What's the longest you've gone without checking email during the past month? How many times a day do you interrupt what you're doing to search Google, or update Facebook, or check stock prices, or buy something online, or skim the headlines?
We all know our attention is under siege. What we underestimate is our capacity to collect it, and the costs if we don't.
As any experienced meditator knows, the mind has a mind of its own. Left free to wander, that's just what it will do. When we manage the infinite demands on our attention by trying to juggle them all, we literally weaken our capacity for absorbed focus.
Not long ago, I found myself talking to a group of two dozen partners at an accounting firm about the demands of their workdays.
How many of you, I asked, check and answer emails while you're on conference calls? Nearly all of them raised their hands.
"Here's the thing," one of them said. "I don't need to hear every word. I get the gist."
By "gist" this partner meant the key points--the headlines. But when we settle for the gist - when we split our attention -- we lose access to nuance, subtlety, texture, complexity, detail, and ultimately, depth.
The same is true when we communicate mostly in texts and tweets, and get our news in discontinuous bits and bytes.
Consider these primary symptoms of the disorder known as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD):
Often has difficulty in sustaining attention in tasks
Often does not seem to listen when spoken to directly
Often has difficulty organizing tasks and activities
Often avoids, dislikes, or is reluctant to engage in tasks that require sustained mental effort
Is often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli
Do you know anyone who doesn't manifest some, even most of these traits? Lamenting the number of emails we receive each day has become a covert way of indicating how important we are, and how urgently busy.
But what is the cost?
Way back in 1971, Nobel Prize winner Herbert Simon saw the tsunami coming. "What information consumes is rather obvious," he wrote. "It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."
The consequence is that we're consuming less and less of more and more. We want a little of everything, but not too much of anything. But the ethic of more, bigger, faster generates value that is narrow, shallow and short-term.
Make no mistake: there's something seductive and even addictive about the instant gratification that tweeting and texting and all the other new technologies facilitate.
But there is also a profound difference between pleasure and satisfaction. We can derive pleasure without much effort - a martini or a cheeseburger can do the trick -- but pleasure doesn't last very long or run very deep.
Satisfaction requires a more significant investment of effort - often to the point of discomfort -- but the payoff is deeper and more enduring.
"To be busy and to be connected is to feel alive," the former Microsoft and Apple researcher Linda Stone has written. "But the consequence is we're over stimulated, over-wound, and unfulfilled."
Ironically, human beings aren't wired to pay attention for long periods of time. Whether it's musicians, athletes, chess players or writers, the best performers turn out to
practice no more than four hours a day - not least because it's so difficult and taxing.
Moreover, they practice in highly focused periods of time no longer than 90 minutes, with a break in between each session.
Performing at the highest level depends not on the ability to juggle multiple demands at the same time, but rather on the capacity to focus intensely for short periods of time, and then rest and rejuvenate.
Attention is like any muscle. It gets stronger by training it systematically. Here are three powerful attentional practices to get you started.
Set aside at least one designated time each week to
think creatively, reflectively, strategically or long term.
Take at least a half an hour in the evening to read something challenging and absorbing - an antidote to churning out emails, and racing between websites.
Do the most important thing first every morning, without interruptions, for at least 60 to 90 minutes. It's the ideal way to take charge of your agenda and get the most challenging work done, with the highest efficiency. That's exactly what I've just done this morning and it was immensely satisfying.
If you'd like to assess how you manage your energy across all dimensions, take The Energy Audit here.
Follow Tony Schwartz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonySchwartz
our minds can become like the internet if we aren't careful, full of so much stuff that it is almost impossible to filter out all the junk. Things like mindfulness, meditation or anything requiring sustained attention can be like a spam filter once we train ourselves. I also like your emphasis on doing one thing at a time well rather than dispersing our attention to a million different tasks. I emphasise a similar thing in my article on simplicity:
http://www.peacethroughmindfulness.com.au/how-to-practise-mindfulness/192
Any feedback welcome,
thanks,
Oli Doyle
Peace Through Mindfulness
I'm sure that we'lll need to strike some sort of a balance...time will tell. I hope for the sake of my children that they develop the capacity to enjoy watching the ripples from a pebble tossed into Walden Pond as much as they would skipping a rock into the stormy seas!
Thanks for your excellent article.
It's been a while since shows for preschoolers have appeared in my home, but I recall that the most effective ones (in terms of grabbing the child's attention) used a lot of repetition. How can you tell? Just ask any child who has watched those shows to share one of their favorite songs - not only will they sing, but you'll probably get choregraphy, too!
6:25 PM CST
Quote :
..."Quote :
"...Do you know anyone who doesn't manifest some, even most of these traits?..."
...You've just penned one of the best, most practical articles I've seen on Huff for some time. I would suggest a Part II that goes into how much the pharmaceutical industry has scammed both the lay public and the APA (American Psychiatric Association), chiefly responsible for putting together the DSM. Back in 1994 the DSM IV-R had multiple scam "new diagnosis" criteria that were primarily placed there by unchecked influences from the drug industry. This of course has been going on for decades, but never more so than in both the DSM IV and the DSM IV-R.
In my working days, any "type" ADHD, including "ADD", a so-called "subtype" disorder of "ADHD", was rarely given to adults; in fact, few psychiatrists recognize it as a legitimate disorder to label adult behavior.
Same can be said with "Sexual Addiction", the greatest, most inane of all the newest psychobabble scams.
Keep up the good work.
J.B.
6/2/10
Up until recently, ADHD was not being considered in adults because the general belief was that it was something that kids would grow out of. Since then, the medical community has gained new knowledge and updated their practices to reflect that new knowledge.
It was not so long ago that Cealiac was considered so rare that many doctors would not even test for it. When it was revealed that it was much more common, the number of correctly diagnosed cases exploded - not because it "just showed up," but because no one knew to look for it. There is no pill, no treatment for Caeliac, so it seems unlikely that everytime the medical community makes a discovery and diagnoses the cases they previously missed that "big pharma" is behind it.
6:25 PM CST
Quote :
..."I'm curious, where did you get your information"...
"...Since then, the medical community has gained new knowledge and updated their practices to reflect that new knowledge..."
"...so it seems unlikely that every time the medical community makes a discovery and diagnoses the cases they previously missed that "big pharma" is behind it."...
You need to research. Beyond "Google". Vague terms like "medical community" won't cut it. For example, "Alcoholism" (alcohol abuse) was struck down in the 80s by a landmark Supreme Court case as legitimate for a veteran claim for disability for reasons that "the 'medical community' was equally divided" on whether there was really such an animal as "addiction"...to anything !! (Not aware of updates; been out of the racket for some 20 years now)
I worked California's mental health delivery as a licensed practitioner (LPT) for 14 years; that's "where I get my 'information' "; from psychiatrists/clinicians, etc and much experience in both acute/chronic & so-called "chemical dependence".
...(continued)...
i think some type of course on this needs to be given in general...
how to not be a shallow learner 101?
Also while I believe that yes there are definitely negative sides to having so much information at our finger tips it could be put to good use. I learn so much online & by reading books that I would never learn in real life! But maybe it is because I do naturally like going into subjects in depth for a while & then never thinking about them again until I must apply my knowledge someway. If I'm not interested in looking at it in depth I will probably ignore the subject altogether. But I'm guessing by what I read in this article most people don't work that way...
Doing more, and accomplishing less - as good a theme for life in the 21st Century (so far) as we're likely to get.
Same idea.
Here's a very interesting (although deep) analysis of the way, a bad NASA Power-Point presentation contributed to the Columbia Space Shuttle Catastrophe: http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001yB
OHIO - It stands for "Only Handle It Once." It means that you should never put off doing something, thinking that you'll come back to it later - you never will. When you see something that needs to be done, you need to tackle it right then and there. Or else pass on it, resolving that you won't do it. Putting it off just means you'll have a lot of unresolved (or worse, forgotten) stuff nagging at you, growing into mountains from proverbial molehills.
If it's important, but you're already occupied on something else, try to get someone to hold on to it and bring it to your attention at a future time. Do not rely on yourself to remember to do these things. Either do them or discard them. OHIO.
The mind can't focus so one finds oneself always trying to keep it occupied. The internet is a great way to get that fix, as one can get lost for hours jumping from one topic to a new one as soon as they get bored (which is frequent).
The fact is, until the root of the cause is identified, it is difficult to address the issue and correct it.