Edward M. Hallowell, Harvard Business Review Press, £17.99/£10.32 e-book
Beware the non-fiction franchise, always a sub-genre to be approached with trepidation (how many Mars and Venus spin-offs can relationship guru John Gray eke out?) Hallowell, however, is far from a bandwagon-jumper: though his bestseller Driven to Distraction was the book that made attention deficit disorder (ADD) a front-page issue, he has been interested in issues of focus in the workplace for 20 years.
Even so, his assertion that many employees present ADD-like symptoms will alarm. The US physician is quick to clarify: “Most of these people have a severe case of modern life” rather than a clinical condition. Driven to Distraction at Work is his antidote.
Electronic devices are the bogeyman in many of the cases outlined here. They cause us to lose neurological focus and facilitate fruitless, frenzied multitasking. Screen addictions should be treated like any other habit, says Hallowell, with the object of addiction replaced with human connection, mindfulness or a more focused approach to tasks. But our problems don’t stop there: we worry ourselves sick at work, “play the hero” by trying to solve everyone else’s issues and “drop the ball” by failing to diagnose genuine ADD in the office, allowing sufferers to meander through their careers, dismissed as unambitious or disorganised.
For each complaint, Hallowell has sensible advice, and infuses his narrative style with deep knowledge and medical rigour. Even so, the odd phrase from the self-help shelf will seriously jar and some will inevitably wonder how prevalent these conditions are outside the US. That would be short-sighted. Hallowell works, he says, “in the hope business”, and with almost every professional complaining the pressures of modern work life are in some way problematic, business is booming.