Anyone who has ever left the regimented schedule of a teaching or administration job (or any other kind of job) and launched their own business as an independent consultant knows how important attention is.
All of a sudden, you’re your own boss. You’re in charge of making your schedule. You decide what to spend your time working on. You decide how long to work on something and when to switch tasks. It’s wonderful!
Except when it isn’t.
Because most independent consultants learn pretty quickly that when they’re working from their own home office and they’re their own boss, focusing their attention and maintaining that focus intensely enough and for long enough to get productive work done can be a major challenge.
The state of attention is, in fact, so important to productivity that learning how to control the “flow” of attention might just be the most crucial aspect of your fledgling business’s success.
That’s right, more important than your expertise, more important than your presentation skills, more important than your publications. Because without good attention management skills, everything about your business becomes much harder and takes much longer.
I believe I’m not exaggerating at all when I say that attention management is the most important aspect of time management.
Unfortunately, you can’t just give yourself a pep talk whenever you feel your attention waning. Saying to yourself over and over again, “Focus! Pay attention!” is a low-yield tactic. If only it were that simple!
The truth is, the whole discussion of attention is a bit more complicated than most people realize.
In fact, neuroscientists often talk about three different types of attention or attentional “systems”:
- Arousal,
- Stimulus-driven attention, and
- focused attention.
It’s important that anyone who wants to be productive during her work time learns about how these three types of attention work and, even more importantly, how they interact.
In today’s blog post, we’ll dig into the first attentional system, arousal, and in following blog posts, we’ll look at the other two systems. By the end of this series of posts, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of how your attentional systems work and you’ll be armed with some actionable strategies for taking control of your work time.
Attention, Take One: Arousal
Alright, let’s talk arousal.
No, not that kind of arousal. Get your mind out of the gutter! : )
The kind of arousal we’re talking about here might be defined as our “baseline” level of attention, and it’s composed of our general levels of energy and wakefulness. It is non-selective, which means it’s not focused on anything in particular (unlike the other two types of attention that we’ll explore later), and it varies and fluctuates from hour to hour, sometimes even from minute to minute.
And one of a consultant’s most important jobs is to make sure that his general level of arousal is optimal for getting work done.
So, just what is an optimal level of arousal? Fortunately for us, this question has been extensively studied, and it has produced what is called the “Yerkes-Dodson law.” This “law” states that a medium level of arousal is best in general for productivity.
Too little arousal, and you get sleepy, lethargic, and bored, and in this state, you tend to commit errors of omission in your work—not paying attention to detail, missing important points, etc. You know, like when you suddenly realize you’ve run your eyes across two pages of text but not processed any of it.
Too much arousal, on the other hand, and you become edgy, over-anxious, and fidgety. When in an over-aroused state, you tend to commit errors of commission—acting impulsively without thinking of consequences, switching from one task to another before you’ve finished the first one, making careless errors in your work without double-checking, etc.
Looking at the graph above, you see the horizontal axis representing arousal (stress), with low arousal to the left and high arousal to the right. Performance (learning, productivity) is represented by the vertical axis—low performance at the bottom, high performance at the top.
Now, look at the line on the graph. This line represents the summarized findings of many studies on environment and performance over the past three or four decades. The line starts out at the bottom left, representing a low arousal state, and you can see that this state leads to low performance. On the far right, you can see that a high arousal state also results in low performance.
In between, you see the line rise to a peak in the middle before dropping down again, sketching an inverted “U” shape. This shows that at the mid-point (a moderate arousal state), we achieve higher performance levels.
This optimal, moderate-arousal state is what brain experts Geoffrey and Renate Caine call “relaxed alertness” in their book Making Connections: Teaching and the Human Brain (1994). They define relaxed alertness as “an optimal state of mind…[that] combines the moderate to high challenge that is built into intrinsic motivation with low threat and a pervasive sense of well-being” (p. 143). And isn’t that the perfect description of a great workday–feeling good and motivated to get your work done?
So, the obvious question is, “How often is your work environment in this ‘sweet spot’ of moderate arousal and relaxed alertness?” Unfortunately, if you’re like most people, probably not nearly often enough.
And the next obvious question is: “OK, so what do I do about it?”
Well, if you’re not in that maximum medium-arousal state, there are two possibilities: either your arousal level is too low (you’re feeling drowsy, lethargic, bored) or your arousal level is too high (you’re feeling scattered, amped up, jittery). As we’ve seen, either one is bad for performance, but the solutions to these two problems are diametrically opposed, so let’s look at each situation separately.
Low Arousal: Wake Up, Sleepy-Head!
If your problem is that you’re having trouble focusing because you’re just not mentally sharp enough, you need to do something to wake yourself up (raise your arousal level).
So, what strategies can you employ to raise the general level of arousal in your work environment? There are actually many ways to go about this, but for today I’m going to focus on my three big “go-to’s”: movement, music, and social interactions.
Movement
Nothing wakes the body and brain up as much as simply moving around, and there are many easy ways to use movement to get yourself going. “Movement” can be as simple as standing up briefly for a stretch/wake up break, or something more vigorous, like doing a few jumping jacks or squats or going for a quick “power walk” around the block.
Why is movement so engaging? Well, at the simplest level, since we tend to spend most of our office time sitting, movement represents a state change. The human mind is not well designed for long stretches of concentration on one thing (more on in a later post), so after a period of time, attention is going to wane.
So, one of the easiest ways to “reset” your attentional clock is to do some quick movement. However you choose to move, the simple fact that you got up, did something different, and then returned to your office chair will give you a new reservoir of attention to apply to the task at hand.
Plus, if the movement is vigorous enough to get your heart rate and respiration up, you will get the extra benefit of delivering a jolt of norepinephrine (adrenaline) to your brain. This combination of state change and alertness neurotransmitters is hard to beat for raising arousal.
Music
The right kind of music, used correctly, can definitely wake up your brain. When you play up-tempo music in the background, your heart rate and respiration actually speed up in an attempt to match the beat (this process is called “entrainment”). The result is a brain that’s more awake (aroused).
I truly believe that music, used properly, is the most powerful state-changer you have at your disposal. Someone who knows what she’s doing can, within minutes, wake herself up and simultaneously put herself in a better mood to work—simply by playing the right kind of music.
As mentioned above, up-tempo music works directly on your physiology by increasing heart rate and respiration, and this, in turn, increases overall alertness.
The key is to play music that is above your resting heart rate. Resting heart rate for most people falls somewhere in the 60-80 beats per minute (bps) range, so the music you play to raise your level of alertness needs to be at least above 80 bps, and to be on the safe side, I would go for music around 100 bpm.
How can you tell the beats per minute of a particular song? Well, you can listen to a minute of the song and tap your foot, counting the beats (or do it for thirty seconds and multiply by two). If it’s in the right range, add it to your “alertness playlist.”
Or, if you don’t want to fool with counting beats per minute, just ask yourself as you listen to it if it’s slow, medium, or fast. You want to find songs that fall between the medium and fast ranges.
One quick and very important caveat: do NOT play music with lyrics! The human voice is highly attention-getting (which, when you’re trying to work, is the same thing as saying “distracting”). So, your arousing music playlist must be instrumental music only, at around 100 beats per minute, played at a low volume in the background (if it’s much over 100 bpm, or if it’s too loud, it’s going to be distracting). You want music that energizes you but doesn’t call attention to itself so you can focus on your work.
When you find yourself sagging, put on your energizing playlist in the background and you’ll see that you’re better able to bring your attention to bear on the task at hand.
Social Interactions
In recent years, social media has taken the world by storm. You would have to have been hiding under a rock not to know that many people spend multiple hours per day on social media. Why? Because people crave social interaction, that’s why. Social interaction is engaging and (usually) pleasurable.
Now, in a classroom, a teacher can easily use the power of social interaction to raise the overall level of arousal. All he has to do is move students into groups and have them work on a task together and voila—instant engagement!
But how does this work when you’re working from home all by yourself and you need to raise your level of arousal so you can bring better focus to your work?
Easy. Take a quick break and interact with another human in some way—call someone on the phone, post something on social media or reply to someone else’s post, or send an e-mail. Even if you don’t get a reply, you’ve shifted your attention and made a (virtual) human connection, and that is often enough to raise your energy and alertness levels.
The key word in the previous paragraph, however, is “quick.” Take a ten-minute break from your work—15 minutes at the most—and reach out to someone. Then turn off your phone, close down your social media app, or close your e-mail program and get back to work.
High Arousal: Chill Out, Bro!
OK, so maybe low arousal isn’t your problem. Maybe you have the opposite problem.
You’re fidgety. You can’t still. You feel like you’re ready to bounce off the walls.
What you need to do in this situation is to lower your arousal level to get back into that productive medium-arousal state.
So, how do you go about doing that? Surprisingly, we can take our same three strategies we’ve talked about—movement, music, and social interactions—and turn them on their head to bring our arousal levels down.
Movement
First of all, movement. If moving vigorously raises your arousal level, then calming and slowing your movements down can have the reverse effect.
Try this. Close your eyes or at least soften your gaze so you aren’t focusing your eyes on anything. Sit in a relaxed posture. Now, breathe slowly and deeply. Focus on your breath going in and out. Let your muscles, especially your neck and shoulders, relax. Empty your mind. Every time you notice a thought entering your consciousness, simply shift your attention back to your breathing. Feel the breath going in and out and let that thought just fall out of your mind. It might help to count your breaths.
This kind of very basic mindfulness practice affects your physiology in a powerful way. Slow, deep breathing quickly settles your nerves and allows you to calm your mind. When you feel like you’re ready, simply switch your attention back to your work.
Music
We talked above about how up-tempo music causes the body to entrain to it by speeding up your heart rate and respiration. The opposite is also true. Put on some slow, quiet, calming music in the background and you’ll soon feel your body matching the tempo and relaxing.
The key here is to choose music that is below the resting human heart rate. Look for music that’s in the 50-60 bpm range. And, as before, make sure that the music is instrumental only as you’re going to be playing this music softly in the background while you work. You don’t want lyrics getting your attention and pulling your focus off your work.
Social Interactions
Finally, what about social interactions? Well, if we can raise our arousal level by interacting with people in some way, the flip side of that is to cut off all access to other people so you’re not thinking about anything but your work.
If you’re working on your computer—writing something in a word processing program, creating a presentation in PowerPoint, or doing some video editing, for example—make sure that you eliminate any possible distractions that might call out to your subconscious mind and steal away your focus.
Turn off your phone and put it in another room. Close all e-mail programs and social media programs on your computer so you aren’t tempted to check them. If you can put those distractions out of sight, it will keep them out of mind, allowing you to get your work done.
Take Control of Your Arousal Level to Boost Your Productivity
Arousal is a very important part of the equation when you’re creating your daily work environment, and as such, you can’t afford to leave it to chance.
When you plan your day’s work, don’t just pay attention to the tasks you want to get done. Also pay attention to the little details that will keep your arousal level in the “sweet spot.”
Monitor your arousal level as you go through your day. If you feel your energy slipping or if you feel yourself getting antsy and scattered, remember the tools we’ve talked about.
Can you use vigorous movement to wake yourself up or slow, deep breathing to calm yourself down? Can you use up-tempo music to energize yourself or calming music to help you mellow out? Can you reach out to someone for a quick social interaction to wake up your brain or, conversely, do you need to shut off access to other people so you don’t get over-stimulated?
These minute-to-minute decisions are very important in determining how much productive work you’ll get done, so take charge of managing your arousal levels and watch how much more you get done!
Do you have a favorite “pump up” strategy or a favorite “chill out” strategy that works well for you? Share it with the rest of us! Just leave a comment below.
