To understand how is focus a workplace challenge we need to start from the basics.

What is Focus?
Focus refers to the ability to concentrate on a specific task, thought, or activity while filtering out distractions. It is the sustained direction of mental energy toward a particular goal or objective.

Characteristics of Focus:
Deep, prolonged engagement with a task.
Goal-oriented and purposeful.
Involves filtering out irrelevant stimuli or thoughts.

And how is it different from attention?

What is Attention?
Attention is the brain’s capacity to notice and process sensory input, thoughts, or events. It acts as a mental spotlight, allowing you to become aware of certain stimuli in your environment or within your mind.

Characteristics of Attention:
Momentary and selective.
Can shift rapidly between multiple stimuli.
Acts as a prerequisite for focus.

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Let’s learn it through a story.

Let us call our hero,Mr A ,

now imagine him sitting at a desk with a huge screen, and several windows opened up ,and here you enter this person’s room ,Mr A offers you a seat and then as you begin to interact ,a phone rings interrupts your conversation, then before you could share your most important key point, you find Mr. A, is juggling between his phone, also looking at the screen as if he is following some instructions and then for good whole 15 minutes he is focused somewhere else.
This now breaks your focus and you feel annoyed and irritated by his behavior, as if he has no value for your time, you rise and leave the office and goes back to your desk, now at your desk as you try to focus to get back to your work, a ping notification from a messenger interrupts your chain of thoughts and since you are in a foul mood, you leave your focus from the key project you went to discuss with Mr.A and start to chat.

In this scenario within a span of 30 minutes we saw two individuals moving, shifting and transitioning between various attention levels – and how focus eventually was impacted, along with a dip in both the performance and productivity.

Multiple scenarios like this play out every day at almost all working spaces, adding fuel to the fire is the social media platforms that further eats up whatever little attention one is left with, leaving us totally exhausted with no F.O.C.U.S.

This interplay of attention and focus are key to both our productivity and performance

So, next time you find yourself struggling at workplace, pause to identify what is that which is receiving your 100% attention and focus.

That could be an event, individual or an issue.

remember it is also the same thing that could be the very reason of you going through a workplace challenge.

To learn more about ways you can stay focused click here

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© Mehnaz Amjad 2017-2025

Mehnaz Amjad | Coach
Hyderabad, India