Attention (2)

Yesterday I spoke of the great gift of attention that writing this blog has given me. Today I'd like to say a bit more about attention.

Linda Stone, a very high-priced tech expert with background in both Apple and Microsoft, has looked at the phenomenon of "multi-tasking." I dare say every one of us considers ourselves proficient in the art of so-called multi-tasking. We think it is what we have to do to deal with the many reponsibilities of our modern lives. Take a second and review the tasks you, yourself, normally handle all at the same time. You've likely got a whole long list of these overlapping things that you're assuming keep you as productive as you need to be.

Ms Stone, however, challenges this notion. And she challenges it so well that I'm rethinking some of my own attitudes and practices. Calling it "Continuous Partial Attention" or CPA, she says this is one more way we're retraining our own brains to work, or not, as the case may be. By using all these techniques, mostly technological, we've shortened our attention spans, forced ourselves to need constant stimulation and novelty.

A couple of major down sides: we're losing our ability to truly focus at anything other than a superficial level and we're bathing our brains in a constant stream of adrenaline in response to this perpetual state of "on alert." Believe me, these are NOT good.

One statement Ms Stone makes that I like very much: "I believe attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit". I'm going to try to nurture this amazing gift and tool I've been given using some of the things I know will help. Things like meditation, nature, exercise, silence, turning off my communicators; you may recognize these elements of "sabbath."

Check out the linked article and see what you think. Are you suffering from too much CPA?

Posted by Marion