Improving Task Switching Skills

🏗 How To Tackle Large, Complex Projects. With practical techniques to meet the desired outcome, without being disrupted or derailed along the way ↓ 🤔 99% of large projects don’t finish on budget and on time. 🤔 Projects rarely fail because of poor skills or execution. ✅ They fail because of optimism and insufficient planning. ✅ Also because of poor risk assessment, discovery, politics. 🎯 Best strategy: Think Slow (detailed planning) + Act Fast. ✅ Allocate 20–45% of total project effort for planning. ✅ Riskier and larger projects always require more planning. ✅ Think Right → Left: start from end goal, work backwards. ✅ For each goal, consider immediate previous steps/events. ✅ Set up milestones, prioritize key components for each. ✅ Consider stakeholders, users, risks, constraints, metrics. 🚫 Don’t underestimate unknown domain, blockers, deps. ✅ Compare vs. similar projects (reference class forecasting). ✅ Set up an “execution mode” to defer/minimize disruptions. 🚫 Nothing hurts productivity more than unplanned work. Over the last few years, I've been using the technique called “Event Storming” suggested by Matteo Cavucci to capture user’s experience moments through the lens of business needs. With it, we focus on the desired business outcome, and then use research insights to project events that users will be going through towards that outcome. On that journey, we identify key milestones and break user’s events into 2 main buckets: user’s success moments (which we want to dial up) and user’s pain points or frustrations (which we want to dial down). We then break out into groups of 3–4 people to separately prioritize these events and estimate their impact and effort on Effort vs. Value curves (https://lnkd.in/evrKJUEy). The next step is identifying key stakeholders to engage with, risks to consider (e.g. legacy systems, 3rd-party dependency etc.), resources and tooling. We reserve special timing to identify key blockers and constraints that endanger successful outcome or slow us down. If possible, we also set up UX metrics to track how successful we actually are in improving the current state of UX. When speaking to business, usually I speak about better discovery and scoping as the best way to mitigate risk. We can of course throw ideas into the market and run endless experiments. But not for critical projects that get a lot of visibility — e.g. replacing legacy systems or launching a new product. They require thorough planning to prevent big disasters and urgent rollbacks. If you’d like to learn more, I can only highly recommend "How Big Things Get Done" (https://lnkd.in/erhcBuxE), a wonderful book by Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner who have conducted a vast amount of research on when big projects fail and succeed. A wonderful book worth reading! Happy planning, everyone! 🎉🥳

Working in an office killed my focus and productivity. Here’s how I now optimise my remote working environment. Back story: I didn’t know I had ADHD when I worked in-house before going freelance. I told every prior employer I struggled working in an office, even though I didn’t understand why. I always requested to WFH, which was usually denied. The office environments I was working in were never optimal for me as they were created with neurotypicals in mind. I was constantly in an unproductive state of distraction and overstimulation. And most of my senses were triggered by: • Harsh or flashing artificial lighting • Messy environments with lots of clutter • Strong smells: food, drink, cleaning products etc • Music playing on the radio that created sound sensitivity • Colleagues speaking to me or each other when I’m in a deep hyperfocus mode • Or complete silence meaning all I could focus on was people chewing, coughing, typing… There was never any additional support or adjustments. This usually led to brain fog, irritability, restlessness, poor focus and discomfort. When I started my business over 2 years ago, it was the perfect opportunity to find my ideal working environment. And here’s what I’ve learned works for me - LOW STIMULATION ENVIRONMENTS: (Working from home, being outdoors, at a private co-working space) Like the environment in this video where there are few distractions. → Natural daylight → Minimal, neutral decor → Tidy, clutter-free environment → White/ brown/ bilateral sounds → Soothing scents - flowers/ sea/ candles HIGH STIMULATION ENVIRONMENTS: (Coffee shops, hotels, co-working environments, office spaces, library) Optimised for switching locations from desk and chair to sofa > indoors to outdoors etc. → Daylight, colour-changing lamp or dark moody environment → Neutral decor or bolder colours → Contains more useful clutter → Ambient music/ sounds → Relaxing scents Don’t get me wrong, I still switch up my locations 2-3 times per day. But at least I know my triggers now and understand my overstimulation/ sensitivities. - When I’m working remotely in the UK, it’s usually: WFH > coffee shop > garden or Coffee shop no.1 > WFH > hotel > coffee shop no.2 > WFH When I’m working remotely abroad, it’s usually: WFH > coffee shop > work in direct sunlight or Work on the balcony > move to sofa > move to table > balcony again > move to floor (😂) - Learning about ADHD, finding my ideal working environment and having the freedom and flexibility to work remotely has genuinely been a game-changer. P.s. this video is my ideal environment. How could it not be!? 🌊☀️ Smell of the salty air Soaking in the sun’s rays Sound of the roaring waves Eating my wee fruit & nut bowl Warm weather with an ocean breeze Regular screen breaks with this coastal view Sunny balcony = peak productivity for me 💭Where’s your ideal working environment? #adhd #adhdawareness #remoteworking

💔 “The Brilliant Woman Who Was Interrupted 7 Times in 5 Minutes” During a leadership workshop, one of my clients shared something that stayed with me. Her voice broke a little as she said: 👉 “I counted… seven times in five minutes. They cut me off. By the end, I just gave up speaking.” I watched her eyes as she spoke. They weren’t just narrating an incident—they were telling the story of exhaustion. She described the scene in detail: The sharp tone of the first interruption. The laughter after the second. The shuffling of papers as if her words didn’t matter. By the fourth, her shoulders slumped. By the seventh, silence swallowed her brilliance. That moment pierced me. Because she didn’t just lose her voice in that meeting—she lost an opportunity to influence. And the room lost the chance to hear an idea that could have shaped strategy. 🚧 The Obstacle Gender bias doesn’t always announce itself. It creeps in quietly. In how often a woman is cut off. In how her ideas are overlooked until someone else repeats them. In how she’s told—implicitly or explicitly—to “be patient, wait your turn.” And here’s the truth: brilliance shouldn’t need permission to exist. 💡 How I Helped as a Communication Skills Trainer We worked on three things: ✔️ #AssertiveCommunication – rehearsing responses to interruptions that were firm but professional. ✔️ Power phrases – short, sharp lines that create space and command attention. ✔️ #ExecutivePresence – voice control, body language, and the subtle shifts that make people pause and listen. ✨ The Transformation At her next boardroom meeting, she walked in differently. She wasn’t waiting for permission. She wasn’t hoping not to be interrupted. She was ready. She didn’t just speak. She owned the table. And the most powerful part? The very people who had once interrupted her… leaned in, took notes, and listened. 🌍 The Learning As leaders, we must recognize that #GenderBias in communication is not imaginary. It’s real. It’s silent. And it shapes careers every single day. That’s why assertiveness training isn’t optional for women leaders. It’s #Leadership. It’s #Survival. It’s #Power. ⸻ 🔑 For Leaders Reading This: Have you ever witnessed brilliance being silenced in your boardroom? The bigger question is—what did you do about it?

What if the secret to sharper decisions lies not in your strategy, but in your surroundings? We spend much of our leadership energy on strategy and systems. Yet the physical environment we work in...the light, the noise and the temperature shapes our ability to think clearly and make good decisions. Researchers note that exposure to light not only governs vision but also influences alertness, cognition and mood. Bright light reduces sleepiness and improves neuro behavioural performance. Conversely, high levels of noise, particularly irrelevant speech, diminish cognitive performance more than temperature. In one study, researchers observed optimal cognitive performance at a moderate temperature with noise levels around 55 dB. I saw this play out when we refreshed the back office of a restaurant I was overseeing. The team had been working under harsh fluorescent lights and constant background chatter from the kitchen. People were tired, mistakes crept in and tensions rose. After reading about the effects of the environment, we replaced the lighting with softer, brighter bulbs, opened blinds to let natural light in and set up a quiet area away from the busiest machines. Within days, the mood lifted. Staff reported feeling more alert and less stressed. For leaders looking to harness the environment, here are a few considerations: 1. Let in the light. Where possible, increase exposure to daylight or use bright lighting. Evidence suggests that this helps maintain alertness and reduces sleepiness. 2. Control noise. Background chatter and irrelevant speech can impair concentration. Aim for moderate noise levels and quiet zones if your space allows. 3. Mind the temperature. Studies have found that cognitive performance peaks at moderate temperatures and falls when rooms are too cold or too hot. 4. Observe and adjust. Walk through your workspace at different times. Notice where people seem energised or drained. By managing light, sound and comfort, we give ourselves and our teams a better platform to perform. Have you made any changes to your environment that improved focus or morale? I would be keen to hear what worked for you.

Focus isn’t broken. The way we design work is. We ran a poll on attention blockers. The results were telling: • Constant digital distractions: 33% • Task switching and multitasking: 29% • Mental overload: 22% • Lack of clear priorities: 17% Nearly two-thirds of people are struggling with the same underlying issue: Work environments that overload the brain’s attention systems. From a neuroscience perspective, this is predictable. The brain is not built to juggle competing demands in parallel. Every interruption forces the prefrontal cortex to drop context, rebuild it, and expend metabolic energy in the process. Over time, this shows up as fatigue, slower thinking, and reduced quality, not poor motivation. What actually helps, based on how the brain works: • Cap inputs at the system level. Turn off non-essential notifications. Close email and chat outside defined windows. Limit active tasks to one priority plus one secondary task. Focus fails when inputs are unlimited. • Sequence work deliberately. Block time for one cognitive mode at a time. Do not mix deep thinking, decisions, and reactive tasks. Task switching drains energy and increases error. • Define work with clear edges. Start with a specific outcome. End when that outcome is reached. Completion stabilises dopamine and makes it easier for the brain to re-engage next time. • Design for attention rather than demanding it. Protect uninterrupted time. Reduce urgency theatre. Stop rewarding constant availability. Attention improves when the environment supports it. This is not about trying harder or being more disciplined. It is about aligning work design with how the human brain actually functions. That is where sustainable performance comes from. #NeuroscienceAtWork #Focus #Leadership #CognitivePerformance #BrainBasedLeadership #SynapticPotential

You're mid-sentence in a meeting. Someone cuts you off. Again. You smile, stay quiet, and lose your voice. If you accept interruptions, you train others to ignore you. I've been in thousands of meetings over my career. Led teams. Presented to executives. Eventually became Director of Software Engineering. One pattern I’ve seen? People who get heard set boundaries. 7 (proven) ways to stop people from interrupting you: 1/ Ask to continue When someone jumps in: pause, make eye contact. “If it’s alright, I’d like to finish my thought first.” Clear. Polite. Assertive. 2/ Acknowledge, then steer back Let them finish. Then: “Thanks—let me quickly finish what I was saying.” Respectful but firm. 3/ Set expectations upfront Start strong: “Feel free to note questions—we’ll tackle them during Q&A.” You set the rules. 4/ Keep it short The longer you talk, the more chances to be cut off. Be direct. Be organized. Be done. 5/ Use the right tools In Zoom? Use the ‘raise hand’ feature to stay organized. Chat for sidebar questions. 6/ Let your body do the talking Eye contact. Small hand raise. Keep talking. They’ll get the message. Confident body language stops interruptions before they start. 7/ Provide feedback privately Most interrupters don’t even realize. After the meeting: "During the meeting, I felt I was being cut off a few times. I'd appreciate the chance to finish my points next time." Direct. Respectful. Problem solved. These work. I’ve used every one. Your voice matters. So do your ideas. Don’t let interruptions steal that. 👉 Which tactic will you try today? PS: Someone getting interrupted? Step in. “Let’s hear the rest of what Sarah was saying.” That’s leadership.

One of the most powerful ways to manage workday interruptions is learning how to work with them, rather than trying to avoid them. Especially for leaders, small unplanned interactions aren't keeping you from the work, they often are the work of leadership. And there are three simple things you can do to make every interaction count, even when you're very busy. 1. Listen Intently. Effective listening is often hailed as the holy grail of exemplary leadership. But few people get it right. That’s because it takes practice and focus to connect with others, detect nuances, figure out whose issue it is, and determine what kind of help people need to do their best. Giving the other person the space to be heard does not mean being passive. So do a little digging. Be radically curious. Ask for the evidence and take the time you need (within reason) to fully grasp the issue. When you feel confident that you’ve wrapped your head around what’s going on, take a moment to briefly summarize to ensure you have it right. 2. Frame the Issue. Once you understand the issue, you’re ready to frame it in a way that will provide clarity. To be a skilled framer, determine whether the other party needs greater clarity, confidence, or commitment, and adjust your approach accordingly. If it’s clarity they need, you may have to roll up your sleeves and dig into some data with them, or provide some context to explain the competitive landscape.  If it’s confidence or commitment that is required, show them how their strengths make them uniquely suited to handle it. Anchor the issue in whatever drives them and use the opportunity to let people know why their contribution matters. 3. Advance the Agenda. Now's the time to have a bias for action. People came to you to make tangible progress. And you're in a unique position to help. You listened. You framed the issue. Now you can push the problem or issue forward. Maybe you need to help them make a decision. Maybe you need to take the reins and make a call. If you need to connect the people involved with a crucial third party—do it. Make a phone call, send an email, write a memo. Get things moving in whichever way is necessary. This is your chance to provide people with the tools and/or insights necessary to help people meet and exceed their goals. At the end of the day, all any of us can do is consider the information available to us at the moment, make the best decision we can, and resolve to do a little bit better each time. This three-step triad provides a framework for you to build relationships and make and support decisions. In every moment. And, the more you do it, the better and more efficient you will become. Give this triad a try and let me know what you think: Listen, Frame, Advance. Let's go. #leadership #listening #LIPostingDayJune

I’ve been conducting interviews with CEOs in Australia to get a sense of the current state of performance in organisations and to understand what leaders are doing about it. So far, I think the findings are pretty telling. In each interview, I asked, “What is the primary obstacle preventing you from achieving flow at work?” The response was the same across the board—external distractions, interruptions, or environmental factors that disrupt concentration. I found that really fascinating. So, what do we do about it? How do we bring our attention back to the present moment? Because it’s only by finding more moments for flow that individuals, teams, and organisations can be high-performing and feel good at the same time. Here are three things to consider: 1. Be Clear on Your Goals Set yourself clear goals. I set quarterly goals, then break them down into monthly and daily goals. It’s important to hold yourself accountable and check in with yourself at the end of the day—how did you go? 2. Time Blocking Block out time in your calendar for deep work. This is when you get your most important work done. Put your phone on the other side of the room, turn on 'Do Not Disturb' on your computer, and close the door. I’ve even heard of people putting up signs on their doors like the ones in hotels. The idea is to create a clear boundary for your flow time. 3. Communicate Your Intent As a CEO, it’s a great way to step into leadership by communicating your intent to work in an undistracted way. This helps create a culture of high performance. It’s okay to put boundaries around deep work time, to say no to meetings when you have important work to do, and to protect that time during the day. We shouldn’t have to take it home or work extra hours to get it done. These steps can significantly enhance the ability to find flow at work, making it possible to achieve high performance while maintaining well-being. It’s not just about getting the work done… it’s about creating an environment where focused, meaningful work can occur. #flow #focuswork #leadership #workplacedistraction #highperfomingteams

When was the last time you read something over 50 pages long? If it has been a while, a critical part of your brain may be getting ignored. Not just figuratively. INTRODUCING THE DMN Neuroscientists call it the Default Mode Network. It activates during deep reading, long narratives and sustained reflection. WHY THIS MATTERS The DMN is associated with empathy, imagination and the ability to think about consequences over time. It rarely switches on for a tweet. It does not fully engage for a reel. It needs length, patience and the slow build of a story that does not rush to pay you off. THE CONSEQUENCE When we stop engaging it regularly, the habits it supports begin to weaken. What are those habits? Nuance. Perspective taking. Delayed judgment. Ironically these are precisely the things no algorithm can replicate. Or for that matter, no AI. SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO? Stop reading this post. Okay, wait till the end! Pick up something at least 25 pages long and read it continuously. The topic does not matter. Find something that interests you. A few small tricks help: 1. Fix a daily reading hour. Even twenty minutes is enough. Treat it like an appointment. 2. Remove the phone from the room. Your attention cannot compete with an infinite scroll machine. 3. Read physical pages if you can. The brain treats paper differently from a screen. 4. Do not worry about finishing books. The goal is to rebuild the habit of sustained attention. If you follow these steps, soon something interesting may happen. The reading hour expands. You find yourself reading before the hour starts, or after it ends. And then one day you realise you are deep inside a 500 page book and looking forward to the next chapter. PS: Lest I sound too high and mighty, let me admit I have had my own struggles. I had to work toward this habit and I am still learning. With some intentional effort, this year I am on my eighth book. Two of them were over 600 pages long. Still a novice, but getting there. You do not build a deep mind in 280 characters. You build it one long page at a time.

Operation Gold. Part 4 of 4 Time To Rebuild - Training the Mind Like a Muscle We’ve talked about what’s breaking - attention, motivation, the ability to stay with hard things. This finale is about how to rebuild them, deliberately, the same way you’d rebuild strength post injury. 1/ Purposeful Friction Every high-functioning brain needs periods of strain. Neuroscientists call it effort-dependent plasticity - neurons only rewire when the system feels pressure. If work is too easy, we don’t engage to our potential. Practice: before training or deep work, take a 10-min blackout. 0 phone, 0 conversation, 0 multitasking. We are teaching the mind to shift - scattered to singular focus. Over time the “switch” turns automatic, like a pre-game routine. (Uncomfortable is the point. Boredom too) 2/ Run Focus Sprints Directly from sport. Choose 1 task - drill, set, a problem - & stay with it until it's done. When distraction hits - snacks, texts, pings, socials= that’s the rep. Redirect & it strengthens the attention network; MRI studies show measurable growth in weeks. Start with 15 min & work up to 45. The duration matters less than the purity of attention. 3/ Discomfort is Data During my first Ironman I had nine+ hours of silence - no headphones, no music. At first it was torture: a constant inner argument about why I should stop/slow down. Then the argument ran out of oxygen, & what was left was "just do it". Lean into the discomfort. Train that loop daily: cold exposure, intervals, last reps, hard convo's. Stay long enough for the body to settle instead of flee. That’s how composure is built under duress. 4/ Recover Intentionally Hard work opens the learning window; recovery locks it in. Sleep, breathwork, journaling, quiet walking - all lower cortisol & allow adaptation. Five minutes of cyclic sighing or slow nasal breathing resets the nervous system faster than passive rest. Recovery doesn’t mean weakness - it’s replenishment for the next race. 5/ Dialogue Write one line: Where did I want to stop, & what made me continue? That reflection turns experience into proof. What used to drain you now fuels you. This is growth. 6/ Build for Depth Shared “focus sprints” with teammates or coworkers. Reward minutes/hours of focus, not just outcomes. Design your environment so discipline happens by default. (Preserve your willpower) Let’s Simplify: Friction → Effort → Recovery → Reflection → Adaptation. That’s the same biological loop that builds muscle, memory, & champions. AI, automation, comfort= not the enemy, but accelerants. Tech can optimize, but up to us to internalize. The reps of doing the hard things still belong to us & we are in the drivers seat. Start small: one blackout, one focus sprint, one honest recovery. Operation Gold. In an effortless, information-rich age, consistent effort & intentional friction will be the greatest competitive advantage. Choose your weapon & adventure wisely!