During the summer holidays in Canada I drank lots of coffee and ate a lot of junk food. Getting ready to travel back home, I vowed to go on a caffeine and junk food detox. I just craved feeling healthy and full of vitality again.
It turns out that I only partially followed through. I love taking my Macbook to the local coffee shop where I am productive and creative over a nice cup of cappuccino.
Surprisingly, I still felt more refreshed and focused all last week. I didn’t need the coffee to be alert, I just had it for the experience. So what was different to the weeks before?
I went on an involuntary and refreshing mobile phone detox…
Involuntary, because I lost my phone at the airport, and it took a while to purchase and set up a new one.
Refreshing, because during that six day period, I was less distracted than usual. Not infrequently I forget what I’m talking about in the middle of a conversation. While there is a bad habit going around of calling forgetfulness “early onset dementia”, this distraction is really a side effect of my tendency to having too many screens open simultaneously and thus overloading my mind. For me it is the red flag of an overwhelmed brain.
Hence it makes sense that during my phone-less week I felt emotionally more grounded, fell asleep more easily and woke up more refreshed.
… and then I fell back into old habits
By monday, I was fully online again for a couple of days, and lo and behold, it was harder to keep my focus on the task at hand. Curious, because I had been working all day long on the computer for a whole week by then.
Just by adding a second and more mobile device to my daily interactions with the world, I more often looked at messages, checked for emails, information or simply the weather, listened to podcasts while walking, etc.
I now am back to far less mental downtime than last week, although I essentially use the same apps on my phone and my computer. And I notice the effect on my ability to focus.
Mental downtime is important
I haven’t yet figured out for myself how to best savour the advantages of the phone while avoiding its disadvantages. However, we need time to let our minds wander. In my bones, I know that to be true, and research proves it. Mind wandering allows us to consolidate information and solve problems (think “shower moment” and Einstein).
Letting the mind wander during menial tasks was easy without a phone, while now the temptation is to fill “empty” head space with listening to something “useful” while engaging in these simple, repetitive tasks.
After almost one week of phone detox, I cannot help but notice how huge the difference is between my mind during detox and now. I kind of miss the forced detox.
What’s important about that for your leadership?
If your team works with instant messaging for increased responsiveness and live collaboration, know this:
Such tools are great in times of remote working. They allow your team to work together in real time and to feel part of the work environment. At the same time, they have the huge downside of constant distraction.
In order to allow anyone to be productive and creative without losing the ability of agile collaboration, schedule team quiet times. During these down times no one interrupts a colleague. Combining quiet with collaborative times allows everyone to immerse themselves in their most important projects for some time. Thus they can get something meaningful over the finish line rather than disrupting their own work to respond to other people’s requests all of the time and leaving work frustrated and worn out.
Not only does dedicated down time increase team satisfaction, it also is vital to keep people equipped and motivated to do great things with great productivity.
Do you want to find out how to increase your team’s productivity, motivation levels, and well being in times of complexity, speed and uncertainty? Is now the time to reach out to us for a conversation about how we can help you?
