Pay attention to what has your attention

What most needs your attention is usually what most has your attention. But, if you don’t pay attention to what has your attention, it grabs much more of your attention than it deserves.

This is according to David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done, whose ‘Getting Things Done’(GTD) method helps people focus on doing the things they really want to do, without worrying about all the things they haven’t done.

“The accumulated amount of mental, psychic, and emotional energy that will be expended on whatever the thought is, over any length of time; will be far greater than would be necessary to deal with the situation that triggered it.”

He notes, “Identifying what’s on your mind is the first step of getting control.”

Some may think that making a to-do list is all this refers to. In a way, it is true. But, Allen says what most people put on those kinds of lists are only a fraction of what they should to really gain maximum control and perspective.

“If anything is still on your mind, in the sense of holding your attention hostage, you can still improve your clarity and focus by paying appropriate attention to it,” he says.

“Things are on your mind because you are consciously putting your focus on them or because your attention is being grabbed, in which case your thinking is being pulled toward something that in some way needs your engagement. It is something that needs greater control or perspective to release its hold on your psyche.”[Adsense_Wide]

Many important things are not on your mind because they don’t need to be – they are on “cruise control.” What this says about the affairs that are grabbing your attention is that there’s something about them that has not been captured, clarified, decided, or handled sufficiently.

“These items are on your mind, because they must still be managed appropriately to bring grist to the mill for winning at your game.”

Commenting on what it takes to truly release the hold of potential distractions on your mind, “don’t consider them distractions, but rather handle them as a ringing phone – a call coming from a situation,” says Allen.

“If it goes unanswered, it will continue to call. If you, however, pick it up, and then deal with the incoming message sufficiently, it doesn’t need to call again. But, if you don’t pick up the line for the less-than-critical things, the circuit will stay busy and not allow the rest of your inputs to have adequate space.”
All of this is to affirm the somewhat counterintuitive notion that, in one respect, everything is equally important. That is, everything that grabs your attention.

Allen says “If what you need is full access to your focus, anytime and all the time, to be able to manage your life and work; then whatever diminishes that capability should be eliminated. Ignoring it is an option, but not a good one. If it will go away in time, put it away now. If it won’t, get it into a trusted system.”

Whether they are large or small, the process of dealing with these blips is identical. But if you don’t accept what’s there to begin with, you undermine your effectiveness.

Allen says the unique power of these principles can only be accessed to their fullest when they are applied across all aspects of your life. This means, you will be prevented from moving into captain-and-commander-mode whenever you don’t pay attention to what has your attention.

“It doesn’t mean that all the things hooking your focus are equal in substance and potential meaning; hardly. It means that you must responsibly unload and identify all of them in order to be able to address substance and meaning most effectively.”

For example, if in a staff meeting you are attempting to inspire your team with the new vision and mission statement of the company, but everyone in the room knows that a third of them are getting laid off next week, that unacknowledged elephant in the room will put such a cloud over the meeting not only making your attempt at motivation ineffective, you will also lose major equity in terms of trust and leadership.

The same applies, when you attempt to set priorities for yourself and subliminally know that there are at least 43 impinging things that you have not yet tracked and managed. You’ll resist the whole process and feel even guiltier before you starting.

If you’re not sure of where to start, “start with what is,” recommends Allen. “Get it on the table.”

Allen says as a consultant, counsellor or coach, he has been in countless situations where he didn’t have the foggiest idea of what he should or could do to assist a client or team.

Over the years he has learned that, without fail, one technique always yanks victory from the jaws of defeat. He just asks, in some form appropriate to the situation, “OK, so what’s true right now?”

This explains why Allen’s GTD model is consistently successful. As opposed to putting forward an idealised starting point of where you “should” start, Allen suggests that you begin with where you are.

When asked to capture what’s on their minds, Allen says very few people start off with, “Fulfil my destiny on the planet.” Most start with something like “Fix the printer” or “Get a baby-sitter for the weekend.”

If your destiny, or your strategic vision, or your ideal outcome for your mom’s elder-care situation is the first thing on your mind, “grab it,” says Allen.

If it’s not, and you really want to effectively identify and incorporate those higher-horizon commitments, you must start with what’s taking up the space in front of them.

More often than not, this includes the 22 e-mails you’ve been avoiding, the baby-sitter you need to arrange to look after your kids tomorrow night, and buying cat food.

“If you don’t deal with these effectively, they undermine your recognition of the bigger stuff, or at least diminish your ability to focus on them clearly.”