Ben Morton explains how a single notification costs 23 minutes of focused work, citing Gloria Mark's research. Leaders who deliberately go unreachable—silencing phones, removing themselves—protect deep work and stop being bottlenecks. Try a 60-minute experiment: disappear completely and watch what your team handles on their own.
23 minutes, 15 seconds. That's how long it takes us to refocus on what we're doing after we've been distracted by some sort of notification on our phone or another device. That's the finding from Gloria Mark's research at the University of California, Irvine. You see, it's not about the 10 seconds it takes to quickly glance at the notification. It's about the time that it takes to fully refocus back on the task or activity you were doing before you glanced at the notification. So if you have a piece of work to do that requires your deep focus, there's a strong science-backed argument for making yourself unavailable. Phone on silent, notifications turned off. And the bit I want to focus on today is how we actually do that, because in my experience of coaching and training leaders at all levels, being unavailable is really scary. And the very moment you start thinking about switching off or turning off all of your notifications, our brains immediately go to all of the risks and downsides of doing so. What if my boss needs me? What if the team hit a problem and they can't reach me? Yes, those fears are absolutely real, but that line of thinking is only looking at one side of the equation, because there's also an upside to being unavailable that goes beyond your own productivity. It also makes your team more productive. Here's something I've noticed over the years. Without meaning to, a lot of us have trained our teams in exactly the same way that Pavlov trained his dogs. Problem arises, come to the boss, get the answer. And there are 2 main problems with that. Number one, we become the bottleneck in our own team. And number two, we train or condition our team to stop thinking for themselves and always just come to us for the answer or solution. So if you want your team to start thinking for themselves, that cycle of got a problem, come to the boss, get the solution has to be broken somewhere. And you being unavailable is the thing that can break it in a constructive way. If you're unreachable, then the team member will think for themselves. If you're unreachable, then the team member might chat it through with another colleague. If you're unreachable and a team member needs a document or piece of information, they'll most likely find a way to get it themselves. And none of that happens if you're always just one message away from your team. So here's an experiment for you to run this week. Pick a single block of time, 60 minutes will do, and make yourself unavailable. I'm not talking about checking your emails every 20 minutes unavailable. I'm talking phone on silent or airplane mode, all notifications turned off on your phone, working away from your desk so your team can't easily interrupt or distract you. And then notice what actually breaks. Most likely, absolutely nothing. And at the same time, notice the upside. Take note of what your team can solve, achieve, or answer for themselves in your absence. That's it for this episode. As always, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.
