Goal directed behavior differentiates us humans from lower forms of sentient species. Not only do we rely on instincts and direct stimuli from the environment, we act with consciousness. To do so requires choice of what to do with your scarce resource attention. In other words, to be human is to economize your attention.
What is focus
Focus has a negative and a positive component. To focus your attention on something, at the same time, suppresses all other stimuli from being relevant. It is the allocation of limited processing capabilities in your brain to the object of your intent.
Why should I care?
To economize your attention has a plethora of benefits, HBR even calls it an important driver of excellence. Find your favorite aspect in the list below, or add it as a comment.
- Deliver More & Deliver Better
- Get into the flow state
- Remain Calm and Confident
- Increase Productivity and Efficiency
- Streamline Decision-Making
- Improve Relationships
- Find a suitable Work-Life Balance
- Procrastinate less
- Enhance your general cognitive abilities
How to economize your attention
My advice on how to economize your attention falls into two categories, reducing distraction, and increasing intention.
Reducing distractions
- avoid context switches, every action has its own place (library, café, park…)
- discourage disruptions with signals and incentives (answer disrupting questions with questions)
- Install an ad blocker like uBlock Origin (UBO)
- Remove GUI elements that distract with UBO’s right click option “Block element”
- Reduce your media consumption to high signal-to-noise outlets
- Hide newsfeeds and endless scrolling by adding natural breaking points
- Use a color / grayscale filter
Increasing intention
- Do one thing at the time, avoid multitasking
- Ask yourself why do you, what you are currently doing
- edit your background on digital devices to include the word WHY
- When you consume something, write down a short takeaway, to-do item, or further question
- Notice when your attention starts to shift
- Reduce the temptation of empty dopamine sources by adding friction
- Set yourself a goal and commit to it with the help of friends, family, or the public
- Desire is relative, reevaluate the baseline, reduce over-stimulation
- Plan, and make it visible (a physical calendar)
- Give yourself time to process information by doing nothing (walking, meditation, “touching grass”)
Conclusion
Economizing your attention brings a myriad of benefits. All of them improve your general life quality and have little to no downside. Why focus is hard is a product of your environment and trained behaviors. By reducing distractions and increasing intention, you can improve your focus. But doing so is costly and requires patience in practice. Set yourself a SMART goal and work towards it day by day. Increasing your focus is one of the best investments you can make and rewards you each day, every day.
