On Focused Work

Could twenty minute blocks be the secret to our productivity?

For the past few weeks I’ve been noticing how focused or not I’m being at work, especially home-based work.

You know, there are so many distractions available and interruptions around that I find I’m often in a state of mind where I’m half anticipating the next interruption and nearly feel disappointed if there isn’t one. Or after a few minutes of work I’m starting to look for a distraction.

Call it the scourge of our digital age, whatever, it’s got me thinking because it’s been resulting in a drop in my productivity and making me feel sort of uneasy, irritable even.

Last week I set myself a challenge: Could I literally work for a period of time on some planned activity with a clear goal without any interruption or distraction?

20 mins. That’s not too much. Long enough to get something significant done and not too long to set myself up to fail at least at this stage. 20 mins, on one focused activity, nothing else.

I also needed some rules for this game. Phone and laptop to DND. Actually no, to flight mode. There’s a possibility someone could call twice within a few minutes and come through the DND. So flight mode it is.

Next, prep and define the activity and the intended outcome. I write it on a Post-It note:

Activity is…
Goal is…

My calendar, booked for a 30 minute appointment so it’s also clear to everyone else that I’m engaged. And yes, 30 mins: 5 mins for this set up and planning time, 20 minutes activity, then 5 mins gap time for a shift in focus and a reward. Yes, a little reward to acknowledge the effort! I decide the reward I will give myself; an acknowledgement of some kind - to make a coffee. I also design that gap time so it’s something completely different to that of the activity — physically and mentally different: Go outside, breathe different air, unload the dishwasher. Or get out for a brief walk.

Another Post-It note:

Gap time is …
Reward is …

Up they are on the wall in front of me.

So all set?

Here’s what I learned: It worked, the 20 mins of focused activity. It worked repeatedly. That’s been great - a real relief knowing that I have the permission to be fully immersed into the planned activity without a self-guilty worry of missing out on something else. Because I know the 20 mins is brief enough, finite and that I’ll be able to check messages afterwards.

The really surprising and harder part has been stopping at the end of the set time, the end of the 20 minutes. To take the break. In this flow state, I naturally want to keep going, not stop. I didn’t always succeed. Sometimes I did keep going. And going and going. Well over an hour.

But here’s what I’ve come to learn and appreciate: No matter what, stopping, breaking and moving away from the activity into the gap time of doing something totally different has always served me better than to keep going.

Why?

I’m learning it’s the root of keeping fresh throughout the day and for regaining and keeping perspective. The cycle creates a sustainable pace and with each gap and new set up time, there’s an opportunity to prioritise again in that moment what is the next most important or valuable activity to select for the next 20 minutes.

In the 5 min gap time I get to step away, literally. To engage a whole different set of parts of my brain and body. And to ask myself, ‘Do I want to create another 20 mins on this same activity or to spend it on something else?’ There’s economics and trade offs happening here based on value outcomes.

Now I’m noticing my days are becoming 30 min chunks: 5 + 20 + 5 in repeat. It’s a lot more fun. A stamina is developing — a stamina of concentration and focus. I think my productivity is going up (this is something I’m working on how to measure), but at least qualitatively I’m feeling more energetic throughout the day, more engaged because the activities are focused, varied, rewarding and opportunistic.