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Avoid Attention Traps – Make it a Priority to Give your Undivided Attention

Distractions Eat Up Time    

On average people use up 5-15 hours a week having their attention pulled away by inconsequential irrelevant, distractions that use up a lot of brain bandwidth and physical energy.  Valuable work hours slip away and you only scratch the surface of being productive.  Those can be demoralizing hours because you know you let distractions drag your attention away from what is most important.  However when you are more consciously aware of attention traps you can employ strategies to limit or eliminate them, so you can use energies more meaningfully and productively.

Do you know how to give things that matter your undivided attention?

Time is not the Problem

In working smart, time is not the problem.  Allowing your attention and energy to be directed to distractions – even small ones – is the culprit. 

To be in control of your energies and be productive, pay attention what consumes your attention.  Beyond the confines of your working hours,learning how to give something your undivided attention allows you to be fully present with other people, gives you quality time for self-care, quiet moments for insight or recharging your brain – basically providing more balance in your life.  Your ability to focus intensely on one thing at a time proves to have a more direct advantage in your efficiency, productivity, and overall well-being. 

True Value of Undivided Attention

Many distractions or interruptions simply do not matter.  There are a few reasons you may be easily distracted or interrupted by inconsequential things:

  • You may not understand the true value of undivided attention and therefore do not prioritize protecting it.  
     
  • You may have not set boundaries to block out uninterrupted time for yourself to achieve what you set out to do.
  • You may not prioritize giving time to another person. Besides being good manners and respectful, think of your attention as true participation.  It is your authentic gift to your significant other, your colleagues, your boss, staff or clients.
  • You may not distinguish what is urgent or time-sensitive from what is important and aligned with your values and priorities.   Important tasks may not have a deadline, but they do have an impact that leads to you achieving your goals.  

The key is to be selective to give your full  attention to what is important to you – make it your undivided attention.   Lose the stress by frequently asking yourself, “What is my attentional focus right now?” Asking yourself where your attentional focus is can help bring your mind back to the present.  Not only will it have an impact on your important work, it will help you when engaging with people. 

Today, when not many people are described as being able to give their undivided attention, think of it as setting a good example, or this could be your competitive advantage. 

Types of Distractions and Interruptions

Many kinds of distractions or interruptions can claim your attention and squander time.  Distractions can be sensory or emotional.

  • Sensory distractions are distinct and immediate. When you do not work in a focus-friendly environment movement, noises or people can interrupt your flow.  Self-distractions are also sensory – including your brain’s enticing novelty bias and need for instant gratification.  When you are leashed to your technology – inbox, social media, TV, app alerts, etc. – your dopamine system salivates for what’s next and interrupts your flow and productivity.

  • Unless you are consciously aware, emotional distractions also consume your time and energy.  One type of emotional distraction is your internal dialogue.  Consciously or sub-consciously, that little voice in your head comments on life and what is going on around you, or what you are thinking.  It is reflecting on past events, predicting the future, panicking under pressure, regurgitating things over and over.  It runs all the time.  When your mind veers off in its own direction, it can be difficult to guide it back to where you want to focus unless you pay attention to it and have the skill to manipulate it.  Though a distraction, I can be an sign of fatigue, signaling time for a relaxation break.

  • Another emotional distraction is what we call imprecise distractions which are a bit more challenging to explain.  You may have placed a value on some things you thought you might wish to accomplish over time.  In all likelihood, in speculating or day-dreaming, you did not take the time to clearly define how definitively important these things are to you.  Due to your indecision they tend to pop in and out of your mind, and entice you to give them attention, indiscriminately and at inopportune times.   Until you decide that a thing is a high priority and deserves your attention, these imprecise distractions are attention traps that derail your focus, time and energy from the most important things in your life.   

Self-Perpetuating Cycle in the Reactive Zone

When was the last ime you blocked out uninterrupted time for yourself to give your full attention to the priorities in your life?  

Are you reacting and giving your immediate attention to activities that are associated with someone else's goals.

Frequently responding to the various distractions puts you in a reactive frame of mind.  At work you are at the mercy of switch-tasking, responding to distractions, internal temptations to procrastinate, or putting out fires.  Some individuals like this reactive state because every time urgency presents itself they get to put out a fire, and feel a rush of adrenaline; they enjoy the ego gratification if responding to the needs of others and being the hero of the day.  The reactive zone is not necessarily all bad because you do need to respond to customer or employee demands.  The reactive zone is comprised of activities that may be important or time sensitive, and you may care about them, but this is the most stressful zone because you operate from fire to fire or deadline to deadline, and in between you may let irrelevant distractions pull you in a different direction. This leaves little time for strategic thinking and deep work.  You may be trapped in a self-perpetuating cycle that is counterproductive to achieving work goals.

That behavior doesn’t always stop when you leave work.  Many people stay trapped in a reactive zone because they lack control over their surroundings. When you seem constantly occupied from the moment you awake until you’re crashing for the night, you may be in a reactive zone that leaves you little or no meaningful personal time.  You cannot thrive in the reactive zone.  

This reactive zone takes a toll on your brain, too.  In this state your brain does not have the time it requires to recharge. Unfortunately, you can overtax your brain whether you engage in deep work or trivial activities.  When your brain is overworked, you can linger even longer in pointless activities that seem signficant or entertaining, but do not add value,  and at the same time they keep draining  your brain and body of its critical energy resources.   One thing that is key to breaking out of the reactive zone is to engage in frequent periods of proper rest and relaxation as well as adequate sleep.

Misuse of Time in Distractions which are Just Temporary Escapes

People see relaxation as the end goal rather than essential to work-life balance or cognitive function.  We've all heard the adages:  Do your homework and then you can play.  Work hard, retire and you can relax.  For many people, a satisfying restorative activity won't suffice for relaxation; it has to be so incredible or blissful in comparison to the tedious or exasperating things they do at work or to take care of their responsibilities.  

How do you relax? Do you view it as a weekly reward or do you engage daily relaxation activities?   Are you truly relaxing or are you choosing a temporary escape?  Maybe you’ve been  online  or zoned into video games for so long that you have no idea what to do to truly relax when you are not in  escape mode.

In a healthy life-work balance and to achieve a satisfying life, relaxation is not an weekly excursion or biannual escape to the mountains.  It is not an option.  It is an essential piece of the puzzle that should be designed into your daily routine.  It is one of the key tools you can use to have power over the distractions that steal your energy and rob you of high quality truly satisfying leisure. 

You simply cannot be productive 24/7.   That can lead to burn out which sneaks up on you. You need to relax and you deserve to relax, but it is not a justification for compulsive, addictive behaviours.   Unfortunately with today's technology it is so easy to choose a distractive temporary escape rather than relaxtion.   Both make you feel good.  However, there is a vast difference. 

  • Temporary escapes give you a fleeting feeling which end up being detrimental to your well-being.  

  • Genuinely relaxing activites are experiences you will  savour for a lifetime and will improve the quality of your life.    

Relaxation is not the same as numbing yourself with instant gratification habitual activities that trigger the feel-good hormone dopamine such as shopping, social media, video games, or eating cookies while binge-watching video streams.   None of these things are inherently bad things on their own, but when used as an escape they can turn into real issues.   Think about how you feel?  

  • When you engage in escape-type activities do they give you you temporary pleasure but only for a short while.  Rather than make you feel alive and rejuvenated, do these kind of distractions actually make you feel worse in the end?  

  • Compare that to other types of relaxing activities, such as having lunch with a friend, playing a game, or pursuing a hobby.  Do you feel restored, less tired, less anxious, and feel that you have improved the quality of your life?   

To Function at your Best  Build Focus into your Day

To eliminate distractive behaviours and function at your best incorporate these four things into your daily routine:

  1. It is so easy to squanter time when you have not clearly defined what takes priority at work. Lose the stress by pushing pause on your technology and stop letting other things or people decide where your attention goes.   Planning and preparation should be one of your priorities.  The key is to be selective and decide ahead of time what will get your undivided attention and then execute.

  2. Get into the habit of frequently asking yourself, “What is my attentional focus right now?” Asking yourself where your attentional focus is can help bring your mind back to the present.  Not only will it have an impact on your important work, it will help you when engaging with people.  If you need a reminder and establish this as a good habit, set a timer to alert you every hour.  When the timer goes off ask the question.  

  3. Studies show your self-control and energy are intricately linked.  Determine your most productive hours of the day and give important work your undivided attention in that time.  Throughout your day you need frequent one minute or five minutes pauses for proper rest or relaxation activities  that provide you with restorative pleasure and energize you.  Rest and relaxation activities are the natural remedy for good brain health and cognitive function which strengthen's your ability to focus which  is the key to making good decisions about how you spend your time which is what working smart is all about. .  They also good for boosting your spirit and helping you functioning at your best. 

  4. Daily, you should also engage in quality leisure time in which you pursue activities that give you joy.  The satisfaction you get from making "me time" a priority gives your life much more meaning than you get from seeking temporary self-gratification escapes. 


In reality, if you had the financial means to retire you would soon find that doing nothing on the beach is actually boring after a while. You would most certainly choose to spent your energy on other interesting projects or activities.  

  1. When you daydream of retirement what grabs your attention?  

  2. What is it that truly fascinates you?  

  3. What leisure activities give you the most joy? 

  4. What activities improve the quality of your life?

Once you can answer those 4 questions, it is to those things that you should be devoting your time and energy.  Whatever work or leisure activities improves the quality of your life should be a priority and received your undivided attention today and everyday.  


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