Attention Management: What It Is, How to Use It
As a leader, teaching your people how to manage attention is essential.
As a manager, specialist, technician, or employee, learning how to manage your attention has everything to do with your professional success and job satisfaction.
That’s because attention – not time – is your most precious resource. (For more context, read about attention management vs. time management on my blog.)
To show you what I mean, here's what I'll cover today:
1. What is Attention Management? (Definition)
First, let’s understand attention. The human brain is wired to explore and master challenges, and to do that, it has the capacity for what is called deep work – sustained, uninterrupted time when you and your thoughts are totally immersed in the plans and work that go into tackling, resolving, or completing a challenge productively.
This higher level of attention is an incredible human asset that results in achievement, innovation, breakthroughs, competitive advantages, efficiencies, advances, and solutions of all kinds. The human power to focus one’s attention this way has given the world its DaVincis, Einsteins, Curies, Teslas, Hawkings, and so many more. And it’s in each of us, too.
So, what do we mean by managing attention? Here’s the Focuswise definition: Attention management is the practice of creating the space, time, and discipline needed to undertake deeply thoughtful work, as well as the capacity to protect that process from being interrupted.
Despite attention being an amazingly valuable resource and essential for the success of high-value projects, companies put very little effort toward attention management training at work.
Neither do they teach people how to protect themselves from interruptions and distractions that threaten the quality and completion of that work.
Indeed, many offices still seat people in noisy common areas where quiet concentration is virtually impossible. Then, they wonder why so many employees prefer to work at home.
If you’re thinking, “That’s not logical and it needs to get fixed,” you’re correct.
2. Managing Attention at Work
You might think that if you aren’t in control of the many requests and demands that others place on you, you have no hope of managing your attention. Let me assure you that’s not the case. In fact, mastering control of your attention comes with a big payoff that makes the effort worthwhile.
Attention is Finite
Every day, you get a certain amount of attention to spend before it’s depleted or frayed and requires a full night’s sleep to replenish itself. So please, disavow yourself of the notion that you have an endless supply available whenever you want to draw on it.
Spending your best energy on emails every morning is like impulse buying or binge eating — addictive, and not particularly helpful to your future.
This is why, if you’ve saved time at the end of the day for a big project (“when it’s quiet and I can really focus on it”), it turns out you can’t give it the same quality of focus you envisioned for it that morning.
Instead, you struggle to get into the zone, and never quite make it. You start working on your project, but then find your attention has slipped sideways, and suddenly you’re shopping for an umbrella on Amazon. So, you decide to get something to eat and then start again. It works a little – for instance, you might tinker with the project’s opening paragraph for ten minutes – but in reality, your head’s no longer in the game and progress, if any, is slow. The “wait until it’s quiet” plan has failed, and not for the first time.
What’s gone wrong? Attention is finite, and it diminishes with each use in our day. So, if you’ve taken your fresh daily supply of mental attention and spent it absorbing or responding to 100 messages, you’ve used most of your mental power before reaching your top project. And you’ve been tempted to take this path because email is, well, addictive.
This is not unlike buying impulsively from a TV shopping channel only to realize there’s not enough left for the rent, or binge eating a bag of cookies and discovering you’re too full to consume a salad.
So, be mindful that the fractured use of attention can cause similar damage to your workplace and professional wellbeing (and please stop this behavior while you can).
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3. Getting Maximum Return from Attention Management Strategies
If you want a better work life and stronger on-the-job performance, flip what you give attention to and start the morning with your most important project – the one that makes a difference to your team and your career. Block interruptions during your highest energy hours – for most people, that’s usually two or three hours between about 8 and noon – so that you can focus on Job One.
As managing attention this way becomes habitual, you’ll find you can routinely contribute more and more important work, and build a great reputation for it. Just a couple of hours of uninterrupted time every morning can move you out of the “where did my day go” club and into “top performer” ranks, where the rewards are respect, compensation, and promotability. And all of this can happen while still leaving plenty of time to handle the lesser tasks that come every day with every job.
There are other benefits:
Managing attention strengthens your mind’s ability distinguish between what matters most and what doesn’t – an ability that fractured attention diminishes.
Completing the high-priority project to which you’ve given your attention is tremendously satisfying and can add enjoyment and fulfillment to your job.
Your boss will take you more seriously.
By matching high-priority projects with high-energy times, and lesser tasks with lower-energy periods, you’ll often find you’re less mentally exhausted at the end of the day.
Your confidence as a performer will grow.
It’s likely that most days, you’ll be able to end your work on time.
4. Attention Zones
To make focused attention work, you have to protect your periods of deep work, because even small interruptions can derail your efforts. If you’re fortunate enough to have an admin assistant or a door that locks, enlist them to keep others away.
If you work in an office environment:
Close yourself in a private room or office. Put a note on the door that says, “Do not disturb before 11 AM.”
If that’s not possible, wear noise-canceling headphones, move to a cubicle or corner of the office with the least possibility of eye contact, turn your back to the room, and put that same do-not-disturb note on the back of your chair. Make it clear that interruptions must happen later.
If none of that is possible, try arranging to work from home, a co-working space, or a library for two hours before arriving at the office.
Set your Microsoft Teams, Gmail, or Slack tools to “do not disturb,” and then close every window on your computer that doesn’t relate directly to the project at hand.
Turn off your phone and put it in a drawer.
If someone interrupts you, cut them off with, “Can I get back to you after 11? I really have to focus on this other thing now.” Then shut the door or turn back to your work.
If you work at home, it’s easier to protect your attention zone:
When living/working alone, turn off whatever noisemakers you have in your home – notifications on your smart devices, TV, robotic floor cleaner, etc.
When living with others, make sure they know your quiet hours. Move to a room where you can shut the door, or set yourself up in the farthest end of your apartment. If you occupy a building that has a business office or roof terrace for use by residents, try working there.
If you’re responsible for a pet, make sure it has been fed or walked before you enter your attention zone so they won’t interrupt you once you’re on a roll.
Protect Your Zone
When someone suggests meeting at a time that conflicts with your attention zone, instead of simply declining the meeting invite, offer alternative times, preferably in the lower-energy afternoon.
When your attention zone time is up, be quick to give your attention to anything that might catch fire, such as an urgent email from your boss or your biggest customer, even if your reply is, “I’ve seen your note and I’ll answer it shortly.” By showing that you’re alert to their needs immediately after time in your attention zone, they’ll be less likely to interrupt you in the future.
Occasionally, you might find that you’re energized to work on your top priority “right now” – which just happens to be 10 PM. As long as it doesn’t become a sleep-depriving habit, take it as a sign that your brain has embraced today’s priority, and go with the flow. However, don’t work so late that you have no energy the following day.
By creating a routine time and habitat for your attention, you signal your brain that it’s entering the deep-work zone, and it will respond productively.
5. Wrapping Up
Attention management has a bigger impact on your performance, career, and job satisfaction than anything else because it focuses on what matters most. Learn to manage your attention successfully by setting aside two high-energy hours each day to work intensively on your most important project, keeping distractions at bay during that time.
By creating a physical “attention zone,” you’ll train others not to interrupt your do-not-disturb status and signal your brain that it’s time for deep work. In the end, the habit of managing your attention – arguably your most valuable resource, particularly at work – will increase your value to your team and enhance your reputation within the company, while still leaving you plenty of time to handle the rest of your day.