The Principle of Distraction Cycling
The Key to Understanding How to Manage Millennials
The Principle of Distraction Cycling: In the current age, it is possible to cycle between distractions and stay distracted indefinitely.
In more detail, the term Distraction Cycling refers to the following (feel free to skip):
Person A has immediate access to Distraction Sources 1, 2, 3, … N. Each Distraction Source provides a compelling set of Distractions whenever Person A accesses them. These Distractions take up some amount of time DT, the Distraction Time. After spending DT1 in Distraction Source 1, Person A will move on to do something else, no longer interested in Distraction Source 1… until a certain amount of time passes. Indeed, Distraction Source 1 will produce compelling Distractions that Person A will find interesting after a time RT1, the Refresh Time. After RT1, enough time has passed that Distraction Source 1 has disappeared from their recent memory. The difference between RT and DT is that, while DT can only be consumed serially, RT is replenished in parallel—any Distraction Source not being actively consumed is having its RT replenished. Since Person A has access to N Distraction Sources, if there exists a subset of Distraction Sources, each with RT less than the total DT of the remaining subset, then Person A can stay distracted indefinitely by cycling between individual Distraction Sources, even just in that subset alone. This is Distraction Cycling. The current age is different from previous ages because, even supposing that any one Distraction still has an average DT, the Internet and social media content make N high and RT low.
Virtually anyone born in ~1985 onward falls prey to this principle. Without understanding this, managers will never understand why Millennials procrastinate or struggle to be productive when working from home.
If you are managing a Millennial: Your Millennial’s grit isn’t enough. They are slaves to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, dating apps, and content that their friends share with them, in addition to the physical distractions present in the remainder of their lives outside the Internet. They were raised in a world that provides them new, curated content all the time. The Social Dilemma on Netflix is a recent documentary that covers this. Your Millennial probably isn’t allergic to doing work: They do have goals for themselves. Instead of spelling out the consequences before them (the laziest way on your end to bring up, but not solve in any way, the productivity problem), help them achieve those goals by suggesting ways they could overcome those distractions. That’s all you need to do. Then watch them go.
If you are a Millennial (or born after 1985): A Distraction can be either (1) one served to you or (2) one you specifically sought yourself. For (1), removing the Distraction Source entirely, no matter its potential relevance to your interests, will make it easier to focus without having to tire yourself out from resisting it. If you watch a lot of YouTube videos (me), installing Chrome Extensions or deleting the app from your phone can cut off the Distraction Source so that its Distractions don’t reach you. Get the number of Distraction Sources low enough, and you will break the Cycle. For (2), it’s easy to succumb to google the random thing you wanted to learn more about before you start your work, so instead, start your work and commit to finishing only a tiny task. Visualizing the four, six, or eight hours of work you need to get done is daunting, but it is much easier to commit to completing the 10 minute task. Static friction is greater than rolling friction, so once you’ve started on that task, you will find yourself more easily gaining momentum for bigger tasks. Start tiny, and magically the hours will fly by. Just like a Distraction. Additionally, accountability partners give you someone to report to, akin to a manager that cannot fire you.
Distraction Management is a difficult topic, beyond the scope of this post, which only strives to clarify and to bring attention to the core problem of Distraction Cycling.
In his celebrated essay Here Is New York, E. B. White writes, “…creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.”
So of course I kept this short—I have to get back to work.