With an information overload, there are tons of things vying for your attention on a daily basis – from emails to social media to meetings to lunch requests and so on. Bingeing entire television shows, dozens of YouTube videos, or seemingly endless Facebook lives is commonly seen with all generations. People have no problem bingeing on Netflix but struggle to focus on the shortest of tasks.
In the corporate setting, I have noticed that attention span in the meetings have dropped dramatically. As a result there are repeat discussions over the same topic or ineffective decisions being made or meetings remain inconclusive. Attention even at home with the family members is divided with the TV, news, phone or social media.
According to a recent study captured in ‘The 2018 State of Attention Report’ by Prezi (participants included millennials, Gen X, Baby boomers), 52% say splitting their attention across two or more tasks has caused them to watch, read, or listen to something multiple times. A direct indicator of decreased productivity!
Here is the statistics about the impact of reduced attention span on millennials who are the generation dominating today’s workforce. It turns out that millennials who split their attention had greater struggles than older generations. More Millennial business professionals than Gen Xers or Boomers+ made an error in their work as a result of distraction in a meeting. 56% Millennials said they had to watch, read, or listen to something again. 45% Millennials reported issues retaining the material they consumed.
Attention is critical. Without the ability to narrow our focus, we can’t learn new things, retain information, or to do our jobs to the best of our ability. In order to stay focused, its important to filter the signals from the noise.
Decide early on in the day what you are going to pay attention to so you are not lured by the shiny objects that come up during the day. By doing so, you are freeing up your mental resources for the most important tasks you need to focus on during the day. Your brain does not have to make on-the-fly decisions because you have already decided what to work on. Read this post on how decisions can be made early on.
According to Daniel Goleman, author of the best-selling Emotional Intelligence, who I deeply admire and respect for his work on emotional and social intelligence, leadership, and education says our brain’s circuitry needs sustained efforts to create a stable trait of holding attention. It’s possible to stay focused on a specific goal or task through Cognitive control. The good news is cognitive control can be strengthened with daily practice. One of the techniques is mindfulness. The science based benefits of mindfulness are detailed in this article by Dan.
Clean up your working space to minimize the external distractions that are bidding for your attention.
Quoting Stuart Wilde, “Messy surroundings and an untidy life reflect a weakened metaphysical and psychological state. If you are powerful, you will dominate your life, you will find time to clean up and order things, and you will want to do that as a part of your personal discipline. Mess is the external manifestation of the ego’s disquiet and laziness.”
Notice what is grabbing your attention? The time to make the changes isn’t tomorrow; it’s now.
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