Is Addiction Causing You to Lose Focus?

There was a great post yesterday on Harvard Business Review by Tony Schwartz “Breaking the Email Addiction.”

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

– Do you wake up in the morning and bring your laptop into bed with you or check it before you brush your teeth?

– Do you check email while you’re driving, even though you’re four times as likely to have an accident when you do?

– Are you answering email on your iPhone or Blackberry when you walk between meetings or on your way to the parking lot?

– Do you keep answering while you’re sitting in your car in your driveway or garage when you get home?

– Do you bring your laptop back into bed with you at night and make one final check before you turn out the lights?

If so, I’m afraid you are an addict.

Schwartz states that we can strategically train our attention and it’s critical that we do so to give ourselves more time to think more reflectively, creatively, and deeply in an increasingly complex world. 

In the end, it all comes down to focus. And, just as focusing our attention to NOT succumb to the email addiction is important, focusing our attention on the task at hand ensures that we deliver higher performance. Something we can all do more of…

OpenView is a Boston-based venture capital firm that also provides strategic consulting services to the management teams of our expansion stage technology companies. Check out our firm’s blog for some great ideas to help your management team focus on what matters.