Attention Pays

How to Drive Profitability, Productivity, and Accountability

Neen James

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781119480525
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Drive profitability, productivity, and accountability

To create extraordinary lives, we must learn to "unplug" from the constant barrage of disruptions and "plug in" to the tools, strategies, and mindsets that allow us to harness our attention to reach our highest potential—and this book shows you how.

Attention Pays spotlights on the power of attention and absolute focus. Personally: WHO we pay attention to. Professionally: WHAT we pay attention to. And Globally: HOW we pay attention in the world—and to the world. In an on-demand, 24/7 society, where distractions cost millions of people productivity, profitability, relationships and peace, it's time to pay attention to what matters most.

• Includes powerful tips and tricks increase profitability

• Shows you how to achieve maximum accountability and results

• Provides strategies to help you productively manage daily tasks

• Offers guidance on improving your daily attention and focus

If you're ready drive profitably, increase productivity and boost accountability, it's time to tune out the noise, focus on what really matters and learn how Attention Pays.

PART ONE
Does Your Attention Pay?

CHAPTER 1
Our Attention‐Deficit Society

Have you ever heard someone say, “I have ADD today”?

ADD (attention‐deficit disorder) has become a catchphrase for laziness, often used as an excuse for procrastination, lack of productivity, being easily distracted, not paying attention, and not completing tasks. People seem to wear it like a badge of honor, which is odd if you think about it.

ADD and ADHD (attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder) are true disorders that require medical treatment. They are physiological, biochemical disorders that make it hard for a person to stay focused and pay attention, thus limiting their ability to perform to their full potential.

When I say that we have become an attention‐deficit society, I don't say it lightly. One of my family members was diagnosed with ADD in 1992, and I have seen the impacts of this firsthand. But I use this phrase intentionally to drive the point home that there is an epidemic of inattention in our world—a widespread, serious condition that has real consequences. Consider the following:

• Nine people die every day and 1,153 people are injured because of distracted driving. These are not just nameless, faceless people. These are partners, mothers, fathers, children, siblings, and friends. Possibly yours.
• The death count of pedestrians in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is steadily rising due to distracted walking. They have a light rail system, and people are so absorbed with their cell phones they don't even see a train coming at them!
• According to a study by the Information Overload Group, $588 billion is lost every year in U.S. businesses alone because of interruptions.
• In a study of 2,000 respondents, Think Money found a total of 759 hours (that's 31 days!) in lost time every year due to distractions.
• Since the year 1900, about 477 different species have become extinct because of our inattention to our environment and the destruction of natural habitats.
• The Global Nonrenewable Natural Resource Scarcity Assessment found that 23 of the 26 (88%) nonrenewable natural resources it analyzed will likely experience permanent global supply shortfalls by the year 2030.

Our inattention has real, often lasting, and sometimes devastating consequences. We think we are paying attention, but we aren't. We are allowing other people, devices, and circumstances to control our attention.

Those with true ADD don't have a choice in how well they pay attention. The rest of us do. We don't have ADD; we have IBC—inattention by choice. We have control of our brains, our thought processes, and our habits. Stop thinking that you have no power over your inattention and lack of productivity. Nothing could be further from the truth.

So, how did we get here? How did we become an attention‐deficit society?

It's not because we're not smart or because we don't care, but because so many other things are competing for our attention, both online and offline. The causes of the attention‐deficit society are both internal and external forces. Our fast paced, device‐dependent, hyperconnected world is speeding up, not slowing down. We have so many distractions and decisions, we can't focus in the moment for a minute.

Let's take a closer look at each of these internal and external factors.

INTERNAL FACTORS

Our internal world is a significant factor in our struggle to pay attention. Our beliefs, our feelings, our health, and even our generation play a role in how well we pay attention.

The Great Multitasking Myth

In our modern world, the number of things that demand our attention has dramatically increased. We are being pulled in so many different directions and being asked to produce better results faster and with fewer resources. Our solution has been to multitask or manic‐task, as I call it. I've been guilty of this—frantically switching between screens, paper, calls, and to‐do lists in an attempt to get it all done.

For years, we've been told that multitasking was the way to be more efficient and productive. Too bad it's not true. The reality is we are multitasking more yet achieving less. We are busy, but not productive. We still feel like we can't get it all done. Don't you feel that? And it's stressful, right?

The idea that multitasking will help us get more done is a myth. As a result of numerous studies and neuroscience research, we now know that the brain is incapable of performing multiple tasks simultaneously (yes, including talking and texting). Rather than multitasking, the brain is rapidly shifting from one task to another. And each time the brain switches tasks, it has to go through a start‐stop‐start process. Some estimates suggest that productivity goes down by as much as 40% to 50% when we task switch. Other studies have found that because this task switching increases the cognitive load on our brains, it also increases the chances of making mistakes and missing important information and cues, as well as hinders problem solving and creativity.

In his book Free, Chris Anderson, founder of TED Talks and editor‐in‐chief of Wired magazine, asked the reader, “Does multitasking just slice the same attention more finely?”

The answer is yes. We are splitting our attention in many different directions, giving a piece of our attention here, a piece there, and another piece over there. As a result, nothing is getting our true attention and everything is getting short‐changed. We need to replace our manic‐tasking with single‐tasking or sane‐tasking, as I call it—staying sane while focusing our attention on the important conversation, proposal, or project at hand until it is completed.

Which do you do more of—manic‐tasking or sane‐tasking?

The “Over Trilogy”—Overwhelmed, Overstressed, and Overtired

I imagine you are a high achiever. You want more, you hustle, you want to be at the top, have the best team, achieve the president's award, or get a fantastic rating on your annual performance review. You want it all. Many of us do. But that leads to a dangerous condition that I call the “Over Trilogy”—the fact that too many of us are constantly overwhelmed, overstressed, and overtired.

We feel constantly overwhelmed as our responsibilities at work and at home continue to grow. We attempt to answer emails between meetings, eat on the run living on protein bars, create some structure for our teams, respond to the boss, and then look after our family. Our boss has expectations of us, our partners have different expectations, and then we have expectations of ourselves about what we can achieve. We want so much more in life, but we don't know where to begin.

If you are like most of the leaders I work with, you are more stressed than ever before. And you're not alone. A recent study conducted by the American Psychological Association found that average stress levels in the United States rose yet again from 4.9 to 5.1 on a 10‐point stress scale. In addition, 24% of adults reported being extremely stressed, compared to 18% a year earlier.

Chronic stress impairs our ability to shift our attention. A 2009 study of stressed‐out medical students found that stress affects the attention‐regulating area of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The study's author shared, “It's reassuring that this attention‐shifting deficit seems to go away after the stress is reduced, but such deficits are similar to what we see in some stress‐related psychiatric disorders.”

More than that, stress is a silent killer. We can't see it or touch it or smell it. But we can see the impacts of it. Chronic stress is linked to the six leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide), and more than 75% of all physician office visits are for stress‐related ailments and complaints.

Constantly feeling overwhelmed and overstressed leads to being overtired. Too many of us (yes, I'm guilty of it, too) are living an around‐the‐clock schedule, staying up too late or getting up too early in a futile effort to get it all done. Chronic lack of sleep impacts our mental alertness, productivity, attitude, and emotions. But it can also lead to serious medical conditions and shorten life expectancy.

Even if we make it into the bed at a reasonable hour, how often do we lie in bed tossing and turning, letting overwhelm and ove...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• About the Author
• Introduction
• PART ONE: Does Your Attention Pay?
• PART TWO: Personally—Be Thoughtful
• PART THREE: Professionally—Be Productive
• PART FOUR: Globally—Be Responsible
• Bonus Chapter: Build an Organization That Pays Attention
• Index
• End User License Agreement