Mastering Focus and Stress for Leaders and Executives: How to Utilize Mental Compartmentalization
Authored by: Dirk Vander Noot
In today's fast-paced business environment, the ability to stay focused and manage stress is crucial for future leaders and executives. So how does a leader, who manages multiple ongoing priorities, do so effectively and stay sane at the same time? This was my question when I began speaking with John Schoen, the former Chief Financial Officer at PCTel. His answer: mental compartmentalization.
What is Mental Compartmentalization?
Mental compartmentalization is a cognitive defense mechanism that involves separating thoughts, emotions, or experiences from one another. For a business leader, it can be employed as a powerful strategy to divide tasks, emotions, and concerns into separate "compartments" or mental boxes in order to stay focused on the highest priority. When asked, John said that he did not learn this method but instead came to it naturally in his career as a coping mechanism for overwhelming “task/challenge traffic.” By mastering this technique, John enhanced his productivity, improved his decision-making, and maintained a healthy state of mind during stressful situations.
The process begins with prioritizing responsibilities, then leads into building them into compartments in our mind, and concludes with the constant practice of mindfulness.
Prioritization
To begin, we must prioritize our tasks effectively. John used the following process:
Evaluate the challenge for materiality (relevance and significance) and estimated resource effort, creating a priority score.
Put the tasks in order of priority score on a list.
Focus on one or a limited number of tasks at a time. The key is not thinking about the tasks not being worked on.
The last step is by far the most difficult and important. As this is a mental practice, we must build it into our regular thought patterns through constant mindfulness and practice. It is never easy to break old habits.
Building Mental Compartments: "Engaging the Mechanism"
Once our tasks have been prioritized, the hard part begins. We must build our ability to be hyper-focused on one task at a time and divide each into its own mental compartment. Each compartment must be protected and centered on its own goal.
Many, including myself, have used meditation as a practice to increase our ability to focus on one specific thought or object for a sustained period. John was inspired by the movie "For the Love of the Game." It's about a baseball pitcher who throws a perfect game. As he is about to throw every pitch, he tunes out everything around him (the crowd, the runners on base, etc.) and only concentrates on that one pitch. The protagonist says to himself, "Engage the Mechanism," and everything in his senses except the batter goes silent.
Constant Practice
Just as we complete tasks and new ones are added to our to-do list, the practice of mental compartmentalization must also become constant. For John, it took discipline to build his focused state of mind over time. Our ever-running to-do lists give us an excellent opportunity to learn as well. This can be applied not only to work tasks but also to our chores or life to-do lists. For John, this allowed him to shut off work when he got home and focus on his family. “Just as I focus on the prioritized tasks at work, I could shut it all out when not at work. It's the same mental compartmentalization, but when not at work the task with the highest priority score is life and family.”
What About Everything Else?
Mental compartmentalization can be compared to putting blinders on a horse. If we must focus on one goal at the expense of other timely efforts, others will be put aside. This means there are times that tasks did not get done, which John calls “casualties.” The important factor was that the casualties were always less impactful to the business than the main priority task. One way to limit casualties is to ensure important tasks are delegated to other team members. Another is to employ a tool like a timer. Just like when cooking a large meal where we must put a pot on a back burner to simmer and go work on something else, a timer is a great tool to remind us to come back to it before it is too late.
Conclusion
Mental compartmentalization is a crucial strategy used by successful leaders and executives to manage business demands effectively. By prioritizing tasks and creating distinct mental compartments, we can focus our attention on what matters most, ensuring critical tasks are accomplished efficiently. This approach involves constant practice and refinement. We can utilize methods like meditation and mindfulness techniques to maintain clear boundaries and reduce mental clutter. Through these methods, we can control stress, and maintain focus on priorities. We become better leaders by learning methods to navigate complex challenges with clarity and confidence.
Thank you John Schoen for collaborating with me on this article. Your experience, wisdom, and support has helped me to grow as a professional and as a leader.
