Sometimes it is fun to have a lot of different things going on. And sometimes it is a stressful and depleting situation. The difference is all in how they are arranged and how they play off of each other. Like rocks in the river of your life, they can make the ride swift, exciting and fun, they can block your flow completely, or even put you in danger.
Related efforts that feed each other are often less stressful than the same number of unrelated efforts. Why? Because every effort continuously takes up part of our attention even if it only sporadically takes up part of our time. Related efforts often share a single space in our attention, whereas unrelated efforts take up separate spaces in our attention.
For example, several rooms in my home need to be fixed up, but they all occupy a single space in my attention under the heading of “remodeling.” There are several songs that I want to record but they all occupy the same space in my attention under “recording.” But remodeling and recording take up sparate spaces because they are unrelated.
In my opinion, conscious attention and working memory are the same thing. It is a space in your mind where you continually track issues, tasks and concepts for very near term use. Studies have shown that we have, on average, space for seven things in our working memory, with the average being 4-10. For most of us, our physical selves, current situation in the moment, and kids/family take up at least three of those leaving us with an average of just four spots to track things like what we need from the grocery today or that project at work.
We know that we should not overload ourselves, but even if you have succeeded in Decluttering Your Time And Attention, you run the risk of overloading yourself with all the exciting and fun things that you personally want to do. Who can blame you? There are so many cool things out there to try. And then you find yourself overloaded not only in your time but in your attention. When this happens, it is once again time to reprioritize and cut back.
This time, consider pruning the types of things you are involved in, rather than just the number of things. You can have a happily busy schedule without feeling overloaded in your attention.
How will you choose to focus?
