Attention Management: An Essential Skill

Posted on August 20, 2021 by Tom Moore, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.

Traditional time management teaches us to plan our next day’s work the day before or start every workday by creating a prioritized list of things to do that day. But let’s face it, once you check your email and your boss stops by to dump the latest crisis on you, the excrement hits the rotary air oscillator, and the plan goes out the window. I think it was Mike Tyson that said, “Everyone has a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.”

So how do we get things done? More importantly, how do we get the right things done amid chaos. Time management gurus suggest we shut our office door to get essential tasks done, that is, if you’re fortunate to have a door or even an office. But with the internet, email, instant messaging, and social media, closing the door does not stop the onslaught of distractions. In this kind of work environment, it’s easy to get caught up in being reactive all day. To prevent being swept away, you must do two things: (1) Create clarity around your role in the context of your job and the organization. (2) Actively manage where you place your attention during the workday.

Create Clarity
When you are clear about the essential parts of your job and how they align with the organization’s goals, you gain clarity on priorities. Without such clarity, it is easy for everything to become important and urgent. As a result, you end up playing whack-a-mole every day.

As a professional coach, I find many of my clients have never taken the time to define and understand what they are actually responsible for and accountable. (There’s a difference between responsibility and accountability, but that’s a topic for a separate post.) When you are clear on your role, it’s much easier to filter out the noise and distractions pulling you away from real success.

I know it sounds cliche, but your job description is an excellent place to start in gaining clarity. If it is thoughtfully constructed, it probably outlines the results your organization is seeking from your position. That said, not accomplishing tasks because their not in your job description, most likely, will not put you in a good light, so be pragmatic. Your boss is another source for clarity. They may have expectations you should know. One final place to go for clarity is the folks of the receiving end of your actions. The results of your efforts, your output if you will, are necessary to someone. Find out who and speak with them about their requirements. The author and leadership Robin Sharma expert tells us, “Clarity precedes success.”

Attention Management
To understand attention management, you must be aware of where you place most of your attention. We can divide the “where” into four attention zones:
1. Intentional: Working intentionally and strategically on essential activities.
2. Responsive: Reactively responding to the work environment. Fire fighting.
3. Interrupted: This zone is closely related to zone 2 and entails handling situations that interrupt Intentional attention.
4. Unproductive: Wasting time, surfing the internet, checking Facebook, or just hanging out.

Take a second to reflect on your typical workday. Where do you put most of your attention? Closely related to where you place your attention is “how” you pay attention.

Focused Attention
Focused attention is what most people define as paying attention. It is the type of attention that concentrates on a single task and excludes everything else, e.g. while studying or working on a project. Unfortunately, focused attention is difficult to maintain as it takes significant effort and operates on a physiological level. Moreover, constant, concentrated attention makes people tired.

Sustained Attention
People use Sustained attention to focus on a task that takes time. It is also called the attention span, e.g., reading a report requires sustained attention. The brain uses sustained attention to process information and adapt to different situations. Problems with sustained attention occur when distractions (Zones 2 & 3) prevent you from completing the task at hand. Once interrupted, most people need at least 20 minutes to refocus and return to the task. There are three stages of sustained attention.
Three Stages:
1. Grab attention
2. Keep attention
3. End attention

Thus, to sustain attention, it is essential to remove distractions and occasionally refocus.

Selective Attention
Selective attention is paying attention to a single stimulus in a complex setting. Having a conversation in a crowded conference is an example of selective attention. It is not possible to pay attention to every stimulus surrounding you. The ability to filter out background noise and focus on one object or message is essential when consistently bombarded with information. The drawback to selective attention occurs when you disregard what is happening around you.
Selective attention can be manipulated. Marketing experts, for example, attempt to link their advertising messages to your interests. They do this with the hope of grabbing your selective attention.

Alternating Attention
Occasionally you need to perform two tasks that require different cognitive abilities at the same time. These situations require alternating attention, e.g., taking notes during a meeting. Alternating attention requires the flexibility to move between one task and another seamlessly. Alternating attention means that the work on each task is quick and accurate as the brain transitions.

Managing Your Attention
So what can you do to manage your attention? Of course, you can do many things to manage your attention better, like practicing mindfulness, controlling technology, taking attention breaks, and, yes, closing your door. But let’s look at some simple techniques you can adopt right now.

The first thing you can do is conduct an attention audit. Think of your attention as a resource—you have only so much of it to spend. So take a couple of days and record where and how you spend your attention, then check your observations with your role’s expectations. Are you overspending on unimportant tasks? Then, periodically conduct your audit—things change.

Another thing you can do is to identify when you do your best work. For example, you may be a morning person or need quiet time sans technology to be at your best. Leverage and schedule the conditions you need and use them to work on critical tasks. In other words, create a focus-friendly environment for doing your most important work and protect like a mother bear protects her cubs.

Next, stop multitasking the critical stuff. If you’ve not heard yet, multitasking is not a path to efficiency or effectiveness. Instead, it’s a path to half-assing your work. In his book Deep Work, author Cal Newport suggests work batching, for example, scheduling 30 minutes every two hours to review emails and forcing yourself to spend the entire 30 minutes doing just that instead of responding to individual email alerts.

Finally, don’t give up on time management. It’s a great tool and skill. However, it doesn’t matter if you’re checking things off your to-do list if it’s the wrong things. Both time management and attention management go hand-in-hand.

In the end, consistently practicing attention management makes for a better workday. You get more of the essential things accomplished with higher quality and less stress. All of which enable your success. And who doesn’t want to be successful?