The contemporary office is a minefield of mental bombardment—email alerts incessantly dinging, instant messages demanding immediate response, back-to-back meetings depleting focus, and water cooler banter punctuating every lull. Distractions lurk around every digital corner, making monotasking near impossible. This relentless onslaught of stimuli can quickly induce overstimulation. When deluged with excessive sensory input, the brain struggles with processing abilities, concentration wanes, productivity plummets, and overall performance declines.
How Prevalent Is Overstimulation at Work?
In our perpetually connected era, technology stands as a prime instigator of overstimulation. A staggering 80% of American workers report feeling stressed in their roles, with overstimulation from devices emerging as a significant culprit. According to the book “The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World,” the average person compulsively checks their smartphone over 150 times daily, subjecting them to a torrent of focus-fracturing interruptions that undermine productivity. The research cited paints a sobering picture—even brief interruptions of a mere 2.8 seconds can double error rates. One study outlined that participants attempted a task while receiving intermittent smartphone notifications; though irrelevant, these pings still created substantial performance disruptions.
For employees grappling with heightened overstimulation from digital devices, job satisfaction often takes a nosedive while burnout rates soar. Dissatisfied and depleted workers will disengage from their roles, posing a monumental economic threat. Recent Gallup reports estimate the global cost of employee disengagement at $8.8 trillion annually—a fiscal black hole fueled by the relentless onslaught of overstimulation plaguing today’s workforce.
How to Manage and Conquer Overstimulation
Emerging insights into neuroplasticity offer a beacon of hope, illuminating how cognitive training exercises can fortify our decision-making prowess and bolster overall well-being. The coaching realm provides a nurturing environment to hone these invaluable cognitive skills, many sessions are focused on “mindful presence” and reflective contemplation while simultaneously working on formal workplace skills. Through coaching, we can cultivate the mental fortitude to transcend the distractions creating overstimulation.
For most clients seeking coaching as a pathway to personal and organizational well-being, each session represents a moment for both coach and coachee to elevate their quality of presence — a core competency defined by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as a state of being “fully conscious” and attuned to the client. The coach’s fusion of presence with active listening becomes a demonstration, guiding the coachee toward heightened mindfulness.
As the coach poses intelligent, thought-provoking questions, the coachee’s mind begins to shift gears, entering a state of pause. This deliberately enables the coachee to redirect their attention inward. No longer driven by the frantic undercurrent of “fast thinking” that accompanies overstimulation, the coachee navigates with purposeful intentionality rather than reflexive habit. It’s a holistic approach that considers body, mind and emotions.
Workplace overstimulation looms as a foe to productivity, but coaching emerges as a powerful ally in this battle. You are no longer held hostage, and you reclaim control over your inner thoughts. Each coaching session chips away at the confines of overwhelm, liberating you to operate from a space of grounded presence. Ultimately, this improves productivity for an individual and value for a business.
Valeria Cardillo Piccolino, leadership and talent development advisor at CoachHub, is also an organizational Psychologist and PCC Executive Coach with 12+ years of experience in Leadership, Learning, and Talent Development. She is a member of the Innovation Lab at CoachHub, where she advises HR leaders of major Fortune 500 companies on building more inclusive, sustainable, and wellbeing-oriented organizational cultures.