Attention and focus

Reporting in from Agile 2019 in Washington DC ... Author Chris Bailey kicked off the conference keynoting on how to manage your attention in a world of distraction. I

t turns out we don't need to fit more content in, we need to create more space. Productivity he says, is a combination of time, energy and attention.

We'd do well to take care of our energy. It was funny when he said that having a coffee now is borrowing our energy from later in the day. (Alcohol is borrowing energy and happiness from tomorrow!)

But the key message is, we crave distraction - lasting just 40 seconds on a task before we get distracted - lapping up the dopamine hits we get from checking devices and drowning in screen-time. We need to let our messy minds wander; to rediscover boredom. It's over-stimulation which is the enemy of focus.

As Chris spoke, I captured these rapid fire notes in this visual one-pager. Lots of information there and better than a list of boring writing that won't get looked at again. (I use visual notes like this to manage my cognitive load at conferences. It's only Day 1 of 5 - it's a marathon not a sprint!)  

Yawn! How could you rediscover boredom ?

Agile is a way of thinking and working

This week I'm at the Agile 2019 conference in Washington DC. Some people think 'agile' or 'agility' are buzzwords or cliches. Well they are if you throw them around trying to sound all ... agile!

Agile is actually a way of thinking and working that's sweeping the world. And it's not just limited to the tech industries where it started to thrive. It's being applied across all sorts of fields, sectors and industries.

I keynoted at the conference on the topic of ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’.

This week I'll be posting insights and key points from the 18 streams and hundreds of sessions available on agility ... not to mention those magical, spontaneous conversations you get to have at great conferences!

If you’re stuck in long-term planning mode or taking w-a-y too long to get products and services created and out into the market, you’ll join the list of businesses who aren’t in business anymore! We all have to adjust, respond and adapt to the changes going on in the world and the demands and expectations our customers have. This is being agile.

How could you be more agile in your role, team or business?

Choose satisficing over maximising

When we're working on a task or activity at some point we need to say, ‘Enough. It's satisfactory. That will suffice.’ 'Satisfactory’ and ‘suffice’ were cleverly combined in Nobel Prize–winning economist Herbert Simon's Theory of Satisficing.

This decision-making theory says look at alternatives and go with the best. Make a choice. It will do, it is good enough.

In my book ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’, ish means somewhat, to some extent. Ish is about satisficing.

Maximising is not good for us. Perfectionists (called ‘maximisers’ by Simon):

- exhaustively seek the best options

- compare everything against others to an unhealthy degree

- expend excess time and energy, and

- end up unhappier with the outcomes.

Ish is the opposite; it's about being a satisficer. We:

- accept good enough

- not obsess over the options

- move on after deciding, and

- end up being happier with outcomes.

It's good enough!

All that effort, unhappy with the outcomes

On the topic of ‘maximising’, this week’s posts highlight the damaging effects of striving for more, better, perfect.

Maximising isn’t as good as it sounds. It means we put in extreme, herculean efforts trying to make things better, tick all the boxes, cover all the bases (and other metaphors!) to cover every question, topic or query. We work back late, take work home, stay up late, do ‘all nighters’, come in early and put other priorities aside to focus on doing still more on this task or project.

We expend excess time and energy. Excess. More than is required. We know it’s not required because of economic and mathematical laws and principles like the Pareto Effect (the 80/20 rule) and the Law of Diminishing Returns.

Effort is not equal. Some effort is useful, giving us a good return and progress; some of our effort ends up being a total waste of time!

And then ... maximisers don’t tend to be as happy with the outcomes as if they'd called ’time’ sooner on a task. It's a big 'no' to maximising

Do you apply the 80/20 rule in your world (20% effort brings 80% of the reward)?

Comparing against others to an unhealthy degree.

I'm posting on ‘maximising’ this week; the unhelpful activity associated with perfectionism, making us overthink, stress, doubt and be paralysed with inaction, stuck (of course) in comparison.

You know that quote: ‘Comparison is the thief of joy’ ... well, it does indeed make us miserable. The perfectionist (the maximiser) keeps comparing everything, thinking it's the way to a better solution or more perfect answer. We even try and use comparison as a kind of 'evil motivation'.

Comparison itself isn't bad. We are taught to compare and contrast as part of growing and learning. It's how we know an apple is an apple, not an orange. This is identification and sensemaking. So we can't really 'kill comparison' as some less than helpful inspo quotes suggest.

The problem then is not the comparison ... it's the not stopping, the endless and ongoing nature of the act. Enough with berating and being unkind to yourself!

Compare, sure. But then decide to move in to action; action that's in your world, on your stuff, for you. Not them.

Are you in unhelpful comparison on something right now? Like or comment below.