Attention is the new currency. How to gain mastery over your time, life, and priorities

BY DANIEL COLE

One of the best movies I have watched in relation to time and life management is the science fiction movie, “In Time”, released in 2011, directed by Andrew Niccol. Imagine if when we were all born, there is a timer on our wrist counting down how much time we have left to live, and for every time we spend online or the content we consume, it would be deducted from the allotted time given to us at birth. If you critically think about it, that is what we are doing; the problem is, we can’t see the timer counting down, because, in reality, time is all we exchange for everything we get in life.

In the last 30 years, mankind has produced more information than in the previous 5,000 years. At the same time, attention spans are down to 8 seconds and falling. In a world of digital noise, as I love to call it, and distractions, where we are bombarded with information, useful and irrelevant, ads and notifications, are we a victim of broken focus?

Do you know that most apps, by default, are set to active notifications when installed unless manually deactivated; this is not a design error by developers; it is intentional. In 1971 Herbert A. Simon, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, Turing Award winning computer scientist, and pioneer in artificial intelligence (among other things), wrote:

“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: the attention of its recipients.”

Technology has changed everything: the way we work, how we interact, and our ability to pay attention to what truly needs it. Information and intentionally curated content by the media invade every aspect of our life, coming at us at light speed and challenging how we prioritize our focus. It appears that the last frontier of privacy is our mind; once you type it on Google search, the ad appears on your browser.

We are hyper-stimulated as a result of excessive content consumption, and consequently, we struggle to stay focused on what truly matters and is productive. Constant interruptions and distractions have become the enemy of our time. We feel overwhelmed, overstressed and overly tired even when we cannot really account for what meaningfully consumes our time. While we live ‘crazy busy’ lives, we struggle to accomplish anything of real value and purpose. Ultimately, our productivity, relationships, and ability to focus suffers because we are unable to truly pay attention to what matters most.

I do not intend to restate the problem you already know; the question we should be addressing is, where do we go from here? How can we regain our focus, prioritize our time on things that really matter and that truly count?

Rethink how much information you consume. Not all important information is useful, and even seemingly useful information must be consumed in “doses.” Someone once said to me, “If there’s a war in heaven, there’s nothing people on earth can do about it.” Meaning how much of the things we excessively consume or worry about are really that relevant or important to us. The mainstream media thrives on intentionally curating and pushing negative content. Have you noticed that most of the news headlines are dominated by the ills going on around the world? Why? Because psychologically, people are more drawn and pay attention to negative reports. In the long term, this usually takes its toll on our mental health; it is not a healthy way to live. Minimize your media consumption. You don’t need to be up to speed with every event or happening around the world.

Starve your distractions, feed your priorities. Have a goal in mind when consuming content online. Be careful of pop-up notifications and random newsletter sign-up requests, however seemingly helpful or important they are.