How To Be Less Distracted With Saent
Our upcoming product makes you less distracted and more productive. I’m going to explain exactly how that works, by walking you through the four basic principles underpinning our hardware and software. Let’s start from the beginning. (UPDATE: Our Indiegogo campaign is now live! Please check it out here: http://igg.me/at/saent.)
Ever since reading Getting Things Done by David Allen back in 2008, I understood multitasking doesn’t work. Yet “multitasking” is a confusing term. It doesn’t refer to juggling multiple responsibilities at the same time. We all have to do that and are usually capable of doing so.
When people think they are multitasking, they believe they’re working on several tasks simultaneously. But that’s not what happens. What you’re really doing is task switching, rapidly switching back and forth between activities.
1. Switching through life
Task switching looks something like this: work on a document for five minutes *SWITCH* check your email for a sec *SWITCH* back to that document for two minutes *SWITCH* have a look at Facebook *SWITCH* change the track on Spotify *SWITCH* back to that document and so on.
David Allen knew a long time ago that this way of working doesn’t work. In recent years he’s been proven right by (neuro)scientists. Only 3% of the population are so called “supertaskers,” people who thrive doing several activities at the same time. Everyone else suffers operating like that: you’re slower, make more mistakes and feel exhausted much faster from the constant switching of your attention.
It is for this reason that working in “sprints” is so effective: you dedicate a certain amount of time (with the Pomodoro Technique this is 25 minutes, but there are other “rhythms” as well) to one activity by setting a timer. You can’t do anything else until you’ve finished your sprint. Instead of constant task switching, you concentrate all your mental energy on one thing at a time. You’ll be done faster while making less mistakes.
2. Give your willpower a break
Working in sprints is one of the most effective (and easiest) changes you can make to improve productivity. Yet it still leaves another major problem unaddressed: distractions.
Some interruptions are unavoidable. If your boss calls a meeting, what can you do? But these days, a lot of distractions are digital and within your control. Have a glance at your Twitter feed. Play a quick game of Candy Crush. Send a message to so-and-so.
All these distractions are a form of task switching and degrade the quality of your work. Even a quick glance at your phone breaks your train of thought. You’ll need to start from scratch to get in the flow of your work again.
In the end, all of this comes down to your willpower. Can you resist giving into that distraction?
With every implicit decision you make to give into a distraction or not, your willpower “reservoir” gets a little bit emptier. This is why it’s often harder to stick to your good intentions towards the end of the day: your reservoir has run out! It’s also why people like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg swear by always wearing the same clothes. It means they have one less decision to make each day, which keeps their willpower reservoir as full as possible for the more important stuff.
To give your willpower a break, it can be useful to install one of the many distraction blockers out there. They block unproductive websites and applications, eliminating the option for you to even consider having a quick look.
3. The power of peer pressure
Either by magic, or by excellent marketing from Jawbone, a few friends and I all ended up with Jawbone UP wristbands last summer. None of us are extreme health freaks, but all of us used to be quite active as kids. Now in our thirties and with busy jobs, a slightly more active lifestyle wasn’t a bad idea. The UP came to our rescue.
With the UP, Jawbone has cleverly boiled down your health to one core metric: how many steps did you take today? That simple number tells you a lot about your day and allows you to set goals for yourself, as well as gain insights into your behavior.
The real power of steps kicked in once I began to measure them against my friends. I see that Francis has completed a 3-day streak of 10,000 steps! Jeroen has already done 5,000 steps by 9 am! Alvaro is increasing his daily goal to 12,500 steps! Of course I have to keep up.
I never spun as far out of control as Zoë Chance, who literally became addicted to her pedometer, but I did find myself going for extra walks many times. I wanted to hit my daily goal. I didn’t want to loose my 10-day streak. I had to beat Francis. The social pressure was a huge motivator.
4. Not another app, please!
How often have you installed an app which promises to make you more productive, smart, track your goals or change your habits? And which of them are you still using?
Behavior change is incredibly hard. This is especially true with virtual routines. Once they get ingrained, they can be extremely powerful (think about the lure of Facebook). But to take hold can take weeks or even months. A new app is easily forgotten between the noise of all the other stuff jockeying for your attention.
Yet some other things stick. You hardly ever forget to bring your smartphone with you in the morning. Scores of people still swear by paper calendars and diaries. Executives at even the techiest of tech firms live on plain old paper todo lists.
Why is that? Here’s what neuroscientist Daniel Levitin wrote in “The Organized Mind” about how the brain works:
“The most fundamental principle of the organized mind is to shift the burden of organizing from our brains to the external world.”
In other words: it’s easier to forget about something virtual, than a physical item sitting on your desk. His advice?
“Use the environment itself to remind you of what needs to be done.”
Compared to just a digital app, a tangible object can be an extremely powerful cue to remind you of an activity you want to do or a behavior you want to change.
Be less distracted with Saent
With these four principles in mind, we arrive at Saent (pronounce “saint”). What we’ve done isn’t rocket science (at least not yet!), but it also didn’t happen overnight. The main objective we set out to solve was this:
“How can we make people more productive in a fun, yet easy (pragmatic) way?”
This question led us to and through the four concepts we’ve explained above. We believe we’ve managed to capture those in the Saent product, a combination of hardware and software. Through many tests and iterations, we’ve ended up on these four functionalities.
1. Stop distractions
When you hit the button to launch a focused work session, the Saent app locks you into only apps and websites that are marked productive (based on a predefined, customisable list). At the same time, the software blocks distractions, like social networking sites or app notifications.
Whenever you try to switch to an unproductive application, a friendly reminder will pop-up instead, recommending you to stay focused on your current task. Over time, Saent will learn your work patterns automatically and associate productive apps with specific tasks.
2. Work in sprints
Saent helps you to work in 30, 50 or 90 minute blocks. Clear reports on the length, time and frequency of your successful work sessions will provide insights into when you are naturally most productive and do your best work. In the future, Saent will optimize your break time based on previous work sessions, and recommend the optimal time to begin working again.
3. Rewards good behavior
Just like the Jawbone UP, Saent awards you points for each ten-minute block of focused work you’ve completed. This Saent score provides a window into your productivity and can be used to invite some peer pressure by competing with colleagues and/or friends.
4. A physical device for on your desk
As we’ve all experienced, it’s easy to forget about an app on your cluttered desktop or home screen. The Saent button is a physical reminder to stay focused. It shows your progress in a sprint and doubles as a Do Not Disturb sign for those around you. It also has a touch pad and gesture recognition, which allows you to program shortcuts to your favourite (productivity!) apps.
Ready to give Saent a try?
Download the free app now to start working smarter, being more focused, and developing better work habits.
Or buy your Saent button (now shipping!) with a 12-month subscription to the Premium Saent app included!
