Hyperactive Hive Mind

Chocolate was provided - thanks Željko Hyperactive Hive Mind

Term coined by Carl Newport - books come highly recommended.

Problem

Company of a few hundred people - like to communicate. Could spend 8hrs reading email, slack, meetings, coffee machine talk. Volume of communication so big that 8hrs later, feels like nothing happened.
Overwhelmed with pseudo-productivity.
Is this a problem? (Most hands up)

Inbox zero
Use decline meeting button. No agenda, no attender.
Rule of two feet?
Calendar blocked out for focussed work. Mute notifications.
No-meeting Fridays, for example.
Focus on the area of business you affect. Everything else doesn't matter.
Only check slack, email at certain times of day.
Do Not Disturb flag on monitor.
Tick Tick (task tool)
Written agreement as rules of engagement (e.g check emails only twice a day. If urgent, call etc).
"If you're good enough at your job, you have autonomy" Carl Newport (applies to teenagers too)
Digital Minimalism: Social interaction takes over (slack, email, social) - avoid that. It kills focus.
Focus time - turn off all slack, email, text notifications. Anything serious: call.
90 minutes focus time. Followed by 5-15 minute break repeat up to 4 hours per day.
Recharge/shutdown at the end of the day.
It takes a conscious effort to avoid.
Time zone differences actually help (e.g 6 hour difference). Only 2 hours overlap for meetings/communication.
We perhaps have more power to arrange our working day than we think.

It is easy to fire off a quick question when it is not super important as instant messaging is so cheap - does this set a bad example? Should I stop it?
Inbox 0 creates more stress - 6 digit emails make it easier not to notice!
Are you looking to achieve local optimisation at the expense of global optimisation?

Correct the balance of team/department vs individual (push back) - personal optimisation are good for all (personal, team, organisation).

How can we solve the hyperactivity part without affecting the (very important) hivemind? For example, losing focus to help someone could save them 4 hours of time vs the 30 minutes lost focus in doing so - this could be beneficial.