In our digital age, constant interruption has become the norm, and this comes at a steep and unrecognized cost. Every few minutes, we receive a text message, email, or social media notification. We think nothing of them, and we either stop what we’re doing to check, or we stop to respond, but either way, we stop.
We fail to recognize a fundamental principle in productivity: that the expression of our potential is highly dependent on our entering the state known as “flow,” a profound level of focus and creative immersion.
Artists and writers know this state well. It’s often called “being in the zone”. When we are fully engaged in a task, time stands still, and we make connections and have insights that would otherwise elude us. It is as if we release our inner genius. A number of studies have shown that it can take over 20 minutes to reach this state.
By contrast, the initial stages of a creative endeavor often produce mediocre results precisely because we are yet to enter this “zone”. And herein lies the insidious cost of interruptions. They prevent us from entering this state, and thus we fail to achieve the true focus required to express our highest potential and create remarkable work.
Ironically, I learned the importance of “flow” when I was asked to create a “time management” workshop. This was outside of my traditional field, which involves training in sales, negotiation and communication skills. I quickly realized that something was missing from the conventional time management curriculum. All the tools and techniques did not seem to lead to real behavior change. It was in an obscure article that I came across the idea that we are less productive because we are constantly interrupted. I had previously read “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience” by Csikszentmihalyi, and “The Rise of Superman” by Stephen Kotler, so it all made sense. I immediately applied it to my own life. When it came time to produce, I closed my email program and silenced my phone. The difference was clear. I was producing more in 2 hours of uninterrupted focus than an entire day of working around the “dings” and “beeps” and incoming calls. Now, I will never go back. I cherish my silent time and I enter it regularly.
In my workshops, however, I was surprised that when I mentioned this concept, participants would often say that they could never turn off all notifications for two hours straight, or even one hour. They simply had to be “always available”. But is this true? When I asked them how many meetings they had in a day, they always said they had many. I asked if they remained “always available” in meetings, and they admitted that they don’t. So, essentially, they put the outside world on hold when it is required by their managers, but they cannot do the same for themselves. And this is where time management is about personal development.
If we don’t truly value our time and have the confidence to protect it, we will allow every interruption to throw us out of that zone of optimal performance, and we will let our potential slip away, day after day, year after year, oblivious to the enormous price we are paying.
As the modern-day poet, Eminem, once said, “You’d better lose yourself in the music. The moment you own it, you’d better never let it go.”
The invisible cost of constant interruption is a silent burden carried by most of us, the distracted generation. If we are to truly thrive, we must recognize that our genius resides within the flow state. We must learn to value and protect that state, and lose ourselves in the music of our passions, every time, and never let it go.
