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Continuous Partial Attention · Randy Unscripted

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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.