‘Focus is the new IQ in the modern workplace’ said Cal Newport in his book “Deep Work”.

I had days where I checked WhatsApp 94 times. Sometimes opening it reflexively several times per minute. That little dopamine hit* you get when you see a new message is seemingly worth the distraction… 
 
We all have our ‘drug’ of choice: Instagram, Twitter, Netflix, emails…a mix of all of these. 
 
But the less obvious distractions come disguised as “work”: low ROI meetings and catch-ups spread out throughout the day; intrusive and impromptu phone call; a question interrupting your train of thoughts; random Bloomberg/Slack chats;…checking your emails, or worse – tidying your mailbox….  
 
Why has it become so difficult to protect even a couple of hours of focused, deep, high quality, uninterrupted work?
 
How is it that we so often end the day feeling like we’ve done so many things, and yet accomplished so little? ‘We traded effectiveness for busyness’ lamented T.D. Jakes. 
 
Cal Newport contends that our economy is shifting towards higher-level knowledge work. So if you manage to focus, it helps you create these really valuable outputs that the marketplace rewards disproportionately. At the same time, and unrelated, we’re getting worse at concentrating. Because it has never been easier to distract ourselves. And someone in the ’50s thought that open spaces were a great idea*. 
 
‘We are going to select for people who can self-regulate’, said Andrew Huberman, Professor of Neurobiology at Stanford University. 
 
I took the opportunity in this January Fever to regulate my WhatsApp use. My ability to concentrate has increased by 132%*.
 
What is your distraction of choice? How often do you let yourself get interrupted? What do you actually want to focus on? How much time can you protect for ‘Deep Work’? Take it easy. Its only January. 2 degrees at a time 😉

#januaryfever #twodegreeshift #businesscoaching #focus #deepwork #huberman #dopamine #focus #concentration
 
* This data is completely fake, although my concentration did significantly improve.
** Related to this, I could not recommend this book more: ‘Dopamine Nation’ by Anna Lembke
*** I’m an avid consumer of Huberman Lab’s content; its informative, intellectually honest and usable => hubermanlab.com
**** The idea of an open workspace emerged in the 1950s in Germany, where two consultants, brothers Eberhard and Wolfang Schnelle, devised the “office landscape”. But it scaled in the 60s and the 70s in the US.