Laura was a young entrepreneur who always considered himself to be “multitasking”. While answering emails, also checked social networks, answer messages on WhatsApp and tried to advance in the monthly report of your business. I felt that what he did... but at the end of the day, your to-do list was incomplete, and the frustration was building up.

One day, exhausted and discouraged, he read an article on the care of the residual and how it shatters our minds without notice. Felt identified. Discovered to be connected all the time was not synonymous with being productive. It was then when he decided to try a different approach.

He began to work in blocks of 2 hours, no notifications, no interruptions. You saved the cell, closed the tabs and unnecessary focused only on one task at a time. It was hard at first, but as days pass by, he noticed something incredible: advanced more, it felt less stressed, and more satisfied with their job.

Weeks later, Laura had not only finished his outstanding at the time, but he had also returned to an old project that is thought to have been forgotten: to write a book. He understood that the productivity is not about doing a lot of things at the same time, but doing a few things, but with deep attention.

Since then, every time you hear your phone ringing, smile, breathe... and keep writing.

All adults and young people in this current world we encounter in our lives, different methods, and activities to be productive. At this time no matter your talents or skills because if you're not productive, you don't advance in life.

To move forward in life in this world that is completely distracted, we must be focused. Attention residual is when a person believes they can do everything at the same time, for example: doing a job in a Computer but you have in Whatsapp on and attends to the message, you also have several tabs open. And when this concentrate is diverted your attention on what is mentioned in the example. the focus you had disappears.

The benefits of productivity is to cultivate a deep concentration. One of the secrets to the huge production of the young professor of Pen is that it separates large blocks of time during the day and sometimes for months, to work exclusively and continuously in a single thing.

To Grant the explanation of productivity lies in a mathematical formula:

High-quality work produced = time spent X intensity of focus

A possible solution would be to set aside 2 or 3 hours during the day, in the which is completely isolates (no email, no social media, no phone calls) and dedicated to perform tasks demanding mentally. The quality of work that we can do in the matter at hand.

The concept of attention residual —states Newport— explains why the frequent habit of working in a state of semi-distraction is potentially devastating to your performance. It may seem harmless to give a quick glance at your inbox every ten minutes more or less. In fact, many argue that this behavior is better than the old practice of leaving the inbox open on the screen at all times. But Leroy teaches us that, in fact, this is not a great improvement. The quick look introduces a new target for your attention.

Worse still, the warning messages that can't be replied immediately, (which happens almost always), he is forced to return to the first task with a secondary task left unfinished. The attention of the residual generated by these interruptions not resolved ruin your performance.

The concept of attention residual in part explains the high productivity of Adam Grant. So says Newport:

The work on a single task for a long time without change, Grant minimizes the negative impact of the care of the residual of your other obligations, which allows you to maximize the performance of that single task. When Grant is working isolated for days at a paper he is doing to a higher level of efficiency that makes it a teacher standard with a strategy that is more distracted in their work is interrupted constantly.

The recommendation of the author of Deep Work is clear:

To produce its maximum level is necessary to work free from distraction with full concentration for long periods of time on a single task. Said another way: the type of work that optimizes your performance is the work performed under deep concentration.

If you do not feel comfortable entering prolonged periods of time in deep concentration, it will be difficult to get a performance to the maximum levels of quality and quantity that are increasingly necessary to develop professionally. Unless your talent and skills to exceed by far those of the competition, the workers concentrates will be more than you.