When I’m with my friends, I often do a parody of how I watch my employees work in the office. Trying to do that may not successfully translate in writing, but I will give it a try, and perhaps the humor will come through. Namely, when you’re watching someone work—even if you’re only seeing the back of their laptops—you can tell very easily and obviously what they’re doing. The patterns of how you look at a screen and type are very different depending on what you’re doing at the computer.
If you’re typing very fast while smiling, you’re not working, you’re chatting with a friend. If you’re looking at the screen, with a half-smile, hands not at the keyword, you’re not working, you’re watching a fun video. If you’re looking at the screen intently and not typing, you’re reading closely a document. If you click, read something quickly, then click again, then read something quickly, then click again, you’re Googling. If you’re looking at the screen, not smiling, have a thoughtful look on your face, type briefly, and then pause, then type a bit more, then pause, you’re probably developing software. And so forth.
Try to imagine the sight of the people and of me imitating them while reading the above!
My joke is “funny because it’s true,” as the line goes. But it’s just one example of a broader point, which is that whether by your side in the office or working virtually, everyone knows how much you are or aren’t working. They just do.
Why? A million little signals give it away. Even if you follow the advice in this series to charm them completely (and ignore the fact that a lot of the advice comes from mastering the details of your work itself), they will know. Even if you’re a good actor, you’re not a magician.
How you type and look at the screen gives it away. How fast you produce content gives it away. How sophisticated and smart your questions are gives it away—and whether you even ask questions or not. The timestamps of your messages give it away. And a million other little things like these.
One conclusion based on this is that your boss or client will know when you’re distracted from your work. So what’s the solution? Don’t be distracted! Not only will it hurt the quality of your work so you’ll do worse work, but it will make your boss or client twice as disappointed in you. This won’t necessarily be because of the lower quality of your work, but because He Will Know you’re distracted.
(And yes, distractions will lower the quality of your work, always. It’s human nature. Sorry to break the bad news to you!)
As such, a few tips to minimize distractions go a long way towards improving the quality of your work and making your boss or client love you even more.
The key ones are these: turn off your phone during working hours (and if you need to use a chat program, like Telegram, then use the web version.) Turn off all notifications on your laptop. Close the door to the room where you work. Don’t listen to podcasts, talk radio, or anything distracting (background music, however, is by definition in the background and thus not distracting.) Publicly tell friends you won’t chat with them during said hours by making that declaration to your friends, and you’re much more likely to stick to it than silently trying to do that yourself. Don’t even open sites like Facebook, or install a blocker for them. Use a separate web browser only for work, so you’re not even logged in to sites like Facebook without opening up a whole separate application.
All these little tips add up to be useful and helpful. But, ultimately, focus is mostly a choice. Since it is a choice, you need to decide to focus on your work and to want to do that. And if you do, “where there’s a will, there’s a way” and you’ll come up with even more tips for yourself on how to turn yourself into a focus-machine. The clients will notice, just like they notice your typing patterns, and they’ll deeply appreciate it.
