One Second Ahead Read online

  and establish your own daily practice.

  In the meantime, let’s get started by exploring what it really means

  to get one second ahead.

  CHAPTER 1

  Mastering Your Mind—First Steps

  Jacob was a senior manager in a European financial services com-

  pany. Like most of his counterparts, he was always “on”—con-

  nected to the office in one way or another, all day, every day. Day

  in, day out, he dealt with a steady stream of e-mails and an overloaded

  calendar of meetings. When he did have a free moment, he would

  often be interrupted by someone phoning with yet another urgent mat-

  ter that needed his immediate attention.

  When I first met Jacob, he told me that he didn’t feel in control of

  his life. He felt like he was always trying to catch up, always overloaded

  with external forces—people and tasks—dictating his day-to-day real-

  ity. He felt he was living on autopilot without a clear sense of purpose

  and direction.

  Sound familiar?

  Like many of us, Jacob longed for a greater sense of control. A friend

  of his had recently been to one of my workshops and suggested Jacob

  give me a call. In our first meeting, he committed to undertake a four-

  month program based on the tools, techniques, and strategies presented

  in this book. During that time, we met for ten one-hour sessions and

  he dedicated ten minutes a day to mindfulness training. Though it

  was specifically designed as a convenient, user-friendly program, it was

  still a significant investment of time considering his already busy work

  schedule.

  4 ● One Second Ahead

  After the four months had gone by, I asked Jacob what he’d gained

  from the program.

  His answer: “One second.”

  At first, his response took me by surprise. Four months of effort

  and daily training to gain only one second? That seemed like a meager

  return.

  But then he explained, “Previously, when something happened, I

  reacted automatically. Every time an e-mail came in, I read it. Every

  time I received a text, I answered it. Whenever a thought or emotion

  popped into my head, I paid attention to it and allowed it to take my

  focus away from what I was doing. I was a victim of my own automatic

  reactions. The four months of training have given me a one-second

  mental gap between what happens and my own response. It feels like

  I’m one second ahead, so that I can choose my response rather than

  being a victim of my automatic reactions. I can’t always control what

  happens in life, but I’ve developed the freedom to choose my response

  to it.”

  Jacob’s story clearly describes what millions of busy people experi-

  ence every day.

  But one second? What can change in one second?

  Everything.

  One second is the difference between catching the train or being late

  for work. It’s the difference between making a yellow light or running

  a red. It’s the difference between a close call or a catastrophe.

  In the Olympics, one second separates winning gold and being

  immortalized from coming in last and being forgotten.

  In our low-latency world, speed is a factor in any competition—

  sports, politics, and especially business. This is more true now than

  ever before. With today’s high-frequency trading, millions of dollars

  can change hands in a millisecond. That’s one-tenth the time it takes

  to blink. As the speed of business approaches the speed of light, one

  second is the difference between performance and high performance.

  For Jacob, one second gave him the freedom to control his thoughts,

  his actions, and, more profoundly, his life.

  This chapter aims to jump-start your transformation toward gaining

  that one-second advantage in your own life. Together, we’ll examine

  Mastering Your Mind—First Steps ● 5

  our natural cognitive tendencies, the effect these tendencies have on

  productivity, and some simple—but very powerful—rules for increas-

  ing mental effectiveness.

  Who Is in Control?

  Life is about results. Results come from our actions. Our actions come

  from the choices we make. Our choices come from the thoughts we

  think (see Figure 1.1).

  Our thoughts are the foundation for everything we want to achieve

  in life. Thus, our ability to manage our mind becomes critically impor-

  tant. We are best able to manage our thoughts when our mind is clear,

  calm, and focused. This is true in all aspects of life, but especially true

  in the workplace.

  According to scientists, however, on average our mind is wander-

  ing almost half our waking hours. 1 We are constantly thinking about

  events that happened in the past, or might happen in the future, rather

  than attending to what’s happening right now. This limits our ability

  to achieve meaningful results.

  Does this apply to you? Here’s a quick test to find out.

  1. Set a timer for 45 seconds.

  2. Focus your attention on one thought—an e-mail, a meeting, or

  something else.

  3. Focus your full attention on this one thing and nothing else.

  4. Do not pay attention to any other thoughts or sounds until the

  time is over.

  Were you able to maintain focus on one thing? If you are like most

  people, you likely experienced that, during those brief 45 seconds, your

  mind wandered off to a variety of thoughts. Don’t worry—you’re per-

  fectly normal.

  MIND

  CHOICES

  ACTIONS

  RESULTS

  Figure 1.1

  Results come from your mind.

  6 ● One Second Ahead

  If you can relate to this experience, then you probably recognize that

  sometimes—or possibly often—your mind has a mind of its own. In

  other words, it can be difficult to control your mind and what you pay

  attention to. But if it’s true that our thoughts shape our future, and we

  are really not in control of our thoughts, it raises an important ques-

  tion: Who’s making the decisions in our lives?

  For many of us, this question is becoming tougher to answer. The

  natural tendency for our mind to wander has worsened over the past

  few decades. Before the advent of the desktop computer, smartphones,

  and the Internet, it was easier for people to give their full attention to

  each task at hand. But within a relatively short span of time, we’ve gone

  from handling a typewriter and a telephone to juggling e-mails, texts,

  tweets, spreadsheets, reports, deadlines, and much more—all at the

  same time. We have mountains of evidence, as well as stacks of reports,

  articles, and books, outlining the detrimental effect that our recent

  digital immersion has had on focus and productivity.

  Welcome to the Attention Economy

  Work life has changed radically over the past few decades. We used to

  have working conditions where our attention could more easily focus

  on the task at hand. We are now experiencing distractions and infor-

  mation overload all the time. Our cell phones, tablets, e-mails, texts,

  and the like place constant demands on our attention. According to the

  former director of the Accenture Institute of Strategic Change, Tom

  Davenport, “Understanding and managing attention is now the single

  most important determinant of business success.” 2

  We are living in an “attention economy” where the ability to man-

  age our attention and the quality of our attention is key to our success.

  But in the digital age, where our ability to pay attention at will is under

  siege, we have a problem.

  How big is this problem? Researchers studying the mind’s natu-

  ral tendency to wander calculated that on average our mind wan-

  ders 46.9 percent of the time. 3 In other words, while we are at work,

  53.1 percent of the time our mind is on task. The rest of the time it is

  off task. From a human resource perspective, there is a lot of potential

  Mastering Your Mind—First Steps ● 7

  to be developed here. Even just a small increase in “on-task” time could

  have a significant improvement in many aspects of work, including

  productivity, customer service, safety, teamwork, and anything else

  that would benefit from more focused attention.

  Attention is indeed a new variable of performance in business.

  Traditionally, business productivity has been enhanced through time

  management, goal setting, prioritization skills, and general qualifica-

  tions. Attention, in the digital age, is becoming a new enabler of busi-

  ness performance. Welcome to the attention economy.

  Researchers have found that the brain has a default way of reacting

&nb
sp; to the relentless flow of distractions in the digital age: it tries to attend

  to it all at the same time. It defaults to multitasking. And who wouldn’t

  love to be able to get more accomplished by doing multiple tasks at the

  same time? Some companies even include “good at multitasking” as

  a requirement in job descriptions. But when we try to multitask, the

  research shows, we take more time, make more mistakes, and use up

  more mental energy.

  Multitasking Is a Myth

  Most of us carry around the powerful illusion that we can pay atten-

  tion to more than one thing at a time. We think we can drive a car

  while talking on the phone, participate in a meeting while checking

  e-mails, or engage in a conversation while writing a text message. To be

  clear, we can do many activities without paying attention, that is, with-

  out conscious thought. For example, we can walk and talk at the same

  time. Experienced drivers can handle many of the elements of driving,

  such as changing gears and turning the wheel, on autopilot.

  But from a neurological perspective, we’re not capable of focusing

  attention on two things at the same time. When we think we are mul-

  titasking, what we are doing in reality is shift-tasking : shifting attention

  rapidly between two or more things. For example, when talking on the

  phone while driving, for a second, we’re aware of traffic, and then the

  next second, of the phone. Sometimes we switch so quickly between

  tasks we have the illusion we’re paying attention to both at the same

  time, but in actuality, we aren’t.

  8 ● One Second Ahead

  The Noncomputational Brain

  The term “multitasking” comes from the computer industry and

  describes a computer’s ability to process several different data sets in

  parallel. Computers today have no trouble running an Excel spread-

  sheet, playing a video, sending and receiving e-mails, and scanning for

  viruses all at the same time. This highlights a big difference between a

  computer and a human: a computer has several processors, all operat-

  ing at the same time, while a human has only one brain and a singular

  attention.

  When we have many things we have to get done, many of us try to

  be efficient and effective by doing more than one thing at a time. The

  reality is, as amazing and powerful as our brains are, we’re not capable

  of focusing our attention on two things at the same time.

  In the context of multitasking at work, researchers have found that

  “multitaskers are masters of everything that is irrelevant, they let them-

  selves be distracted by anything.” 4 Perhaps you’ve experienced losing

  track of what you are doing even when you have a simple task and clear

  intentions. For example, say you want to send your mother a gift for

  her birthday, so you go online to search for something she would like.

  While searching for books in Amazon, you find a couple books to add

  to your own wish list. Then you notice a link in one of the book’s com-

  ments to an article that looks interesting. You hit that link and start

  reading, and find a link to a cool video on YouTube. An hour later, you

  catch yourself still watching videos and have completely lost track of

  what you started out to do.

  Studies have shown that multitasking lowers people’s job satisfac-

  tion, damages personal relationships, adversely affects memory, and

  negatively impacts health. 5 Many of these studies have demonstrated

  that multitasking reduces effectiveness because it takes longer to

  complete tasks and leads to more mistakes. This is because when we

  switch our focus from one task to another, it takes time to make the

  shift. Depending on the complexity of the new task, that can take

  anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. This phenomenon

  is called shift-time . Shift-time saps our mental energy and taxes our

  productivity.

  Mastering Your Mind—First Steps ● 9

  In addition, researchers from Harvard Business School discovered

  that multitasking hinders creativity. 6 They assessed 9,000 employees

  who were working on projects that required creative and innovative

  thinking. They found a notable drop in creative thinking among

  employees who multitasked and an increase in creativity among

  employees who focused on one task at a time.

  In summary, when we multitask, we’re less effective, make more

  mistakes, and have less focus and creativity. But if multitasking is so

  bad, why do so many of us continue to do it?

  Because it’s addictive. Shifting rapidly back and forth between tasks

  often feels exciting, even though it’s physically draining and stressful. 7

  In a separate study, researchers at Harvard University discovered that

  multitasking provides a “dopamine injection” to the brain. 8 Dopamine

  is a naturally produced neurotransmitter in the brain that is directly

  linked to addiction. When released in the brain, it provides a sense of

  enjoyment and gratification. Because of this instant gratification, the

  brain is constantly looking for a new dopamine kick—and quick, eas-

  ily achieved tasks like e-mail do the trick. As it turns out, multitasking

  actually trains the brain to welcome distraction and all the inefficien-

  cies it creates.

  But there is a way to break the habit.

  The Well-Trained Mind

  Mindfulness is about you. It’s about overcoming the multitasking trap,

  and entering the attention economy being one second ahead of your

  wandering mind and external distractions. It’s about being the best

  version of yourself every day. It’s about generating greater mental effec-

  tiveness so that you can reach your full potential, both on a profes-

  sional and a personal level. Effectiveness in this context is the ability to

  achieve your goals, objectives, and wishes in life.

  Mindfulness training has been developed over thousands of years.

  In recent decades it has spread widely in the West, taking form through

  different interpretations and applications. In our work, we keep the

  definition of mindfulness close to its ancient description: a mind in

  balance, which sees reality clearly and values ethics. A balanced mind

  10 ● One Second Ahead

  is relaxed, focused, and clear. A mind that sees clearly views, reality as

  ever changing, as mere potential, and knows the difference between

  genuine happiness and fleeting pleasure. Valuing ethics means contin-

  ually discerning what’s wholesome and constructive and what is not.

  Ancient Wisdom, Modern Work

  In an attention economy, mindfulness is about learning to master your

  attention. When you learn to master your attention, you learn to mas-

  ter your thoughts. You learn to hold your focus on what you choose,

  whether it’s this page, an e-mail, a meeting, your spouse, or your chil-

  dren. In other words, you train yourself to be more present in the here

  and now.

  Over the years, working with thousands of people around the globe,

  I’ve seen formal mindfulness training help individuals become calmer

  and clearer minded. With a calmer and clearer mind, people are able

  to greatly enhance performance, effectiveness, collaboration, and gain

  a clearer perspective on life and the choices they make.

  But don’t take my word for it. Since the first controlled experiments

  with mindfulness, the scientific world has discovered the wide-ranging

  benefits of mindfulness training. Mindfulness has a positive impact on

  our physiology, mental processes, and work performance. At the physi-

  ological level, researchers have demonstrated that mindfulness training

  can result in a stronger immune system, 9 lower blood pressure, 10 and a

  lower heart rate. 11 People sleep better 12 and feel less stressed. 13

  Mindfulness training increases the density of grey cells in our cere-

  bral cortex, the part of the brain that thinks rationally and solves prob-