Managing our time is not enough, and it’s increasingly important to manage our attention and be intentional about how we respond to all the distractions.

We may be victims of the neverending distractions around us. It’s almost like a deep conspiracy of the entire world around us, where our teammates, friends, family, current events, social media are all out to get our attention at any cost.

• Individuals can manage their attention by optimizing their to-do list and doing focus work with the help of curated tasks and flow-friendly work environments, and by not multitasking.
• Teams have a more challenging time managing their attention as one has to take into account the inter-relatedness and interdependency of the group while having less agility. Example: In order for an entire team to deliver on a deadline, they would need to say no to requests from other teams for work that will distract from the main project.