort needed to do their work well and especially excellently. They often hope for quick and easy changes, that is, for a miracle: what if you just tell the team that they will benefit from implementing new sales practices, for example, the introduction of new sales practices, and everyone will happily start working in a new way. In reality, this does not happen: to change the behavior and thinking of an individual and especially a team, you need to sell the idea of change, perpetuate it (draw attention to new objects, make them familiar and create recognition so that cameras can easily hold on to them), and repeatedly apply new practices (make numerous attempts). It is valuable to roughly estimate how long it took for you personally or your team to make the last change. It is also possible to search for information on how long transformations took for others. This will allow you to obtain a rough estimate of the time for changes - and it will almost certainly be longer than intuitive estimates. The danger of optimistic estimates is that people, expecting changes to end soon, can overextend themselves prematurely. Like in a run, making the final leap before the finish line - only to find out that they are in the middle of the course, not at the finish line. Such discrepancy between expectations and reality is even more demotivating than exhausted strength (they will eventually accumulate).

Another problem is the difficulty for a person to hold attention on the selected practice (actual complexity). Usually, this is related to unconscious incompetence:

• it is not clear which objects are important for achieving the goal in general,
• it is unclear how to describe the problem,
• you do not know what to search for/investigate ways to solve the problem, already used by other agents,
• it is unknown how to focus attention on objects (which temporal scale practices to use),
• lack of comparison with the physical world.

For example, a developer received a promotion and became a team leader. Now he almost certainly has to learn the managerial role, but he may not know about it or may not perceive the new activity as management if no one in the organization has drawn the new team leader's attention to it. Accordingly, he may try to apply engineering practices where management is needed, and often get not very good results. In such cases, it is useful to resort to "help from the audience": ask other team leaders in the organization who successfully deliver the required work products on time, write to a mentor if available, seek articles and books on the Internet that may be useful, listen to performances by team leaders, who have recently overcome challenges in similar organizations and have done so recently (minimizing the effort to adapt such experience to oneself). It is important to draw attention to the necessary objects by turning to other agents who can share their experience or through self-education.

The issue of actual complexity is closely related to another problem - the issue of perceived complexity. It may even occur more often: the agent perceives some activities as complex, incomprehensible, believes that they cannot do something, or that it is difficult. For example, a newly promoted team leader may have a collection of books that, as they already know from others, will help him gain the missing managerial skills. However, he considers it "difficult," and therefore does not start studying these books and trying to apply practices from there. Perceived complexity often occurs when a learner falls into a "dead zone": at this stage, the models being learned become more challenging, "unreachable from the start," and learning starts to appear difficult.

Perceived complexity most often arises from personal beliefs about reality, not from what actually happens in the physical world. It can be addressed just as a dead zone in learning. Additionally, you can receive emotional support from your close relatives, mentor, and other agents who can encourage you. This support serves as a boost to cope with worries - and on long time scales, attention-holding practices, plus repetition / deliberate practice.

There are achievements that are impossible for most people to repeat. For example, most people will not set a record in high jump; it is not accessible even to most professional jumpers. But most people can study most practices and achieve good results. Often the problem in not achieving the result is that the practice was applied insufficient times. For example, a novice manager starts organizing a team, it does not work out, and they decide that it is "not for them." Although they tried to conduct the necessary events only a few times!

New automatism (including work habits) is established through theory study - and then repeated application of it in practice. For example, pilots study theory for a long time in flight schools, practice a little: at the end, they often have about 150 hours of flight time. But to become a civilian aviation pilot, 4,000 hours of flight time are needed, and to move into the commander's seat even more. "Flight hours" provide the necessary drill for essential automatisms, quick attention focusing on important tasks, and easy maintenance. Therefore, repetition is essential (although aiming for 10,000 hours is not necessary).

Think about how many “repetitions” or how many hours you need to work on a practice or training for a role. You can survey acquaintances and colleagues. Write a post with the results in the SES club.

Repetition with excessive soaking will also help "catch luck," literally create luck. In decision-making theories, it is often repeated that an excellent outcome is a result of qualitative decisions and luck: if mistakes are minimized, "not to be a fool," you will eventually be blessed with luck. This "success formula" can be refined: good outcome = skill * number of repetitions. High-level skill enables minimal errors; but to develop it, you first need to repeat actions many times, making mistakes in the process. More repetitions with error correction / retraining - higher proficiency; high proficiency minimizes errors and gets a better result, as well as notices and uses chances that appear in the process. Therefore, the currently main limitation, hindering reaching the next goal, should be studied much more: actively (entering new practices into your personal knowledge base and applying them in activities) and passively (immersing yourself in the context, consuming all the quality information on the topic within reach, in the form of podcasts, audio, and so on).

Finally, it is very difficult to maintain attention under load: when you have many projects, many roles to perform in them, everything seems urgent and important. This problem is common in companies that work under nearly full load and to individuals who have recently been promoted and need to confirm that the promotion decision was not a mistake. Collectively being focused in these cases is most crucial; the need becomes acute and immediate - but it's precisely in these situations where developing focus is challenging. In these cases, strict and somewhat ruthless prioritization helps (setting priorities): defining one focus, on which you need to work most of the time, and one-two roles for carrying out the focus project or task.

Other roles and projects will be supportive, background tasks. This prioritization will involve compromises/trade-offs, answers to questions like "what is genuinely important to me? What can't I give up? How valuable is what is set as important on the chosen time scale to me compared to what I will give up?". If it is challenging to answer these questions, you can conduct an experiment similar to "deteriorating A/B tests" in hypothesis testing: give up some activity or solving a specific problem for some time and assess, measure how your condition and the state of projects - and how the areas to which you redirected freed attention improved.

Are you ready for such an exchange? If not, search for something you are willing to do. Everything all at once under load (and even without it) is impossible. Multitasking that pushes out tasks works well on machines; people are much more productive when they tackle tasks and projects sequentially.