{"id":30863,"date":"2021-03-29T10:56:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T14:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=30863"},"modified":"2021-04-04T13:18:08","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T17:18:08","slug":"addicted-to-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Addicted to Distraction?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If deep work is so valuable, why don\u2019t we do it more often? How did we become addicted to distraction in the workplace?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are three major distractions that workers face daily: open offices, instant communication, and social media. These distractions are ubiquitous in the corporate setting and are often even supported by companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn more about how the distraction addiction is preventing deep work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why <strong>Deep Work Is Difficult<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u201cDeep work\u201d is focused, uninterrupted, <em>undistracted <\/em>work on a task that pushes your cognitive abilities to their limit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If deep work is so valuable, why don\u2019t we do it more often? Because we face constant distraction every few minutes, and we&#8217;re addicted to distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The three major <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/people-who-dont-support-you\/\">detractors<\/a> from deep work that workers face daily are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Open offices<ul><li>At one point, open office floorplans had good intentions. They were meant to increase collaboration and cross-pollination between teams.&nbsp;<\/li><li>But nowadays, they cause a continuously distracting environment, where every conversation is heard, and one person can disrupt dozens of people.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Instant communication<ul><li>Emails were distracting enough. Instant communication takes it to another level. With tools like Slack and texting, people can interrupt your work on-demand and expect help within seconds. We stop being deep thinkers and become human network routers.<\/li><li>Superficially, instant communication is preferred as the easy path. If you don\u2019t know something, you can just ask someone. You don\u2019t need to do the hard work of planning ahead, studying what you do or don\u2019t know, and scheduling meetings thoughtfully.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Social media<ul><li>On Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and other social apps, the conversations continue endlessly, 24\/7. You can get stuck in an eternal state of dialogue.&nbsp;<\/li><li>The effects are insidious. The new content you see always seems novel and productive, but it doesn\u2019t move you closer to the major things you really care about.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">We Are Addicted to Distraction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>These distractions are ubiquitous in the corporate setting. This is confusing &#8211; companies usually aren\u2019t dumb. If they know something is drastically lowering productivity and profits, they\u2019ll usually move to stop it. But the reaction seems to be the opposite &#8211; distractions like open offices and real-time messaging are <em>supported <\/em>by companies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>How did these destructive distractions get adopted systematically as the right thing to do? <\/strong>Cal Newport explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The new information economy brought a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/common-business-problems\/\">management challenge<\/a> &#8211; how to measure output from individual workers.&nbsp;<ul><li>In a factory, output was clear and quantitative &#8211; you produce so many widgets in an hour, and you can be compared on equal footing with other workers.&nbsp;<\/li><li>In information jobs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/complex-problem\/\">complex problems<\/a> often require a larger team of people with different roles. It no longer becomes clear who contributes what. People\u2019s jobs become more diffuse and vague &#8211; a \u201cmarketing manager\u201d could be doing lots of different things with different projects.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>So managers had to seek <strong>superficial proxies of progress<\/strong> \u2013 email response times, meetings conducted. As long as there was a lot of motion, surely people were being productive!<ul><li>In contrast, deep work looks like slacking. Stepping away from email to think deep thoughts seems indulgent, when everyone else is buzzing around the office.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>There is also a technological imperative that \u201cany technology is likely good technology.\u201d There\u2019s pressure to look like you\u2019re on the vanguard of technology (to press, potential employees, customers). This makes you adopt new tools like Slack, social media and open office plans without deeply considering their impact.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If there were solid proof that deep work was value-driving and shallow work was not, then companies would switch right away. But there isn\u2019t. Information work remains hard to measure. <strong>So people gravitate toward behaviors that are easiest in the moment<\/strong>, instead of doing the hard thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why deep work is so rare, and shallow work so common.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If deep work is so valuable, why don\u2019t we do it more often? How did we become addicted to distraction in the workplace? There are three major distractions that workers face daily: open offices, instant communication, and social media. These distractions are ubiquitous in the corporate setting and are often even supported by companies. Keep reading to learn more about how the distraction addiction is preventing deep work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":30877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,9,30],"tags":[250],"class_list":["post-30863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-psychology","category-work","tag-deep-work","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are You Addicted to Distraction? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Open offices, instant communication, and social media are common parts of the workplace. 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It sets us up to be addicted to distraction.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-29T14:56:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-04T17:18:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/open-office.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"859\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"553\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Are You Addicted to Distraction?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T14:56:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-04T17:18:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/\"},\"wordCount\":651,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/open-office.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Deep Work\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Psychology\",\"Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/\",\"name\":\"Are You Addicted to Distraction? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/addicted-to-distraction\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/open-office.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-29T14:56:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-04T17:18:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"Open offices, instant communication, and social media are common parts of the workplace. 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