Since becoming a remote-worker (first due to Covid and now working for a remote company) I have struggled with focus during meetings. When working in an office I am very diligent about leaving my laptop at my desk and giving meetings my full focus. However, working from home makes that much harder.

As I sit at my desk with monitors surrounding me, it is really hard to not check Slack or email while in meetings. I say to myself in the moment: “Look how productive you are being Matt! You are doing 3 things at once”. But in reality, I end the meeting confused and my contributions and presence in those meetings are greatly diminished.

I have tried several techniques to regain my lost focus. Most recently, I have adopted a new program called HazeOver. This application is for Mac and it shades or blacks out all other windows on your computer besides the one with active focus. This means that when I am in a meeting all other screens/windows are blacked out and not begging for my attention. You can quickly enable and disable this mode with a keyboard shortcut.

When a meeting starts, I hit the keyboard shortcut and give the call my full attention. Early results have been promising and I have felt that I am more engaged and alert in the meetings.

But won’t you just turn it off?

As easy as you can turn it on, you can turn it off. But having that one extra step provides an extra moment to edit the impulse to multi-task. It is similar to when I have a box of cookies at home. If I leave that box on the kitchen counter I am much more likely to grab one when I walk by compared to when the box is in the cupboard. Even though I know the cookies are in the cupboard, the one extra step (opening the cupboard) provides enough time to catch the impulse and decide against it.

This one program is not a magic fix, but I find it a useful tool in my own personal journey to have better focus and productivity. Hopefully, if you face the same problem I do, it will help.