Video transcript:
A few years ago, our firm put in a program that was suggested by Arianna Campbell of Boomer Consulting, and our people, especially our managers, really latched on to this, and we called it focus time. This is just a time that is set aside. We did three days a week, anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours. The rules are pretty simple. You’re allowed to turn off your notifications, close your door, put on your headphones, whatever you need to focus, but you didn’t have to take phone calls from clients. You don’t have to schedule any meetings during that time. You don’t have to take phone calls from partners, from other employees. You’re free to work on whatever you need attention on at that time that you need uninterrupted activity. Cal Newport in his book Deep Work talks a lot about the power and the benefits and the fact that most of us in the knowledge profession need this uninterrupted time. Distractions can, even if we don’t realize them, can take a lot away from our focus and attention. The studies show it can take up to 20 minutes to get back into that concentrated effort. So you can imagine how slowly you would work if you had to deal with those interruptions on a regular basis.
