How to Overcome Digital Fatigue and Reclaim Your Focus
- Brainz Magazine
- Apr 29
- 6 min read
Written by Gilles Varette, Business Coach
30 years of experience in Leadership: NCO in a paratrooper regiment in his native France, leading a global virtual team for a Nasdaq-listed company, Board stewardship, Coaching, and Mentoring. Gilles, an EMCC-accredited coach, holds a Master’s in Business Practice and diplomas in Personal Development and Executive Coaching, as well as Mental Health and Well-being.
In a world where hyperconnectivity has become the norm, the line between productivity and exhaustion is increasingly blurred. I experienced it firsthand: feeling constantly “on,” distracted, and drained.
It wasn’t easy, but over time, I managed to reduce my phone’s screen time to just 15 minutes a day and in doing so, I rediscovered a sense of clarity, feeling fully engaged, and focus I thought I had lost.
This article explores the hidden cost of digital fatigue and offers practical strategies to help you reclaim your attention, protect your well-being, and lead by example in a tech-driven world.
Let’s rethink how we use our devices, not just to work better, but to live better.
You glance at your phone before you even stretch. Slack pings over breakfast. Emails pile up during your first coffee. By 10 a.m., you’re already behind and you haven’t even touched your real work.
We live in a world where being reachable is often mistaken for being responsible. Where unread notifications spark guilt, and silence feels suspicious. Connectivity has given us speed, access, and flexibility, but it’s also quietly exhausting us.
Research from the University of California, Irvine (2008) shows that workers switch tasks every 3 minutes and need over 20 minutes to refocus afterward.
Digital fatigue doesn’t always look like burnout. Sometimes, it looks like endless task-switching. Or blurry separation between work and rest. Or the subtle tension of never being truly “off.”
I’ve seen it in individuals who feel like they’re “on” 14 hours a day and still falling behind. I’ve seen it in teams that confuse urgency with importance, and in leaders who answer emails at midnight, not out of necessity, but out of habit.
This isn’t about blaming technology. It’s about rethinking our relationship with it, not just to be more productive, but to stay sane, present, and human.
Problem with hyperconnectivity
We’ve normalized a level of connectivity that, not long ago, would have been unthinkable.
Meetings bleed into messages, emails arrive faster than we can process them, and the blinking of notifications has become the background noise of our working lives. As Cal Newport outlines (2016) in Deep Work, constant connectivity fragments attention and prevents the deep focus necessary for meaningful work.
The result? We're always connected, but rarely fully present
Hyperconnectivity affects more than just performance. It fragments attention, disrupts our ability to think deeply, and creates a sense of urgency that rarely matches the importance of the task. We may pride ourselves on being responsive, but we’re paying for it with focus, creativity, and peace of mind.
When teams operate in a state of digital overload:
Time is spent reacting, not reflecting.
Communication becomes constant, but meaning gets diluted.
Decision-making suffers because we never slow down enough to process complexity.
And leaders aren’t immune. In fact, when leaders stay “always on,” they often set an unspoken expectation for everyone else to do the same, whether they intend to or not.
Left unchecked, this culture leads to burnout masked as engagement, stress disguised as dedication, and a loss of energy that slowly erodes performance.
Hyperconnectivity was meant to give us freedom. But when it goes unmanaged, it traps us in a cycle of busyness that leaves little room for purpose or attentiveness.
Steps to digital wellness
Digital well-being isn’t about rejecting technology. It’s about reclaiming agency in how we use it. In a world designed for distraction, we need to become more intentional, not just for our own focus and health, but for the collective energy of the teams and communities we’re part of. Even short, intentional breaks during the day have been shown to reduce cognitive fatigue and restore focus (Hunter & Wu, 2016)
Here are a few practices that can make a powerful difference:
Take tech breaks, without guilt
Short, deliberate pauses throughout the day help reset your nervous system and reduce cognitive fatigue. Even five minutes away from screens can create the space needed to breathe, reflect, or simply be.
Try this: Set a recurring reminder for a short walk, a few deep breaths by a window, or even just closing your eyes.
Audit your tools, not all tech deserves your time
Not all apps, channels, or notifications are created equal. When everything feels urgent, it’s harder to identify what truly matters. Practicing digital minimalism by auditing your tools can help align tech use with personal goals (Newport, 2019).
Try this:
Make a list of all the digital tools you use in a typical day: apps, platforms, and communication channels.
Rate each one: Does it genuinely support your focus and goals, or mostly distract and drain you?
Take one action: Delete one low-value app, mute a distracting channel, or consolidate notifications into specific windows.
Small shifts create space for deeper focus and remind you that you’re in charge of your tools, not the other way around.
Set (and respect) digital boundaries
Do you need to reply immediately? Does every meeting need to be on video? Are your evenings truly yours? Setting digital guidelines protects mental recovery and work-life balance (Derks et al., 2015).
Boundaries aren’t selfish; they’re a foundation for clarity, recovery, and sustainable performance. Try this:
Define one clear “off” window each day or week, no emails, no Slack, no notifications.
Communicate it openly with your team or manager, framing it as a focus and well-being strategy, not a withdrawal.
Setting limits creates breathing room for you and for the people around you. They normalize balance, not burnout.
Lead by example
If you’re in a leadership role, your behaviour sets the tone. A late-night email, even well-meaning, can unintentionally signal pressure. A tech-free team check-in can normalize true presence.
Leadership in a tech-driven age isn’t just about efficiency. It's about modelling permission to disconnect and valuing focus over busyness. Research shows that leaders’ own digital habits significantly influence their teams' expectations around availability (Mazmanian et al., 2013).
Try this:
Choose one healthy tech habit to model this month: no after-hours emails, fewer notifications during meetings, or a daily tech break and share why you’re doing it.
Small, visible choices from leaders can shift culture faster than any policy ever will.
Call to action: The digital wellness pledge
Technology is a tool, not a lifestyle. The way we use it should reflect not just our goals, but our values.
Imagine ending your workday with mental clarity, not exhaustion. Imagine meetings that spark creativity instead of draining your energy. Imagine feeling present with your work, your team, and your life.
That future starts with small choices, made consistently.
My digital wellness pledge
I commit to:
Creating regular, intentional tech-free moments in my day.
Being mindful of how and why I use digital tools.
Respecting my boundaries and those of others.
Modelling healthy digital practices in my team and personal life
Prioritizing engagement over performance
You can adapt this for your context or co-create a version with your team. Post it somewhere visible. Share it. Make it real.
Because when we reclaim our attention, we don’t just work better, we live better.
Ready to explore how digital wellness can transform your team or leadership practices?
I'd love to hear your story and discuss how we can create space for more focus, clarity, and sustainable performance together.
Feel free to book a call with me here or send me a message. Let’s connect.
Gilles Varette, Business Coach
30 years of experience in Leadership: NCO in a paratrooper regiment in his native France, leading a global virtual team for a Nasdaq-listed company, Board stewardship, Coaching, and Mentoring. Gilles, an EMCC-accredited coach, holds a Master’s in Business Practice and diplomas in Personal Development and Executive Coaching, as well as Mental Health and Well-being. He strongly believes that cultivating a Growth Mindset is the key to Personal Development and a natural safeguard against the expertise trap. He lives by this quote from Epictetus: “It is not what happens to you that matters, but how you react; when something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it.”
References:
Derks, D., Duin, D., Tims, M., Bakker, A. B. (2015). Smartphone use and work–home interference: The moderating role of social norms and employee work engagement. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 88(1), 155–177.
Hunter, E., Wu, C. (2015). Give Me a Better Break: Choosing Workday Break Activities to Maximize Resource Recovery. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2015. 16859-16859.10.5465/AMBPP.2013.16859abstract.
Mazmanian, M., Orlikowski, W. J., Yates, J. (2013). The autonomy paradox: The implications of mobile email devices for knowledge professionals. Organization Science, 24(5), 1337– 1357.
Mark, G., Gudith, D., Klocke, U. (2008). The cost of interrupted work: More speed and stress. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings. 107-110.10.1145/1357054.1357072.
Newport, C. (2016). Deep work: rules for focused success in a distracted world. London: Piatkus.
Newport, C. (2019). Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.
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