In a previous article [Read here], I spoke about managing priorities in a distracted digital world. The logical question for someone who manages a team would be, "What do I do to help my people stay focused and leverage their capabilities without distractions?"

In today's hyperconnected world, managers face distractions in their work and also the challenge of guiding their teams through a cloud of distractions, including notifications, multitasking, and short attention spans. So, once you have mastered managing your own distractions, how do you help the team stay focused, organised, and productive in this fast-paced digital ecosystem? In this section, I describe a few focus areas for managers and leaders.

Normalise the Conversation around Distractions

Distractions should be considered akin to a digital epidemic and not as a personal failing in today's world. Strive for an organisational culture where everyone knows it's okay to speak and discuss it when they are either overwhelmed, unable to focus, or losing valuable time to digital distractions. This builds trust as you strive to normalise the issue.

Only when you acknowledge and label a problem can you rally a whole set of actions to neutralise the issue. Make it a habit to ask people in team meetings what the one thing that ate up their time that week was. I remember when we did this once in one of my workplaces. Everyone was distracted since the finals of the ICC Cricket tournament were to be played in two days, and many people expressed they would not be able to focus on work. A giant screen was arranged in the cafeteria to telecast the match, and about half the project members chose to enjoy the game.
In contrast, others who were not cricket fans continued their work very diligently. It was a win-win with no distractions for anyone. Some people who watched the match even stayed a couple of hours late to complete the process deliverables before leaving for their homes. The client was also pleased.

Remember that awareness precedes change, and therefore it makes sense to acknowledge the absolute pressure of digital work life, apps, platforms, chats, and tools – all competing for attention.

Encourage and Deploy Adoption of the Eisenhower Matrix

You can encourage your entire work team to use the Eisenhower Matrix. Map all the projects and tasks at hand. Build a shared prioritisation chart so everyone knows what to work on now, what to leave for others, and what to drop. As explained in the previous article, the matrix classifies all the activities into the following types:

Urgent & Important, Important but not Urgent, Urgent but not Important, and Neither Urgent nor Important.
A shared understanding of this nature helps smooth execution, ownership, and acceptance of priorities.

Design Focused Time Slots into the Schedule

You can design structured intervention time slots to build a rhythm and create momentum towards a smooth, efficient working method. Here are a few examples I have come across in my career:

• Meeting-Free Mornings – once or twice a week perhaps
  
  

• Focused Fridays – everyone who is required works on the current challenge faced
  
  

• ZoneIn Time – two to three hours per week to work on their pet projects and experiments with a not-to-be-disturbed culture. All your team members can experience this time together during the week.
  
  

Create Team Rituals to Reflect & Reset

Rituals are a good way to move toward the culture you desire. To improve productivity, build mechanisms that support time to reflect and reset rather than react endlessly to a barrage of demands. You can try the following:

Hold a short Weekly Retrospective Hour or a Monthly Retrospective Hour. Discuss: What went well? What was holding us back? What distractions could be avoided?

Encourage team members to share one lesson learned about their focus and one thing they could stop doing in the coming week or month.

Coaching for Delegation & Decision-Making

As managers and leaders, one expects you to stay strategic by delegating some of the tasks. In the same way, you can encourage your teams to do so within their own sphere. However, it's important to understand the nuances of delegating work correctly.

Guide junior team members on what they must do themselves and what can be shared. The question that matters is, "Does this need to be done? Or does this need to be just done by you?"

Give positive strokes when you notice someone making a smart delegation choice. This kind of encouragement promptly reinforces the correct behaviour and creates shared understanding when others see and notice the actions.

Model Focus & Boundaries as a Leader

Actions speak louder than words. I have noticed that when leaders model the right kind of behaviours through their deliberate and conscious actions, it helps to create a rub-off motivation and encourages the right culture-building.

As a leader/manager, you should be protective of your own focus time. Give the same amount of attention to your priorities as you would give to your team. That's how you can show them you mean what you say. If you expect your team to seek work-life balance so that they find life meaningful and purpose-driven, you should not keep sending late-night emails.

Also, a bit of storytelling will help. Create the wonderful stories from your experiences of resetting your priorities and handling distractions, and share these stories with your teams and other teams in your organisation.

End Note: Lead with Empathy and Clarity

Managing distractions is not just about achieving better productivity – it's also about well-being, mental health, overall satisfaction, and resultant motivation at the workplace. Instead of focusing on more rules, you can focus on clarity and encouragement to cut through the noise surrounding daily work.

By applying structure and empathy in equal measure, you can lead a team that not only learns to cope with digital distractions but also thrives despite all those distractions that surround them in their work and personal lives.

One of the responsibilities of a manager/leader is to encourage the creation of a psychologically safe workplace. It's a best practice to regularly ask teams what is draining their energy and address them accordingly. As a proactive performance strategy, it's also essential to encourage time off for any stress or mental health-related issues.

The ability to help create organisations where people are not overwhelmed by the digital distractions is no longer a luxury but a need that should be consciously understood and applied.