Attention - Reclaiming Your Secret Weapon
Are you feeling stuck, unable to become the person you envisioned? We often create stories to explain why we’re not achieving our goals and accomplishing daily tasks. Yet, the real cause of our perceived failures might surprise you - this is a crisis of attention. In my experience working with individuals from all walks of life, I’ve discovered that understanding and managing attention is key to overcoming life’s hurdles.
Let’s briefly define the terms. ‘Attention’ refers to your awareness in the present moment, . ‘Focus’ is the intensity of thought you’re investing into that contemplation. So before you open the next self-help book or venture into another master class on motivation, I invite you to introspect on where your attention goes on a daily, weekly basis. I’m not suggesting a casual glance either, but a thorough investigation of every waking hour. Ask yourself these questions along the way: What has my attention and for how long? Why does it have my attention? How much energy am I investing in these areas? What is the opportunity cost of focusing on these areas?
Let’s contextualize this with some disturbing stats from 2022. The average teenager in the United States spent roughly 7.5 hours a day on their phone. Average that time over 365 days, and you’ve got 114 days spent on the phone! Consider social media: the average teen spends about 2 hours a day on these platforms, equivalent to an entire month of the year! Imagine the possibilities if those 30 days were spent in pursuit of something productive? This is why awareness of your attention is so critically important.
This isn’t just an issue for teens either. The average working adult in the United States spends over 2 hours a day on social media platforms. Again, that’s over 30 days per year. Unfortunately, the issue isn’t just social media. What else are you giving attention to that doesn’t yield some type of result towards a goal? What about Netflix, TV and movies? How about all the time you spend thinking about what you saw on social media? How about the anxiety you feel when you see someone else achieving their dreams on Instagram? How do you get out of this vicious cycle?
First, gain awareness of your attention, then commit to retaking it. This is your life we’re talking about. Attention is inextricably linked to time. When you give your attention and time to something that doesn’t give anything back in return, you’re giving away the most important resource you have, for nothing. And make no mistake, your attention is making the big tech companies incredibly rich. In 2022 alone, the big 5 tech companies combined for over a trillion dollars of revenue! It’s time to take back this resource and use it for yourself. So once you’re aware of the issue, how do you change your behavior?
It starts with cleaning up your environment, both physically and mentally. When you understand how automated behaviors work (like checking your phone constantly), you can learn to break those behaviors and start implementing the new habits you want. Our habits follow a very simple 4 step (cognitive) process; cue, craving, result, reward. Let’s examine the phone for a moment, the “cue” is the notification. Our phones buzz, shake, ding, dong, ring and flash all to gain our attention. That’s the cue. The “craving” is our insatiable curiosity to know why it’s notifying us. The “result” is picking up the phone to figure it out. And the “reward” is identifying the source and content of the notification. All 4 of these steps play to our neurochemistry by releasing chemicals like dopamine and norepinephrine, the pleasure chemicals in our brain. And when something feels good, we keep on doing it. The #1 principle in behavior is “what is rewarded is repeated, and what is punished is avoided”. So we keep on going, day after day, week after week. So do whatever you can do break this habit loop before it starts. Turn off phone notifications, leave your phone in another room while working, do not take your phone to bed with you and delete social media apps. This is the low hanging fruit, there are infinite ways to eliminate these behavioral cues before they happen in the first place. Deep dive into this subject and master the art of behavior change and habit formation.
This isn’t merely a cognitive issue either. If you’re serious about regaining your attention you’ll need to tidy up your physical environment as well. For example, are your surroundings - home, office, car, etc. - inducing stress and anxiety? These ‘brain drains’ as I call them, can hinder productivity because we’re so behind on basic life maintenance. Does your house need cleaning or your car need an oil change? The list can seem endless. The solution, however, is doing the work. Commit to conquering these areas one at time, and streamlining your physical environment. Yes, this takes work. But the benefits are twofold; a clutter free physical environment and the positive emotion of task accomplishment. This newfound space and energy can then be harnessed to engage in tasks that truly contribute to achieving your goals.
As you continue streamlining your environment, always ask this question: Does this item serve me, or am I serving it? By reclaiming your attention, you reclaim your time, and ultimately, your life. By committing to this skill of awareness you’ll take steps toward becoming the person you set out to be, one moment at a time.
