Continuous Partial Attention

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Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black.

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Randy Black. Randy Black. Randy Black. He’s a troublemaker.

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Welcome back to Randy Unscripted. I’m your host, Randy Black,

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and this is a podcast where I just talk about whatever happens to come across

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my brain whenever it happens to come across it.

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So today, let me ask you something.

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Have you ever had one of those days where you’re busy the entire time,

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but at the end of it, you couldn’t really point to anything meaningful that you accomplished.

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Not that you did nothing. You answered emails, you responded to messages,

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you handled little tasks all day long.

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But the important thing, the thing that you meant to get done,

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it’s still sitting there.

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I’ve had more of those days than I

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care to admit. And what I’ve started to realize is it’s not a time issue.

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It’s an attention issue. And there’s a concept that I came across recently that

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really helped me put language to that. And I want you to hear about it.

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This idea is called continuous partial attention.

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Before I try to explain it in my own words, listen to how it’s defined by Linda

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Stone, the woman who coined it.

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Continuous partial attention is about the kind of attention that we’ve been

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paying the last 20 years with all of these different devices and possibilities

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that allow us to be always on, 24-7,

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responding to everything, working around the clock.

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What stands out to me in that definition is that it’s the always on,

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the always scanning, the always, always being involved.

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We’re not focused. We’re constantly scanning.

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We’re always looking for what’s next. What else is coming in? What might I be missing?

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And if you think about it, that’s how a lot of us live now. We’re rarely doing just one thing.

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We’re doing one thing while we monitor three others. And over time,

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that becomes our default state.

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The problem is, you can’t do deep, meaningful work in a state of constant scanning,

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constantly looking for other things.

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Your brain never fully settles in.

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So, even though you’re active all day, you’re rarely fully engaged.

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And this shows up in subtle ways. At least it does for me.

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I’ll sit down with every intention of focusing and within minutes,

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I’ve shifted my attention multiple times.

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Not because I had to, but just because something pulled at me.

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And each time it feels small, but it’s not.

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So Iris Furstenberg breaks this down of what’s actually going on,

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what it is that’s happening when we do that.

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What is continuous partial attention? It’s not multitasking.

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You can multitask. You could sit, eat dinner, have a conversation.

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You were doing a few things at the same time, maybe butter your bread and chew

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and talk all at the same time.

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That’s tasking. I’m talking about attention. I’m talking about thinking.

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Your brain can only focus and pay attention to one thing at a time.

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But what we’re trying to do all day, every day, is pay attention to one thing

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while monitoring the periphery just in case. So how many of you sit in meetings?

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You don’t have to raise your hand high, but we know who you are, right?

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You sit in meetings, you’re supposed to be paying attention,

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you need this information, you theoretically are listening, but you have your

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communication devices under the table checking. Did I get that email from Colorado?

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Do I have to respond to this one? And we’re monitoring any incoming buzzes and

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pings while we’re trying to pay attention, okay?

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What the brain is actually doing, as we think we’re paying attention to a couple

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of things at the same time, we can’t.

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So what we’re really doing is we’re switching back and forth.

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There are switching costs.

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Every time you switch, A, it takes more time.

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And what were some of the costs? How many of you found yourself making mistakes?

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Yep. You find yourself making mistakes. How many of you found yourself also,

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I don’t know, more mentally drained?

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It’s like you were using more cognitive resources. You had to put more resources

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to try and get through this.

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That’s the part that changed how I think about this.

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Every switch has a cost. Even if it’s just for a few seconds,

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your brain has to disengage and then re-engage.

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And it doesn’t snap back instantly.

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There is a lag that takes place.

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So what happens is you spend more time recovering focus than actually using it.

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And when you repeat that over and over throughout the day, you end up mentally exhausted.

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But you have no results to show for what you’ve done that day.

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And for a long time, we’ve just called this multitasking.

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We’ve almost worn it like a badge of honor. I can juggle a lot at once.

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But here’s the reality according to Linda Stone. We don’t ever do anything simultaneously.

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We are just rapidly task switching.

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We’re not great at doing it. That really reframes the whole thing.

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We’re not multitasking. We’re task switching.

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And not only that, we’re doing it constantly.

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So instead of giving one thing your full ability, you’re giving five things

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a fraction of it. And that’s where quality drops.

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That’s where the Mistakes creep in. That’s where things take longer than they

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should. So it’s not just inefficient.

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It actually works against you.

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And we can’t talk about this without acknowledging the environment that we’re

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in. Because this isn’t happening in a vacuum.

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We are surrounded by inputs, notifications, messages, updates, alerts.

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Everything is designed to get your attention and keep it. And this really puts

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it into perspective. Here’s Ivan Meisner on it.

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By driving us to stay live on our online social media sites,

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This desire to connect digitally causes us to miss out on the opportunity to

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connect with the person directly in front of us. It’s a fact.

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Continuous partial attention can hamper your efforts to build relationships

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with the people you want to connect with.

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I believe a price is certainly being paid because of how this constant connectedness

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is negatively affecting our real-time relationships. Wow, that’s the bigger issue.

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It’s not just about the personal habits we establish. It’s the constant access.

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We’re always reachable. We’re always connected.

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We’re always one notification away from being pulled, either off task or away

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from whatever’s happening in front of us. And if we don’t set boundaries,

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then our attention just gets divided by default.

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And when our attention is divided, your thinking becomes shallow.

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You lose the ability to set with something or someone long enough to really

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develop whatever is there.

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So what do we do about all this? Because the answer isn’t to throw your phone

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away and disappear. It’s to take control of how and when you engage.

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Here’s what I’ve been trying. And I’ll be honest, this is still 100% a work in progress.

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Focusing on one task at a time, actually finishing it before I move on.

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I create short windows of uninterrupted time, maybe 20 or 30 minutes.

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And that makes a difference.

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I’ve tried to physically remove distractions because if it’s within reach,

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if my phone is right there, if the alerts on the computer are right there,

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then it’s always within temptation.

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You have to take the time to take real breaks, and I’ve tried that,

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where your mind actually rests instead of shifting inputs.

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And probably the biggest one I’ve seen is deciding ahead of time what matters most for that day.

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Because if you don’t decide, everything else is going to decide for you.

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And your attention is going to get spent on things that feel urgent,

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but actually aren’t that important.

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So here’s the question I’ve been setting with, and I think it’s worth asking yourself too.

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What would your days look like if you consistently gave your full attention

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to what matters the most?

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Not occasionally, not when it’s convenient, but intentionally.

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Because I really believe this. Most of us don’t have a productivity problem.

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We don’t even have a time problem. We have an attention problem.

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And until we address that, nothing else is ever really going to improve.

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I’m working through this just like you are and I’ve noticed even small changes make a difference.

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When I protect my attention, even for a short time, I think more clearly.

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I work more efficiently and I feel less scattered at the end of the day.

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So maybe that’s the goal. Not doing more.

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Not cramming more into of the schedule, but giving more of the attention we

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have to fewer things that actually matter.

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Hopefully we can all find a way to do that very soon. So thanks for taking a

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few minutes to walk with this idea of continuous partial attention with me today.

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I really appreciate it. And until next time, I’m Randy.

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And when I come back, you’ll know that this podcast will definitely be unscripted.