{"id":1076,"date":"2018-10-19T14:42:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T14:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/?post_type=project&p=1076"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:54:52","slug":"decluttering-your-time-and-attention","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/decluttering-your-time-and-attention\/","title":{"rendered":"Decluttering Your Time And Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"
We are lucky to have a lot of resources in this life: food, clothing, shelter, friends, family, money, etc. You can find more food, you can get more clothes, you can find new friends and a new family (or people to fill those roles for you) if you had to, and you can make more money. But you cannot get more time and you cannot expand your attention. At least no one to date has found a way. Your time on this earth is finite. You cannot know how many days you have left, but you do know that it is limited. Within each of those days, your capacity to hold things in your attention is also limited. As such, your time and attention are the only fixed, non-renewable resources that you have. You have a certain amount and you cannot get more. Therefore you are wise to guard your time and attention more closely than you guard your possessions and your money. Think about how vehemently we guard our possessions and our money. Entire industries exist around guarding your stuff and your finances. But we will let anyone and anything take our time and attention.<\/div>\n
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Think of your time like currency. What do you spend it on? What does that get you? Actively examine each hour of your day and demand return on that investment. It cannot retun more time so it will have to retun something else – joy, connection, inspiration, creativity, money, opportunities, growth, etc. Some hours are best spent on earning money. Some are best spent on sleep, mediation or prayer, exercise, or other self care. Some hours are best spent forwarding your personal goals, learning new skills, experiencing life, and filling your soul. Demand that things compete for your time.<\/div>\n
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Your attention is even more limited. Within each day we have, according to studies by Nelson Cowan, Jeff Rouder and Richard Morey, a maximum of seven things that we can carry in our conscious attention. But it is really, they report, more like four. There are some things that our brains are always tracking such as physical safety, bodily functions and our immediate environment. Then we laden our conscious and subconscious attention with so much more: work, kids, spouses, home repairs, the dog needs to be walked, don’t forget to do the laundry, worries about politics, social issues, and people we don’t even know but we heard about.<\/div>\n
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Everything we own, everything we spend our time on, all the expectations that we put on ourselves and others, the roles we play, …. They all take up residence in our attention. Every pair of pants in your closet owns a tiny bit of real estate in your attention. Every vehicle you own, every square foot of house that you live in, and every little tweet, post, article, and headline that you consume. Anything and everything in your reality is taking up bits of your attention.<\/div>\n
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The thing is… It’s a conscious choice. That’s YOUR attention and YOU decide what lives there. It’s time you took it back.<\/div>\n
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For most people, the problem is having too many things to do in a day and too many people, places and things clambering for your attention. You might like to make space for self-development, life-optimization, finding peace, finding your purpose and carrying out that purpose, etc.<\/div>\n
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Freedom of attention creates freedom of intention, and freedom of time lets you make that intention real.<\/div>\n
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So how can you declutter your time and attention? First, think of it as a competition. That is, activities must compete for your time, and people, places and things must compete for your attention. “But they already do,” you shout!! Yes, they do. And you need to set the bar a LOT higher. If you currently feel overwhelmed, it’s because your time and attention are like a public bathroom – anyone can show up and use them how they please. As a result, it’s a real mess, largely created by others but you get to clean it up. You need to elevate your standards of admission, get a velvet rope and a bouncer and turn your time and attention into the most exclusive, peaceful resort imaginable. Very few people, places, things and activities are allowed in and they must have a really good reason to be there.<\/div>\n
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Let the competition begin. Start with an 80\/20 analysis. Get some paper and write down the 20% of your daily activities that bring you 80% of the joy, or the growth, or the progress towards your goals, etc. Who are the 20% of the people in your life that bring you 80% of the annoyance and grief? Read up on Pareto’s Law in Tim Ferriss’s blog and other places and try applying it to everything. What is the 20% of your stuff that brings you 80% of the use, joy, etc? You get the idea. Then act on it.<\/div>\n
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Remove the people, places, things, and activities that cause you grief, sadness, more work, annoyance, or just do not contribute. I know, that will likely include your kids and you can’t get rid of your kids, BUT you CAN reduce how much attention they require once they are of a certain more independent age (old enough to do their own laundry, help with the cooking, and eventually drive themselves to all those events).<\/div>\n
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Say NO. Say no (kindly) to your boss, to your spouse, to your kids (especially your kids), to your neighbor, to the local organizations that want your time and attention. Stop saying no to yourself. Martyrdom does not make you important, respected, or at peace. \u00a0Your suffering does not prevent the suffering of others, it multiplies it. You need to get your own self in order before you can help anyone else. The world does not need your burned out half-assed “help”. Fill your soul so that you have something to give. You will be pleasantly shocked and amazed at how little anyone cares that you said no. You will be equally amazed at how much the average person understands, and how people at work, at home and around town will start to respect you, and value your time and attention because you do. See James Altucher’s book, The Power of NO for how to do this kindly and effectively.<\/div>\n
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Next, consider a major cleanout of everything you own. If you have things you don’t use or don’t want, give them away or sell them to someone who could use them. Good books along these lines include: The Life Changing Magic Of Tidying Up, Essentialism, and You Have Too Much Shit. Get inspired and get going.<\/div>\n
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Once you stop letting other people control your time and attention, you will have the challenge of your own efforts and desires competing for it. There are so many fascinating things in this world that you COULD pursue: travel, work or business, language, learning, reading, volunteering, playing with your kids and grandkids, finding and chasing your purpose… It will come down to prioritizing the things that YOU want to use your time and attention for.<\/div>\n
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Start with anything that maintains your connection to your body – food, movement, sunlight, self care, etc. These needs are paramount and the foundation of your ability to focus on anything at all. Next, maintain your connection to yourself through experiences, self-development, etc. Third, add in things that connect you to your world and others.<\/div>\n
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Lastly, defend your time and attention. This requires ongoing maintenance. People in stage three will always try to make you think it is your responsibility to give them what they want, help them, solve their problems, or take their work load. People in other stages are sometimes just lazy. It’s not that helping people is off the menu, it’s that helping others should be from the perspective of your purpose, and only after you maintain yourself.<\/div>\n
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As a simple rule, if someone else can do it better, faster or cheaper, they should, and you should not. If someone else would take more joy in it, let them. If it would be a point of growth for someone else, give it to them.<\/div>\n
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How will you clear out your time and attention? What tasks can you take off your plate?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A teaching on treating time and attention as our only nonrenewable resources, making activities and people compete for them, and using an 80\/20 analysis to reclaim space for self-development and purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[1886,31],"project_tag":[544,293,140,100,216,53,791,282,111,171,89,796,795,281,153,793,221,772,57,90,112,792,113,197,285,284,283,794,165,87],"series":[],"class_list":["post-1076","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-57challenges","project_category-observations","project_tag-attention","project_tag-beliefs","project_tag-change","project_tag-chaos","project_tag-children","project_tag-choosing","project_tag-declutter","project_tag-development","project_tag-family","project_tag-freedom","project_tag-friends","project_tag-help-others","project_tag-help-yourself","project_tag-human","project_tag-life","project_tag-limited","project_tag-mind","project_tag-people","project_tag-perspective","project_tag-reality","project_tag-relationships","project_tag-resources","project_tag-self","project_tag-self-discovery","project_tag-self-growth","project_tag-self-development","project_tag-stages","project_tag-take-advantage","project_tag-time","project_tag-truth"],"acf":{"recommend_blurb":"For readers stretched thin by demands on their time and focus. A bracing reframe of attention as a finite resource worth guarding fiercely, with practical steps to reclaim it. Part of the groundwork in the Purna Asatti journey.","citation_snippet":"Dr. Kathryn Messegee (Kathryn Colleen), \"Decluttering Your Time And Attention,\" https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/decluttering-your-time-and-attention\/","topics":["growth","mind"],"related_book":"Purna Asatti","buy_url":"https:\/\/shop.lightningsource.com\/b\/085?6FKQMBFf2pXrcib6QjuQWox9UhpMDSQXoo1kemVL5vh"},"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Hourglass.png","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/CCA57320-6DC3-4284-BC27-49E433028503.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/on-life-being-human\/id1360368906","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2nq6d35q9nFAFlanaJc2Do","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/feed\/podcast\/on-life-being-human","embedCode":"

Decluttering Your Time And Attention<\/a><\/blockquote>