The 10-Minute Rule To Stay Focused: How To Manage Distractions

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By Luciana Paulise

 

One of the biggest challenges to maintaining focus is the constant urge to check your phone, browse social media, or engage in other distractions. These interruptions can break your concentration and derail your productivity. The 10-Minute Rule is a simple yet effective technique to help you manage those distractions and stay on task.

The 10-Minute Rule is a powerful strategy to help you resist distractions and maintain focus, whether working on a big project, studying, or even trying to keep your child engaged for a more extended period. It works like this: When you feel the urge to do something distracting, tell yourself to wait 10 minutes. This rule creates a small, manageable delay that helps you resist the temptation to give in to distractions immediately. Often, by the time those 10 minutes have passed, the urge to check your phone or divert your attention has subsided, and you can return to your task with renewed focus.

The beauty of the 10-Minute Rule lies in its simplicity. Instead of trying to fight off distractions by force, you’re simply postponing them for a short time. This can be a surprisingly effective strategy because distractions often feel urgent, but when you delay them, you realize they aren’t as pressing as they initially seemed. Giving yourself a brief window of time to continue focusing on your work helps you break the cycle of giving in to distractions every time they arise.

Using this rule, you train your mind to tolerate those urges without acting on them immediately. This builds your self-discipline and strengthens your ability to focus for extended periods. Over time, you’ll notice that your tolerance for distractions increases.

How to Use the 10-Minute Rule to Stay Focused

Here’s how you can use it to your advantage: Continue reading →

Why Taking Time Off from Work Makes You More Resilient

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Wharton professor Michael Platt is using neuroscience to make the business case for better work culture.

During his keynote speech at the recent Wharton Neuroscience Summit, Platt shared charts, graphs, and illustrations to show what countless studies have revealed about resilience: People need a healthy dose of physical, mental, and emotional support to perform at their best. And they need real time off from work.

“Business leaders out there, why should you care? You should care deeply, and not just because it’s interesting, but because it matters for your bottom line,” Platt said to participants gathered for the summit hosted by the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative (WiN).

Resilience was the theme of the daylong meetup. For his turn at the podium, Platt, who is faculty director at WiN, deftly combined anthropology, neuroscience, business, climate change, and monkeys into a 30-minute presentation titled, “When Disaster Strikes: Resilience in Context.”

Walking the audience through a brief history of human development, Platt explained why the brain isn’t wired for the modern world. It’s made for prehistoric times, when people lived in small, close-knit groups, spent most of their lives outside, got plenty of activity, and ate natural foods.

“Time off is necessary, not just to rest but also to reconnect with your families, your friends, to engage in play, to make music, to be joyful.”— Michael Platt

“Our brains are designed for an environment 200,000 years ago. And the way our brains, our bodies, our mental health, our well-being actually play out in the current environment reflects that,” he said.

Man-made stressors are challenging enough, but natural disasters “turn up the volume knob” on trauma, he said. For 30 years, Platt has been studying a colony of rhesus macaques that live freely on Cayo Santiago, an island off Puerto Rico. Their genetics, brains, and behaviors are very similar to humans, enabling scientists to collect a range of helpful data.

The monkeys were thriving until Hurricane Maria hit as a Category 5 hurricane in 2017, killing more than 3,000 people. None of the animals perished in the storm, but the physical and emotional toll triggered premature aging that was measurable.

“The molecular landscape of their bodies is changing. This is a function of stress,” Platt explained.

Some of the monkeys fared better than others, which made scientists interested in the root cause of their resilience. They discovered that the monkeys that thrived had forged deeper social bonds and were more cooperative in the face of disaster. They became friendlier, nicer, and more tolerant. Those parts of their brains even grew bigger.

Humans can change their behavior to do the same, Platt said. To prove his point, he shared a Microsoft Labs survey that found companies with the highest employee engagement have leaders who invest in resilient cultures that support workers.

In his final message to business leaders, Platt offered a finding from a research paper he co-authored on deaths from the “epidemic of despair” in the U.S. The biggest difference between the U.S. and other industrialized countries is a dearth of paid time off.

“Time off is necessary, not just to rest but also to reconnect with your families, your friends, to engage in play, to make music, to be joyful. That’s part of the human toolkit,” he said. “And look, we just ain’t doing it, so we have to do better.”

 

Source:  Why Taking Time Off from Work Makes You More Resilient – Knowledge at Wharton

Success

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Success is something that everyone in any career field would like to achieve. Success may mean different things to different people.

 

 

 

Here are some perspectives:

 

  • Success is achieved when your team’s efforts not only enrich the entire ecosystem around you, but also unlock its full potential, embodying Einstein’s belief that we should strive to be people of value rather than mere seekers of success. 

         Ron Walker, U.S. Leader, Managed Services at KPMG

 

  • I think we can agree success is measured differently by each of us. I think a value-add will be to review/summarize the definitions that organizations use to define success. What is it 12 months after a person joins that shows they were successful? Also, if you only measure the results vis-à-vis the job description, it negates 100% of the cultural aspects of an org. In other words, a person that achieves 100% (or more) of objective goals but is an asshole to his colleagues would not be successful, in the eyes of many.

Greg Meyers, Managing Director, Concinnity Talent

 

  • It’s an easy path to try and measure success by the numbers, but when asked personally I think of happiness but also my impact on others.  When I am asked about my biggest success at work, it is always the people and who have I helped develop and grow. That is my professional legacy, and the measure of success. On the personal side, I revert back to happiness and creating memories not only for yourself but for the loved ones you surround yourself with.  Something I have to keep reminding myself of is that the journey can be successful, not just the destination.

        Steve Rudderham,  Global Leader for Carrier Business Services

 

 We would welcome your thoughts/input, for our next blog on success.

Sincerely,

Larry Janis

Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030

 

Empowering people in the age of AI: 3 essential skills for 2025

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By: Yolanda Seals-Coffield

 

In 2024, the widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence was nearly impossible to ignore. From boardrooms to team brainstorms to industry conferences, the message was clear: AI is reshaping the future of work.

As we settle into 2025, nearly every conversation I’ve had with my team, our clients and our people has explored what comes next and what skills we’ll need to succeed. If AI is the new table stakes, what else do employees need to help future-proof their careers and thrive?

3 skills for 2025, thanks to AI

Here are three skills that will likely be key this year:

Enhanced collaboration

AI’s impact is only as strong as the people behind it. Successful integration demands not just tech adoption but also strong human collaboration. In 2025, your workforce could effectively double with the addition of AI agents, making it essential to move beyond surface-level technology use to fostering stronger team dynamics. As employees begin to work with AI agents on more complex challenges, they won’t want to navigate this journey alone. That’s why this year, enhancing collaboration among teams and individuals will be just as critical as seamlessly integrating digital workers into workforce strategies.

The more we create shared experiences to explore AI, the more likely people will be to continue leveraging it in their day-to-day work. Organizations should be intentional about offering ongoing, interactive opportunities to help their people connect around this ever-evolving technology.

Since March 2024, our firm has hosted AI prompting parties to give our people and teams hands-on experience with gen AI tools. Through over 500 of these “parties” of varying sizes hosted across multiple functions, participants have had opportunities to share useful prompts, iterate on new prompts, practice prompting techniques and connect with one another. They share tips and tricks, successes and lessons, all while fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

As companies consider how to use AI in new ways, it’s just as important to challenge employees to collaborate in new ways. Continue reading →

Can org design help when ‘the dignity of work’ is shaken? A guide for HR leaders

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By: Jill Barth

 

The relentless pace of change is one of the biggest challenges facing organizations, with no signs of slowing, according to recent research. Accenture’s latest Pulse of Change report finds that most C-suite leaders and employees anticipate significant transformation this year, with the rapid rise of generative AI accelerating this shift and making technology and talent top priorities.

However, taking advantage of AI often requires rethinking work structures, organizational design and workforce strategies.

“As we look to the future, predictive AI will enable HR teams to foresee workforce trends, spot skill gaps and customize training programs,” says Kelly Jones, chief people officer at tech company Cisco. “Additionally, AI-powered sentiment analysis will help us gauge employee engagement and wellbeing, allowing us to offer timely interventions when needed.”

HR leaders must navigate the dual challenge of transforming their own function while supporting broader business reinvention. Businesses now have more options than ever to use AI solutions, but to be successful, HR leaders must address two urgent challenges, according to Karalee Close, Accenture’s global lead for its talent and organization practice. These are: Restructuring organizations to align with new work models and ensuring employees have the right skills.

Organizational design around new tech

AI is expected to change how employees spend nearly half their working hours, creating an opportunity to refine training and development strategies. Companies can use AI and data analytics to personalize learning, make training materials more accessible, and align development with employee needs. Understanding what motivates employees and how they prefer to learn allows organizations to create meaningful growth opportunities at all levels. Continue reading →