How chat destroys your focus

Chat undermines your ability to communicate. Here’s what you can do about it.

While chat serves as an effective way to communicate quickly, it’s a poor way to communicate as a business. 

Chat never replaced email, despite all promises to the contrary. It’s now another place that your team members have to check to stay on the same page. 

But unlike email, most people communicate on chat in real time, one line at a time. If you’re not paying attention all the time, you won’t be able to contribute when something comes up. 

The result? Your team members keep a chat window open all day on the side of their screen. They keep one eye on the chat window and the other on their work. 

The chat window becomes a black hole for their attention, with their FOMO and heightened sense of urgency pulling them in with every ping. And what’s worse, the lasting effect of context shifting robs them of uninterrupted stretches of time to concentrate on the work they’re supposed to be doing. 

That says nothing about the reality that having a meaningful discussion one line at a time, with nu…