Time Management Expert, Event Speaker: Mark Lamendola

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Time Tips: Manage Your Attention Span Tip #4

Many people are taking Ritalin or chugging high-caffeine sodas to boost their flagging attention spans. While this does get the desired results, the downside can be tremendous. With any "upper," there's always a pronounced "down" period. You are essentially mortgaging some resource in your body and will have to pay it back with interest.

Of course, drinking sodas is just plain stupid. Unless, of course, you have a passion for osteoporosis and esophageal cancer. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm partial to my bones and my esophagus. So I don't consume sodas. To each his own.

A better way to address the physical side of low attention span is to fix the causes. Merely addressing the symptoms is not a sustainable strategy. So, what are the causes?

  1. Sleep deprivation is the #1 cause of low attention span. See Mindconnection's sleep course to address this. When you are 20% sleep-deprived, you have the mental acuity of a person who is drunk. The typical American is actually below that level, and doesn't even realize there's a problem. Get your rest, and you can ditch the Ritalin.
     
  2. Poor diet means a poorly performing brain. See the free diet information at www.supplecity.com.
     
  3. A disruptive environment ruins concentration. If you need to focus, get make your environment as quiet as possible. If you can't get away from noisy people, then wear earplugs.
     
  4. Lack of practice is another major cause. If you're not doing things that require concentration, you lose your ability to concentrate. Use it or lose it. Most people, in today's sound bite world, have chosen to lose it.
     

There are other physical and non-physical causes of poor attention span (including thinking about problems rather than compartmentalizing so you can be in the moment). To identify all of the thing that interfere with your concentration, keep a notepad handy. When something disturbs you, make a note of it. As time permits, work on this list.

 

 

Do you want to radically improve how well people in your organization make use of the limited number of hours in each work day?

Contact me to arrange a time when we can talk about a presentation: mark@mindconnection.com. Why arrange a time? So I can give you full attention during the call. There's a really powerful time management tip. Ask me why it works.