More Answers... (11/09/25 Newsletter): Always "ON"???
Hi Everyone,
Here's your Sunday Evening "More Answers..." to help you head into the work week-- remember, you can see previous newsletters at https://www.askchrista.com/blog/, and all topics are related to the many advising and messaging exchanges I've had each week!
Tonight’s topic? How to stay focused in a world of constant distraction.
The World is Always On (and accessible... yuck!)
It’s not just you — everyone is distracted. Emails, chat pings, pop-up messages, meetings, pet projects, unclear priorities, new fires to put out — it’s an unrelenting cycle of interruptions.
Once, being “available” was a sign of helpfulness. Then it became a sign of engagement. Now it’s become the baseline expectation — as though not responding in 15 minutes means you’re not working.
Neuroscience research shows that every digital interruption activates your brain’s novelty network, triggering dopamine and temporarily rewarding you for shifting focus (Mark et al., 2016). Over time, our brains become conditioned to seek those pings — mistaking reaction for relevance.
That’s how the “always on” culture rewires us: we’ve confused activity with contribution.
Do You Believe that Not Everything Is Critical? Important? Needs Your Attention RIGHT NOW!! (?)
Here’s a liberating fact (I love that word, "liberating"): most things we are responding to at work aren’t urgent. Some of those things aren't even important. We just have a hard time admitting it because "things" help US feel important.
In workplaces overloaded with "stuff" (email pings, slack drops, text sounds...), the ask of you isn't to be focused. Doesn't that seem ODD? And yet, there's so much research that supports how "multi-tasking" (or these days some say "task-switching") increases errors, reduces productivity, and keeps us from doing the very thing that enables success: STAY. FOCUSED.
Want some numbers? OK: research on attention control shows that frequent task-switching reduces efficiency by up to 40% (American Psychological Association [APA], 2023). You read that right, folks. FORTY PERCENT.
Rising Above the Noise Feels Really Good (but taking the step to rise above it can be difficult)
There’s power (and empowerment) in being selectively unavailable, but it takes work and willpower. If this is something you want to do, chances are you're breaking at least 10-15 years of training your brain to stay at the surface, shifting your attention like the Eye of Sauron.
And we do that because at some point in our careers, we (falsely) learned that keeping a toe dipped in every part of the pool is where the power is... but that simply isn't true, and you can "train out" of that thinking.
When you train yourself to be comfortable not answering immediately, your nervous system begins to relax, and you will FEEL it relax. You start distinguishing between external urgency (what others need now) and internal priorities (what you know matters most).
And you see and act on choices and decisions about where your time and attention goes versus reacting robotically to every ping, push, and clip.
Cognitive science backs this up: people who intentionally disengage from nonessential stimuli report greater clarity, creativity, and self-efficacy (Rosen, Carrier, & Cheever, 2013).
Two Small Steps to Quiet the Noise and Refocus (forget the hacks, these are simple...)
If you’re ready to lose the FOMO (which is what's usually behind the chronic pathological reactions at work, and reclaim your attention, start small with evidence-based strategies:
• The 3-Hour Focus Block
Set aside a 3-hour block once or twice a week for deep, undistracted work. Block the time in your calendar, turn off notifications, silence your phone, and treat this time as sacred. Studies show that longer, uninterrupted stretches of work produce higher-quality results and stronger learning retention (Newport, 2016).
• The “Pause Before Ping” Habit
Before responding to any message, take 10 seconds and ask: Is this important to my goals or just immediate to someone else’s? That moment of reflection builds emotional regulation — and over time, rewires your instinct to react. (quick aside: as a bridge-behavior to ease out of the urgency to read and react to EVERYTHING, then when something comes to you, treat it first as information, not a request: why is it good to know this? do you own the outcome? do you need to respond NOW?)
These small steps compound. The less we chase distractions, the more we lead our attention with purpose.
BOOSTER FOR YOUR WEEK!!!
Want to learn more about this? Then follow Dr. Gloria Mark...
OK, this is a rarity: I'm offering a nearly two hour YouTube video on Ever Forward Radio, but it's not so you can watch ALL of it. It's so you can review various chapters and listen to the ones that are most essential and relevant you.
Dr. Gloria Mark is an expert scholar on attention span and ways to rebalance your life. I found her while seeking the right booster for this week, and I'll be learning MORE from her! (glad to have found her work!)
See... these weekly newsletters are good for me, too :)
Enjoy!
And remember, if you have a business challenge or workplace issue... Ask Christa!
REFERENCES
American Psychological Association. (2023). Why our brains find it hard to focus. https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/focus-distraction
Mark, G., Wang, Y., & Niiya, M. (2016). Stress and multitasking in everyday college life: An empirical study of online activity. Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 41–52. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858219
Newport, C. (2016). Deep work: Rules for focused success in a distracted world. Grand Central Publishing.
Rosen, L. D., Carrier, L. M., & Cheever, N. A. (2013). Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 948–958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.12.001
NOTE
Below is a list of the books referenced above. You can ask your local library to borrow them from their network, or if you care to purchase, please consider using Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores:
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World: https://bookshop.org/p/books/deep-work-rules-for-focused-suc...
Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity: https://bookshop.org/p/books/attention-span-a-groundbreaking...
