7 Things That Deplete Your Attention

Your time, energy, and attention are precious resources, but it is your attention that allows you to optimize your use of your time and energy.

 Why Is Attention So Important?

Do you ever feel like a butterfly with your attention flitting from one thing to another, rarely able to settle for long? If you do, you are not alone, many people suffer from poor attention, and it can be very problematic. Focusing your attention allows you to process information more efficiently and effectively and to filter out distractions and irrelevant information. By learning to focus your attention, you can improve performance in all areas of your life: your health, your mental state, your career, your relationships, your finances, how you spend your free time, and your ability to enjoy life.

7 Things That Deplete Your Attention

1. Poor brain health: Tiredness, blood sugar fluctuations, dehydration, lack of physical exercise, drug or alcohol use, and untreated health problems affect global brain function and have a severe impact on attention. Attention naturally declines as we age, but it is possible to improve it at any age. If your brain is unhealthy symptoms may include brain fog, decreased motivation and poor memory and attention
2. Stress, anxiety, and worry: High levels of stress, anxiety or worry can make it difficult to concentrate and focus on tasks. Stress hijacks your mind diverting attention towards the negative, and it makes you more likely to engage in self-sabotaging thinking. Your brain becomes hypervigilant (on the lookout for danger) and struggles to focus on anything else. In addition, your mind may construct future threats and imagine worst-case scenarios.

3. Distractions: Surrounding noise, notifications, and other distractions can make it difficult to focus on a task. Our brains are to be distractible. Our cavepeople ancestors needed to be constantly alert to opportunities and threats: a new food source or a new predator in the vicinity. Today these distractions are usually not life-changing, but our brain reacts as if they were. The ping of an incoming message momentarily diverts your attention, and it may be hard to get it back on track.
4. Multitasking: Attempting to do multiple tasks simultaneously can divide your attention and decrease your productivity. Rather than focusing on multiple things, you are shifting attention multiple times and reducing the chance of getting into a flow state with any task. 
5. Low mood, which can lead to low energy and motivation, causes reduced attention. It also impacts your ability to hold a thought in your mind and process it (working memory).  
6. Your physical environment: Poor lighting, an unpleasant smell, or an uncomfortable chair can all compete for your attention and pull it away from what you want to focus on.
7. Technology overuse can deplete your attention by rewarding instant gratification. The slight but relevant dopamine boost from a LIKE on Facebook or doing well on a game of Candy Crush can make it hard to get excited about paying attention to a mundane task at work or home.

Depleted attention can have a significant impact on your life. The good news is that if you can discover what your attention’s kryptonite is, you can take action to reduce it. 

Ask yourself the following questions “how would I rate my attention”, “what’s depleting my attention?” and “what can I do to improve it?”