Normally I can switch off from work. But the next few weeks will not be normal…

My brilliant, patient wife has a phrase for it, as she does most things:

“The launch look.”

The launch look is Bev’s description for the preoccupation in my eyes when I’m nearing the fruition of a big upcoming project.

Over my career I’ve launched or relaunched a lot of different businesses and brands. So she has seen it a lot.

I might be physically in the room but my imagination is far away. I’m trying to hold conversations but my attention drifts quickly and all of a sudden I’m thinking through the marketing plans, fretting over the fine details of the underpinning revenue model, rehearsing silently my presentation to clients and my pitch to customers. Wondering if I need to brief the team again on a specific aspect of their roles.

As a mindset, it’s as antisocial as scrolling through your phone at dinner. But while I’m well trained enough to leave my mobile elsewhere while we eat, my urge to hone and embellish plans in my head is too great to resist.

And I have the launch look again.

This time it’s a much more personal project. There is no in-house team to brief, and though there have been collaborators, this is all on my shoulders.

It’s my book. Next Gen CEO. And it’ll be published by Pan Macmillan on June 4th. *

“People interrupted while working can take more than 20 minutes to fully regain concentration, which helps explain why intense focus feels so valuable during a launch period”

There’s a fine line between productive focus and unhealthy tunnel vision. Psychologists call it “attentional narrowing”: when pressure and anticipation force the brain to prioritise one goal above everything else. In moderation, it can be incredibly useful. Research from the University of California found that people interrupted while working can take more than 20 minutes to fully regain concentration, which helps explain why intense focus often feels so valuable during a launch period.

There’s also evidence that the brain performs far worse when constantly switching between competing priorities. One study published in Cognitive Psychology found that multitasking can reduce productivity by as much as 40%, largely because the brain burns energy jumping between tasks rather than fully engaging with one.

Elite athletes describe something similar in the closing stages of competition. The blinkers come on because they have to.

But there’s another side to it too. The same intense focus that helps you build something can also make you slightly absent from the people around you. You become highly efficient at pursuing the mission while simultaneously becoming measurably worse company.

That’s probably why balance is less about switching ambition off and more about consciously stepping outside the project from time to time. The healthiest leaders I know can immerse themselves completely when required, but they also know when to come up for air.

Right now, though, I suspect I’m still in the final furlong. Blinkers on. Launch look fully engaged.

18 days to go.

Best, Mike