Episode 53 | Lessons from "Attention Span" by Gloria Mark

Is your attention a bit all over the place sometimes i get it And today I'm talking about a book that has made me think differently about my attention and my daily well-being The book is Attention Span by Gloria Mark And I'm really looking forward to sharing some of my favorite takeaways with you today So let's get into it 

Hello Hello and welcome back to the Better Workday podcast How are you doing today I'm bringing you something a little bit different a book review If you know me at all you know that I love books especially those that help us create better work days So in this episode I'm reviewing Attention Span by Gloria Mark I was lucky enough to actually have a brief message exchange with Gloria on LinkedIn and she shared her own favorite takeaway from the book which I'll share with you a little bit later Before we get stuck in let me tell you why I picked up this book I'll be honest I'm a bit of a fan of Gloria Mark Over the years whenever I was reading books or articles about distractions and interruptions at work her name and her research kept coming up So naturally when the book came out I immediately downloaded it on Audible and listened to it during a roundtrip drive to a workshop I was delivering which was actually about managing distractions and interruptions at work Now I did enjoy listening to it and it's a very pleasant listen but full disclosure there's a lot of detailed research in this book which is brilliant but it did make it kind of challenging to stay focused during longer listening sessions So after finishing the audio book I went back I bought the Kindle version to go back over the key ideas and to highlight the notes which I love doing on a Kindle And honestly if you do decide to get this book that's exactly how I'd recommend approaching it Read it rather than listen You'll get way more from it At the core of the book Gloria argues that our attention spans are being stressed and fragmented by the constant demands and distractions of modern technology and life And the book unpacks a few different themes like how cognitive load affects our attention the role that digital devices play and then she shares some practical research-based strategies to help us regain control of our focus Let's get into three of those practical ideas that stood out for me without spoiling the whole book of course Number one be mindful of your cognitive load Gloria introduces this idea that we each have a limited pool of cognitive resources brain energy really that's available each day She explains it like whenever you're doing something you write it on an internal whiteboard and every time you switch your task or you switch your attention you rub that out you erase it and you rewrite on the whiteboard again And you do this all day long Now when I read this it really resonated with me because for years I feel like I have been writing erasing rewriting on my internal whiteboard all day long And of course when I saw that it made perfect sense as to why that would make me feel tired and exhausted sometimes at the end of every day So here's a practical tip You can batch similar tasks together When you group activities it reduces the load from constantly switching and it helps to protect your energy Now it doesn't have to be you know always staying on a spreadsheet or always staying on a particular application As long as you're maybe staying to the same topic I call that batching And if you're in a role where batching your tasks isn't feasible it's not practical then I do recommend you taking more regular breaks so that you can give that whiteboard a rest for a few moments during the day Tip number two is to cultivate meta awareness Now when I reached out to Gloria I can't believe it by the way I asked her to connect me on LinkedIn and she did And then I asked her if she could give me some input for this review and she said it would be my pleasure Such a lovely person because like she totally didn't have to reply to me at all So I just wanted to say "Hi Gloria So lovely to speak to you and thank you for doing this." She said there's a lot of different takeaways but the one that she would highlight was that people can regain agency over their attention We just need to develop new habits And the more we practice the habits like developing awareness around how we're using digital screens and different things the stronger that they become And meta awareness sounds more complicated than it is Here's how you can start implementing that easily Just pause between a task and ask yourself am I working on what I intended to work on right now it's that simple but so powerful It helps you notice distractions as they're coming up so you can gently bring your attention back Now number three for me now there's actually way more than three You probably know this but number three for me was to use hooks to avoid attention traps So this is a great tip from Gloria's book and just shows how she balances the research with practical ideas It's this idea of creating hooks little reminders or cues to pull you out of distractions Now what I like about this one is I use this hook approach to make me feel less guilty about taking breaks during my working day I do like to jump on Tik Tok I am a big fan of animal videos anything to do with like talking chickens talking cats talking dogs all that stuff I just think it's hilarious I don't know why I just find it really funny Um and I like really cheesy humor And I find it a really good way to de-stress and unwind when I'm working on lots of heavy stuff But I'd always feel guilty you know about spending time on that stuff when I should be working especially because my working hours would be quite limited during the week So I took this hook idea and now I do my guilt-free scrolling just before meetings or just before I have to leave to collect the kids or just before I have another fixed appointment in my calendar and it's really nice Now coming back to the style of the book itself Gloria's writing style is lovely It's clear it's practical it's researchbased which I personally loved And I actually thought it was way more personable than I expected considering the amount of research she brings into the book And I think the way that she brought the personal stories for the book really worked here That's what probably made it feel so relatable And that was a lovely surprise I know that book reviews usually have a criticism or a critical thought and I really struggled cuz I actually loved the book Like I do like and I'm I know I'm biased because I'm a total fan of Gloria Mark So that's there But if there was one like if I had to call one out and put on a critical hat I would say that some of the concepts felt repeated a couple of times But in fairness I think that repetition is for reinforcement so that we understand the core ideas fully So I don't think it's a bad thing So who do I think would benefit most from this book i think if you are desk based if you find yourself constantly distracted or if you feel overwhelmed by the demands on your role this book will be really helpful for you And I think there are definitely as I've said already really practical takeaways that you can take from it And the final thing for me honestly is I left the book feeling less guilty about those days and those times I'm distracted So I would often be hard on myself I'm sure I'm not the only one I'd say you probably are as well sometimes thinking I should be more focused I should be better at paying attention to the things that matter most I should be less distracted And Gloria did a really good job of just showing that it's bigger than me And while I do have agency and I can practice some habits that will help me to take more control over my attention it's not all down to me and it's not all on my shoulders And I just thought that was a really good feeling to finish reading a book with that I was armed with actions I could take and a sense of you know you don't have to try and do it all on your own So that was lovely Now if you've already read Attention Span I'd love to hear your favorite takeaways So drop me a message or a comment wherever you're listening or watching this I'd really love to hear from you As always please share this with a friend or a colleague who you think would find it helpful And until next time stay well and have a better workday