Attention

Jacob Colling
Sep 3, 2018 · 2 min read

A person’s ability to complete meaningful work is equivalent to their intensity of focus over time. Creating this intensity of focus is a skill that has to be developed. Knowledge workers’ jobs depend on this, but the need for focused attention is not limited to them. Any artist requires it to create. Any home improver requires it to build. Any person requires it to bond. Curating the ability to apply sustained attention will help anyone progress further in their projects. To do so, they must overcome internal roadblocks and external pressures.

Working memory limits human capacity for attention. According to Miller’s Law, named after the psychologist George Miller, humans can hold roughly 7 items in working memory at at time. Someone trying to remember a 5 digit phone number while performing a complex task while either perform poorly on the task or forget the number. The real problem is that most people are carrying around 5-digit numbers in their head without realizing it. They hold various commitments, plans, ideas, all in their head until they accomplish or forget about them. Unless processed in some way, these commitments are creating drag on one’s ability to apply attention.

Without training, one’s attention ability will be limited. No one would expect to run a marathon without copious amounts of training. Maintaining consistent intense focus requires that the skill be developed similarly. Training this focus, even if it is in completely unrelated areas, can improve overall attention. The benefits of competitive memory sports or meditation practice crossover. Each of these activities develops the ability to sustain attention.

In addition to the internal attention challenges, there is immense external pressure trying to attract consumer attention. The ability to access consumers at all times via their smartphones has shifted the arenas of industry; separate industries have become competitors and the attention economy has emerged. Tristan Harris, founder of the nonprofit Time Well Spent, describes this as an arms race for consumer attention. Companies hire behavioral scientists to better understand how to attract and direct consumer attention. Relentless testing and optimization of digital applications push updates that will draw the most eyeballs to the screen for the longest time. Every notification on a smartphone is an entry point to pull a consumer in. Each additional minute of consumer attention drives many companies’ bottom lines. If the ability to sustain focused attention is critical to someone’s success, they should handle smartphone applications with caution.

There is no magic pill to increase attention capacity. The easiest first step is to clear working memory by externalizing all commitments. The ancient calendar or to-do list, if kept up to date, handles this. The next step is to create systematic decisions to conserve cognitive energy. Installing the News Feed Eradicator Chrome extension will easily and permanently remove a consumer’s Facebook newsfeed, blocking one source of attention drain. Removing distracting smartphone applications can have similar systematic benefits. The most difficult and time-consuming is to develop sustained attention practice. Focusing on something for 25 minutes without distraction will, over time, curate the ability and produce great work.

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