A lack of mature and sustainable workflow practices could be impacting our abilities to work in productive, focused and energising manners, says this productivity expert.

“All this wellbeing stuff is killing me.”

Productivity expert and author Daniel Sih recalls a participant at one of his digital wellbeing workshops making this remark. It piqued his interest.

“I asked him what he meant, and he said, ‘In the past, we just had to focus on hitting our KPIs, earning a living, and meeting our obligations. Now, I also have to eat chia seeds, do breathing exercises and take cold showers.'”

Employers need to be careful not to overload employees with additional responsibilities under the guise of self-care, says Sih, who is the founder and CEO of Spacemakers.

“There’s an exhaustion that comes from self-help when we’re just adding more and more responsibility onto people to care for their wellbeing. The problem is often deeper than that, and there’s a bit of an ‘anti-wellbeing’ pushback happening right now.”

Instead of focusing on superficial fixes, organisations must rethink workflow design.

“One of the main reasons employees struggle with wellbeing isn’t a lack of mindfulness routines – it’s that they can’t do concentrated, focused work in the office anymore. Workplaces have become so distracting that people are forced to blend work into their personal lives just to get things done.”

Shifting away from notification-based work

Sih identifies email as a major culprit.

“Email has all the qualities of a digital tool that fosters dopamine dependence. The average knowledge worker checks an email or message every six minutes, despite needing at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted focus to enter a deep work state. 

“We now have a workforce struggling with constant interruptions and feeling busy without achieving high-quality work.”

The rise of instant messaging tools further compounds the issue. 

“[Microsoft] Teams is a perfect app for a brain that doesn’t know how to focus. It operates on notifications, variable rewards and social cues – reinforcing the same fragmented attention conditions that social media cultivates.”

Sih argues that our reliance on instant, reactive communication has reshaped the way we work. 

“Many employees tell me they can’t even watch a full movie without checking their phone. If they can’t focus outside of work, how can we expect them to focus within it?”

Redesigning work for deep focus

A recurring theme in Sih’s work is the sense of guilt employees feel when disconnecting from digital tools.

“Many employees tell me they can’t even watch a full movie without checking their phone. If they can’t focus outside of work, how can we expect them to focus within it?” – Daniel Sih, founding CEO, Spacemakers

“The number one word that comes up when I talk about deep work and disconnecting is guilt. People feel guilty for closing down their email to write a report that the CEO wants.

“They’re not feeling guilty about taking long coffee breaks – they’re feeling guilty for doing their core job. We’ve conditioned employees to measure productivity by how quickly they respond to messages rather than by the quality of their work. As a result, they’d rather answer emails all day and then catch up on deep work in their personal time.”

Australia’s Right to Disconnect legislation has established boundaries around communication outside of work hours, but Sih believes organisations need similar moments of disconnection within working hours.

“Most employees say they feel guilty if they don’t check their [internal] messages immediately. They’re constantly switching between meetings and messages, unable to plan their work, forcing them to either work under stress.”

To address this, organisations need to rethink workflow design. Open offices, instant messaging tools and notification-based workflows have normalised constant availability, says Sih. Without structured rules around focus time, sustained concentration becomes nearly impossible.

One practical solution Sih offers is the creation of a ‘Communication Playbook’ – a set of agreed-upon principles that outline when and how employees should use digital tools. 

For example, your playbook might look like:

• Email: Used for formal company updates and external communications.
• Project management platforms: Used for status updates and task details.
• Internal messaging tools (Teams, Slack, etc.): Used for social conversation and quick, non-urgent communication.

A team-based approach to sustainable work

Ultimately, addressing this challenge requires a team-based approach rather than placing the burden on individuals.

“I don’t think we can solve the issue of focus unless we take a team approach. Digital tools are so integrated into our workflows that individuals struggle to disconnect on their own. We need collective strategies that normalise focus time.

“For example, at [one organisation I worked with], every single person at head office has a time block from 9:00 to 11:00 on Tuesdays and 2:00 to 4:00 on Thursdays, with leaders working from home on Wednesdays to focus on strategic activities. 

“These pre-scheduled, organisation-wide deep work periods ensure everyone has protected time to concentrate on meaningful tasks.”

Another strategy is implementing visual cues that indicate when someone is in deep work mode. Digital status updates are common, but bringing these signals into the physical workspace can reinforce focus-friendly norms, such as lights that sit on employees’ desks or monitors which can be turned red when they are in deep-work mode.

Focus and prioritisation will become super skills

Looking ahead, Sih believes AI will reshape the nature of knowledge work, making deep focus and task prioritisation critical skills to cultivate.

“Research suggests that AI will eliminate many low-value knowledge work tasks – the kind of work that involves pushing emails, attending endless meetings and responding to messages all day. 

“The jobs that remain highly valued will be those that require deep concentration, creativity and strategic thinking. Organisations need to be structured in a way that allows employees to develop these skills.”

To create truly sustainable work practices, businesses must move beyond surface-level wellbeing initiatives and address the core issues undermining productivity. The future of knowledge work will belong to those who can focus – and it’s up to leaders to design workplaces that support that ability.