3 Ways to Focus Your Attention
May 8th, 2007 (9:46am) Mike Gunderloy 10 Comments
As a web worker, you’re probably used to living in a world of continuous information flow, with many things competing for your attention. Probably you even fall into one of the “elite tech users” groups from the recent Pew Internet & American Life Project report, which found that 73% of us don’t feel overloaded by information. But even if you’re not overloaded, you still need to deal with one of the big questions of trying to keep up with too many things at once: how do you make sure that you’re not going to miss anything important? Here are three suggestions to help you pick out the things that you need to focus on.
1. Set up “virtual flappers.” In Gulliver’s Travels, a flapper was a servant whose job it was the whack the nobles of Laputa over the head with a stick when there was something going on that they should pay attention to. In our brave new digital world, it’s easy to automate this function, if you can come up with keywords that capture your interests. Go over to Google News and do a search on your chosen keyword. Subscribe to the RSS or Atom feed of the resulting page. Do the same with Google Blog Search. (There are other services offering similar functionality, but I find this combination covers everything for me.) Now you’ll get pinged in your feed reader whenever someone is talking about your subject of choice. The key to making this work is to spend some time seriously tuning your search terms, so you catch what you need without getting overwhelmed by noise.
2. Rely on other eyes. Whether or not you buy into the whole “wisdom of crowds” idea, it’s only reasonable that having more people watch for something increases your chance of spotting it. We’ve written before about the usefulness of Twitter for spotting trends and news. Similarly, if you take the time to build up a del.icio.us network, you can benefit from the surfing and bookmarking habits of trusted friends. To effectively use social networking to help your attention, though, you must be selective: following the front page of Digg might be amusing, but it’s unlikely to bring you the news you need to do your job. Anecdotally, the best networks for swapping and tracking useful information seem to be somewhere in the 50 to 100 people range.
3. Train your brain. We’re all born with one, but it’s petty clear that the grey matter behind our eyes doesn’t work the same for everybody. A recent study suggests that meditation training can help you pay attention better and not miss important details, even when you’re not meditating. Similar effects have been reported for yoga. For those with a more Western bent, you can look into free memory training (there are a variety of commercial programs in this area as well). And don’t neglect the obvious: getting enough sleep and eating regular meals will help keep you functioning well enough that you don’t miss things.
What techniques do you use to make sure that you don’t miss the important pebbles in the ever-flowing stream?
10 Comments Post your own comment
David Finch says: May 8th, 2007 2:31pm
I think relying on other eyes can be a key. If I am connected to the right people I don’t have to read every blog or receive every news feed. Being connected enables me to hear the things I need to hear not to mention save me time to do the things I want to do.
Great information!
Links for 09-May-2007 « The Blog That Should Not Be says: May 9th, 2007 6:02am
[...] 3 Ways to Focus Your Attention - Web Worker Daily [...]
em says: May 9th, 2007 7:13am
Dear Mike,
I appreciate your insight on this topic. There are a few suggestions I will need to set-up as soon as I have time.
I am very surprised at the 73% who say they do NOT feel over-loaded by information, but I guess that really depends on people’s personal predilections as well as their jobs. Neither may lead them into the vast reservoir of Knowledge at their fingertips, just like in previous times, not huge numbers of people read for non-fiction pleasure or watched anything other than asinine TV.
I think the power of personal habit — getting enough sleep, proper nutrition etc, cannot be emphasized enough — but that, of course, is because I have spent lots of time plumbing the depths of Knowledge, focusing my attention on the Health arena.
Thanks for ideas that will help me get-the-word-out.
Best to all — Em
PS
Please visit me at my blog http://diabetesdietdialogue.wordpress.com
“Everyone knows someone who needs this information!”(TM)
Use it for Prevention or to Share it.
Drainedge Link Tank · Today’s Links says: May 9th, 2007 8:28am
[...] 3 Ways to Focus Your Attention - Web Worker Daily [...]
Mike says: May 9th, 2007 10:55am
I think many more people ARE overwhelmed with information than the study suggests, but simply don’t recognize it as such. That explains the numbers. A lot of people have a terrible time with productivity and procrastination, for example. They don’t make the connection between those problems and the vast amount of information they spend time taking in, trying to sort out and make sense of. We are saturated in information, of which only a tiny percentage is of any real value to most of us. It’s a problem, and will continue to be, until we can compartmentalize our particular interests and needs; and find better ways to screen content - and our time - to be productive without feeling whatever-it-is-you-want-to-call-it that leaves so many people feeling drained.
Mike says: May 9th, 2007 10:57am
I just realized the author of the article is also ‘Mike’……the comment I left above is NOT the author of the Web Worker article. Sorry for any confusion.
recruiter says: May 9th, 2007 12:51pm
Too many damned tubes = too much flow. We need to go back to getting information from the dump trucks - they can drop a load off, we can sift through it, and call for another delivery when we’re ready… ;)
3 Ways To Focused Attention « WeirdGuy says: May 9th, 2007 2:11pm
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Parag Shah says: May 10th, 2007 3:11am
I absolutely agree, there is way too much information to deal with.
One approach to handle all this information, could be a graded approach to information that is of varying priorities. Out of the time we dedicate for keeping up with information, we can spend 70% of the time keeping up with those things that are immediately important to us, 20% on those things that may be important in the near future, and 10% on things that are on the distant horizon.
–
Regards
Parag
imgriff.com » Blog Archiv » Informiert ohne Überflutung says: May 15th, 2007 8:52am
[...] hätte das gedacht? Laut WebWorkerDaily kam bei der letzten Pew Internet Studie heraus, dass 73% der Befragten sich NICHT von Informationen [...]