How to Work With One Window Open

When I started at Ezra a few years back, I nearly lost my mind in the first week. Not because the work was hard but because everything was interrupting it. Slack notifications constantly pinging. Emails popping up. My work phone face-up on the desk like a needy companion. And (my personal favourite) calendar reminders for meetings about meetings. By the end of that first week I was exhausted, and I had genuinely no idea what I'd actually done.

So I did something drastic. I turned off every notification on my devices. All of them. The silence felt almost rude at first. And that made all the difference...

My story of distraction above is what Cal Newport calls constant partial attention, and it's one of the most insidious focus killers out there. You're technically working, but your email is half open, your phone is within reach, and your mind is running like a browser with 27 tabs. Nothing gets your full attention. Nothing gets finished properly. You feel busy but oddly dissatisfied at the end of the day.

The signs are easy to miss. You might read the same paragraph three times and still not be clear on its message. I often feel like I've produced a lot but am unsatisfied (if you've ever spent a couple of hours clearing email or slack messages you know what I'm talking about). You finish tired without being able to name a single thing you actually completed.

The fix is less complicated than you'd think.

• Close everything except the one thing you're working on, literally and mentally.

• Put your phone out of reach, not just face-down.

• Work in 25 to 45 minute blocks with a proper stop at the end. Not a heroic productivity sprint. Just one fully inhabited task, done with your whole attention.

One window open. That's it.

What surprised me most wasn't the output. It was how different it felt' less frantic, more present, more like I was actually there for my own working day.

The question worth sitting with before your next task is, What would "just this" look like for the next 30 minutes?

Try it once. Close the tabs. Notice what happens.

PS Today is Vesak Day which commemorates the birth, enlightenment and attainment of nirvana of Siddharta Gautama Shakyamuni (Sakyamuni) Buddha. Have a blessed day!