My Story – Samantha Garrett

‘Disconnected’ sounds like a good word to describe how most people would have felt at some point during 2020. Which is why it might sound a bit odd that when everyone was craving connection back in June 2020, I decided to experiment with completely disconnecting from my team and my clients for 5 days.

Not because I wanted to rest and recharge at an amazing off-grid wellness retreat (ha, no hope of that for a Victorian in 2020!), but because I needed to get some work done. Yes, I realise this may also sound odd – surely, I need to be connected to my colleagues and clients to do my work?!

I hear you! But before I jump into explaining the method behind this madness, let me tell you a little about what led up to this.

A couple of months prior to my experiment, I’d begun to notice something happening to my attention and focus. It felt like my default state of concentration had gone on holidays (unlike me) and been replaced by this thing called ‘easily distracted’.

I’d be tempted by things that usually I could resist – chat notifications, my inbox tab, checking my phone. I had a long list of exciting and meaningful work to do, yet I’d get to the end of the day and feel like I had been occupied but not actually achieved much. I realised how bad the problem was getting when ‘easily distracted’ began frequently visiting me after work too.

Enough was enough. I didn’t like what was happening to my brain. So why was this happening and how could I fix it?

At Using Technology Better (UTB) we have always been a fully remote working team. When I wasn’t on the road travelling and training, I was working in my home office. This meant that while many people have been adjusting to working at home in 2020, it’s nothing new for me. I usually find it really productive. However, in the absence of travel and in-person training something very rare happened – all of our team were at our desks all the time. Sending many more chat messages, asking many more questions, wanting many more video calls. And I wasn’t getting breaks away from these distractions to reset my brain, like I normally would during in-person training or travel.

There was my Why: Increase in distracting communication + no time away from distractions = reduced concentration and focus (aka easily distracted brain).

So, what to do? How could I get my concentration back and get some proper work done!?!

Turns out that my solution had been sitting next to my desk since early March when I’d done my doomsday-prepper pre-lockdown trip to the library. I just hadn’t picked it up yet.

A book: ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport.

The subtitle, “Rules for focussed success in a distracted world”, sounded exactly like what I needed.

By the end of chapter 1, Newport had convinced me that I needed to give this Deep Work stuff a try. I’d only gotten two-thirds of the way through the book when I asked my boss, Mike, to let me conduct a Deep Work experiment. Given my content creation workload and an upcoming open gap in my calendar, I decided to go hard and commit to a full 5 days. After a little negotiation and convincing, Mike was on board and two days later I switched off.

Yep, in the midst of a global pandemic that was disconnecting us from so many things and people we loved, I chose to disconnect even further.

Was it worth it?

Unequivocally and undoubtedly YES!

By the end of day 1, I was totally in love with the concept of Deep Work. By the end of day 5, I wished I could just keep it going! Not because I don’t love and value my team and our clients (I do), but because of how I felt when I was in Deep Work mode.

The feeling of being 100% focussed and producing content at my maximum output level was exhilarating. Being able to plan a day of tasks knowing that I could execute them without interruption – and actually get them done! – was amazing. By choosing to focus on just one project, I also gave myself permission to completely put aside all the other tasks that usually would have been playing on my mind and competing for my attention.

Most importantly, my concentration returned and my desire for distraction dissipated – both during and after work!!

When I signed back in after the 5 days, I wasn’t sure what I would find. But nothing terrible or amazingly exciting had happened. Sure, I had a few emails and messages to respond to, but that was it. It was really no different to having gone on leave for a few days. People carry on and things wait until you get back.

My experiment delivered some really useful insights: (1) By eliminating distractions, I can control my focus and concentration; (2) Spending time in focus and concentration mode feels amazing! (3) It’s OK not to be available to others so I can focus and concentrate.

This last one has led me to continue to switch off and do Deep Work since the original experiment. Sometimes for a whole day, sometimes for just a couple of hours. We’ve also discussed this as a team and some of my colleagues are experimenting with switching off too.

What sits behind these insights is the recognition that it is solely my responsibility to manage the most precious resources I have, my time and my attention. And that means that I’ll keep experimenting with new approaches for taking care of them so I can do my best work – even if it means disconnecting!

Samantha’s workscape technically began 20 years ago, however her ‘grown up’ workscape is 15 years young. She sees life and work as one big learning adventure – one which she approaches with energy, enthusiasm and joy.