Respond to messages on WhatsApp, check emails, answer calls, participate in meetings and even deliver strategic tasks. For many professionals, this is the reality of every day. The problem is that, despite the intense pace, real productivity seems to not keep up with the volume of effort.
“We live in a state of permanent distraction. Technology has brought speed, but also a brutal competition for our attention“, says Virgilio Marques dos Santos, founding partner of FM2S Educação e Consultoria, specialist in Career Management and PhD at Unicamp.
According to him, the feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day, even without major deliveries, is a clear symptom of the impact of frequent interruptions at work. “Each time we are interrupted, our brain needs to make an additional effort to resume reasoning. This cycle of breakage and resumption consumes cognitive energy and impairs decision-making”, he explains.
This effect is not new. Classic studies on information overload, such as the one published in 2007 by Cheri Speier, Joseph Valacich and Iris Vessey, na Decision Sciences, They already demonstrated that frequent distractions reduce mental clarity and increase the incidence of errors. The difference is that, with the current hyperconnectivity, the scenario worsened — and the cost was also measured in mental health.
The impact of distractions on corporate daily life
In the work environment, distractions are often naturalized. Successive meetings, instant messages, constant notifications and “fast” interruptions from colleagues accumulate and create a noise that sabotages concentration. “When this becomes routine, important decisions are made based on incomplete information or without proper reasoning. and this can directly affect the results of a project or an entire area“, says Santos.
He recalls that the multitasking professional, previously celebrated, is now seen with more caution. “Being productive is not doing many things at the same time, but being able to move forward with the tasks that really matter, with depth and mindfulness.”
Four strategies to protect focus and improve performance
Given this scenario, Santos lists four simple practices that can help reduce the impacts of interruptions and increase effectiveness at work:
1. Focused time blocks: Set aside time periods for strategic tasks, with notifications off and minimized interruptions. Inform the team about this routine to align expectations;
2. Priority management: Use tools such as the Eisenhower matrix (which divides tasks into four categories: urgent and important, important but not urgent, urgent but not important, and neither urgent nor important) to differentiate what is urgent from what is important. Thus, the risk of spending energy on low-impact demands is avoided;
3. TIME FOR COMMUNICATION: Concentrate the checking of messages and emails at specific times of the day. This reduces the anxiety of being always available and improves time management;
4. Culture of respect for time: Encourage in the team clear and planned communication. Many questions can be resolved in pre-scheduled meetings or with more objective message exchanges.
“Rescuing the focus is more than a matter of efficiency. It is a way of taking care of our mental health and the quality of the decisions we make every day”, concludes the specialist.
