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Attention is under siege.

The average knowledge worker is interrupted up to 275 times a day - roughly every 2 minutes. Email accounts for about 12 interruptions alone, then meetings, instant messages, and the dreaded "quick question." [Microsoft Work Trend Index, 2025]

What’s worse? It takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus after each interruption.

Do the math: even 25 daily interruptions (a generous underestimate) cost nearly 10 hours of lost focus. No wonder task lists never end.

For leaders, this isn’t just about productivity. When our brains are stuck in constant context-switching: strategic decisions stall, coaching suffers, and innovation dies.

And with 58 notifications hitting before or after work hours, distraction isn’t just eroding our jobs — it’s stealing presence from our lives, too.

This chaos has been normalized. Responsiveness is treated like a badge of honor. Chronic availability is expected. We’ve confused busy with productive, reactive with responsible.

Let’s be honest: if our attention is scattered, how likely are we to lead with crispness and clarity?

Ambition

I’ve always lived by a tightly wound calendar. As an exec with a global team, meetings started early in the day, and I called my workday a “modified global” arrangement.

That’s the territory, I thought. So I sat in meeting after meeting, prepping for the next one, while Slacks, texts, and emails poured in. And for years, I believed my inability to focus was a personal failing.

It wasn’t. Once I started tracking my interruptions, it became clear: the problem wasn’t “just” my brain or burnout. It was the environment.

Slack pings, email notifications, "quick" meetings, and unexpected chats. Interruption had become the operating system.

I streamlined my calendar, but you can’t calendar-clean your way out of a culture of chaos.

The new ambition isn’t about superhuman concentration. It’s about treating attention as a finite resource. Because it is. Our focus is something to protect strategically, not deplete constantly.

Think about it: You wouldn't let someone randomly withdraw money from your bank account every few minutes. Yet that's exactly what we allow with our attention, our most valuable asset.

Smart leaders don't just manage their time. They manage their attention.

And protect their teams’ attention, too.

GO | DO

Estimated time: 10 - 15 minutes | Estimated energy: minimal

This week, use my 5-Minute Focus Check to identify distraction patterns.

Why it matters: Before you can fix distraction, you need to see it clearly.

Rate yourself 1–5 (1 = never, 5 = always):

1. Notifications pull me off task.

2. Meetings cut into my planned work blocks.

3. “Quick questions” derail my focus.

4. I interrupt myself by checking social media, news, or non-work sites

5. I rarely get 90 minutes of uninterrupted work.

What’s Your Focus Archetype?

The Juggler (Score: 5–10)
You’re keeping things moving, but focus slips at the edges. Too many pins in the air means you’re never fully locked in.

Boss, Interrupted (Score: 11–18)
Constant pings, quick questions, and meetings steal your clarity. You’re leading, but always in reactive mode.

Running on Overload (Score: 19–25)
Always-on expectations and nonstop demands are breaking your ability to think deeply and lead effectively. Sound the alarm and guard your calendar.

Making these immediate research-based moves builds focus muscles

The GO | DO goal? 

Double your time for focused work, reduce your daily interruption count, and make your day a little less chaotic.

🦸‍♀️ You and your team deserve it.

Quick favor: forward this email to someone else to get invested in making the workplace a healthier place - starting with tech. Change will take all of us.

Get In There

• 🎵 Get the playlist that completely transformed my workday Over 15 hours of instrumental music scientifically designed to enhance concentration. No lyrics, optimal BPM for deep work, and battle-tested by someone whose brain loves distractions. I’ve shared this with clients, family, and friends, let me know you love it, too!

• 📊 The research that just might shock you into prioritizing focus: Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index reveals the reality we’re facing and why 80% of workers can't be effective.

• ➰ More quiet without cancelling all the noise Loop Engage 2 Ear Plugs are low-ish cost and made for office settings so you can get deeply into flow…even when you can’t find a desk in a quiet corner.

It’s not you. It’s EVERYTHING. All the time. EVERYWHERE. We’re getting interrupted at home, in meetings, in the ladies’ room, on the plane. We’re interrupted before work, during work after work.

And our teams are watching how we handle interruptions. When we model healthy boundaries around focus time, we give them permission to do the same. By prioritizing depth over reactivity, we’re not just improving our own lives; we can change our organization's culture for the better.