5 tips for creating a distraction-free workspace

Our world is getting more high-tech by the day.

That means technology is continually encroaching on how we work, study, interact socially and consume information. So the question becomes: Can our minds keep up with our machinery?

“Technology allows the creation of multiple stimuli vying for our attention all the time, which makes it difficult to get work done,” says Dr. Darren Gitelman, the senior medical director of the Advocate Memory Center at Advocate Health Care. “Think about the office of the 1970s. There were no smartphones or personal computers. One could work with minimal interruptions. Now, a single device has multiple apps (messaging, social media, email, etc.) — each with notifications. The problem is that we still have the same old human brain, and the rate-limiting step in being productive is people’s ability to focus on, understand and utilize the information in interesting and creative ways.”

But there is still room for us to minimize distraction and be productive at the office or while working from home.

Clear off your virtual and physical workspace

When someone changes their eating habits, it’s recommended they clean out their kitchen and remove the “unhealthy” foods they no longer wish to eat. The same “out of sight, out of mind” philosophy works when it comes to technological distractions.

“When something is out of sight, it is not distracting us. The world has an unlimited number of stimuli, but humans – all animals really – have limited attention capabilities. We use our attention to filter out (i.e., ignore) unneeded information,” says Dr. Gitelman. “Having all notifications and emails on all the time is like a band playing in your office – it is very, very difficult to ignore.”

• Clear off your desk. Only have materials out that are related to the task at hand. Put whatever you’re not using – phone, planner or notebook – away and out of sight.
• Work in a quiet place. Close your office door or consider wearing noise-cancelling headphones if you work around others.
• Keep open only tabs, documents and apps related to the current task. Close all others.
• Avoid having your email open. Don’t check email while working on a big project, such as a report or presentation. Instead, designate specific times of day that you’ll read and respond to messages.
• Silence your phone. Keep your phone out of sight and turn off all alerts and vibrations.

Create a block schedule

Once you free your physical space of distractions, try to segment your day into periods for different projects. Think back to your high school schedule; you had 45 minutes for math, followed by 45 minutes of English, then history, etc. Classes were divided by minutes-long passing periods, giving you a built-in break. We can think of breaking up our workday in much the same fashion.

“The idea is to allow one a sufficient amount of time to concentrate on a particular project to be productive. Every time one switches from one task to the next, there is a time cost to starting the new task, and additional time costs in terms of figuring out where one left off, and then focusing on the new information,” says Dr. Gitelman.

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