Reclaim the Moment

5KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE KNIFE to Resist the Allure of Distraction

“I feel like a juggler running out of hands.”¹

– Elvis Costello, “Welcome to the Working Week”

KEEPING OUR EYES on the knife is about directing our energy to what matters most and cutting through distraction. This is a perspective shift that is essential to personal and organizational productivity. It redirects energy that otherwise could have been lost, and more likely would have been lost, to minor concerns instead of having it remain with what is most important. I showcase this idea constantly for groups, and we will explore the how and why of that in this chapter.

Teams and individuals both function best when they have a sense of purpose. This strategy is about focus, finding it, reclaiming it, and keeping it on what matters to us even while threats to that focus are alluring all around. It is about how not doing this is a choice we make at our own psychological peril.

Distraction is alluring. The call of anything other than a task which we really don't want to be doing can't be denied. Research conclusively shows that distraction negatively impacts the quality of our work, our productivity, and our creative output.² But we don't need the research to tell us that. We know it is true.

Unless we are fully invested in the task before us, the allure of anything else can be inviting. We are always scrolling to the next desirable or entertaining thing rather than being situated and focused on whatever is in front ...