Time Confetti: How Our Attention Gets Shredded.

Time Confetti: How Our Attention Gets Shredded and How to Reclaim It.

Adam Grant describes time confetti as “taking meaningful moments of our lives and shredding them into increasingly tiny, useless pieces”  It’s a concept which perfectly captures the modern predicament with an ever-increasing demands on our time.

It has recently been estimated that on average we check email 74 times a day and switch tasks every 10 minutes.  Even if we aren’t fanatical email checkers, think how many times you have a quick look at messages or social media.

According to scientists at the University of California

“when people are interrupted, it typically takes 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to their work, and most people will do two intervening tasks before going back to their original project.”

In fact by switching between tasks rather than just finishing one and moving on to the next you could be reducing your productivity by as much as 40 percent.

This digital fragmentation of our attention doesn’t just reduce productivity, it fundamentally changes our experience of time and diminishes our capacity for deep work, meaningful connection, and genuine rest.

Why Time Confetti Is So Harmful

1. Cognitive Load: Each switch between tasks requires mental resources to reorient ourselves.
2. Attention Residue: Thoughts from previous tasks linger, contaminating our focus on current ones.
3. Shallow Work: We spend more time juggling tasks than engaging deeply with any of them.
4. Stress Amplification: The constant pressure to respond and multitask increases anxiety.
5. False Productivity: We feel busy but accomplish less meaningful work.

Solutions to Reclaim Your Time and Attention

1. Time Blocking

• Dedicate specific blocks of time to single tasks or categories of work. Protect these blocks fiercely.
• Schedule 90-120 minute “deep work” sessions when your energy is highest
• Group similar activities together (e.g., “communication hour” for emails and calls)
• Add buffer time between blocks to accommodate transitions

2. Digital Boundaries

•  Turn off all non-essential notifications
• Designate specific times for email/message checking (e.g., 10am, 2pm, 5pm)
•  Establish tech-free periods, especially before bedtime

3. Environmental Design

• Create physical spaces dedicated to specific activities
• Use visual cues that signal “focus time” to colleagues (headphones, signs, etc.)
• Keep your phone in another room during deep work sessions
• Remove tempting distractions from your workspace

4. Improve our attention

• Practice meditation to strengthen your “attention muscle”
• Use the Pomodoro Technique (25-minute focused work periods followed by 5-minute breaks)
• Develop transition rituals between tasks to help your brain context-switch more effectively
• Keep a distraction log to identify your personal patterns

Remember that reclaiming your attention is an ongoing practice rather than a one-time fix. Start with small changes that feel manageable, observe their impact, and gradually build a more intentional relationship with your time and attention.

The ultimate goal isn’t just productivity, it’s creating space for the deep thinking, meaningful connections, and restorative downtime that make life rich and fulfilling. By transforming time confetti back into substantial blocks, we can reclaim not just our productivity, but our experience of time itself.

Photo by Rikku Sama on Unsplash