3 Ways to Promote Focus in the Workplace

Laptop on a desk with a message on the screen, surrounded by a clock, plant, and post-it note.

Guest Author: Eliza Krigman, Founder of Tech With Intention

 

Finding focus at work in the age of digital distraction feels like mission impossible. Notifications and flashing lights fight for your attention from dawn till dusk. Desk workers now spend a whopping 57% of their day on communication (email and instant message) and only 43% on creation (documents and presentations), according to a Microsoft survey of 31,000 employees. 

As we bounce between inboxes, IMs and Zoom calls — trying in vain to keep up with it all — stress rises and performance drops. The solution? Incorporating strategic boundaries and breaks into our tech use. 

Software-blocking apps like Unpluq, which I promote to my clients and followers, are a powerful tool to achieve uninterrupted focus at the office. It’s one part of a broader strategy I recommend to create an environment that gives you enough headspace to do the work that lands you a promotion or gets the team moving the needle on business priorities. It’s a journey, one that includes taking these three steps.

 

1. Delay responses

Stop responding to messages the moment they arrive. Not everything is urgent — but many of us act like it is, thanks to what researchers at London Business School and Cornell University call Email Urgency Bias. Their study found that email receivers overestimate how quickly senders expect replies to non-urgent messages.

In our always-on culture, fast responses have become a proxy for top performance. Ironically, that mindset erodes focus, quality, and wellbeing. To counter this:

  • Turn off notifications.
  • Use status messages to set expectations with coworkers.
  • Create dedicated response windows instead of being “always available.”

2. Create a Smartphone Parking Lot

Designate a basket, tray, or drawer as a “parking lot” for your phone and personal electronics while you work — similar to how you’d use a dish for house keys. Keeping phones on desks or in pockets may seem harmless, but research from the University of Texas at Austin shows that even a turned-off smartphone reduces cognitive ability simply by being within reach.
If you need your phone for work calls, use a tool like Unpluq to block distracting apps while keeping essential functions available.


3. Declutter Your Digital Life 

Digital clutter is as draining as physical clutter. Start by:

  • Cleaning up your laptop and smartphone home screen.
  • Deleting unused apps and outdated files.
  • Organizing folders for quick access to what matters.

But start small—digital decluttering can feel overwhelming. The payoff, however, is significant: you’ll find what you need faster and feel better.

Consider this: when the first iPhone launched in 2007, it offered 4GB of storage. Today, the base model has 256GB—a staggering 6,300% increase. Yet our cognitive bandwidth hasn’t grown at all. We’ve expanded our virtual storage, but not our capacity to manage everything inside it.

Schedule time for digital decluttering. Try “habit stacking” by pairing it with an existing routine, like reviewing your calendar for the week ahead.

Focus isn’t a matter of willpower — it’s about designing an environment that reduces noise, limits decision fatigue, and protects your attention. Start small and don’t throw in the towel when things go wrong — which they will. Progress over perfection.