Go into any bookstore, look in the self-help book section, and what do you see? A bunch of productivity tricks, how to achieve more with less, how to manage time... However, all these topics have lost their relevance today. 

What is crucial nowadays is attention management. This is the skill that you may need most in this century.

Once upon a time, people craved knowledge. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, people switched from physical to mental work. People with specific skills and knowledge suddenly gained value, they were hard to find and fought for. 

Today, there is an abundance of information. And since the human brain can't digest it all, attention becomes a scarce resource. Thomas Davenport defined attention as: "Mental engagement focused on specific information." We receive information into our consciousness, follow a particular one and then decide whether to take some action. 

The supply of attention is limited, but the demand for it is increasing - from the media, social networks and, in fact, the entire Internet. However, there is a limit to how much the human brain can focus on at once. Recently, scientists have realized that it's only one task at a time (because multitasking comes at a price).

Think a little while reading this sentence right now. Are you doing something else or do I have your attention?

The basis of economics says that everything that is scarce is worth a lot. We live in a world that is slowly changing from a classic economy to an attention economy. Today, it's not how you organize your time/schedule, but what you focus your mental energy on. And also, as a result, what you dedicate your life to.

People often complain that they don't have time. However, we all have the same 24 hours at our disposal, we just use them in very different ways. The basic problem with most self-help books about time management is that the authors wrote them for the world of the past. Most of them, even the best sellers, were written in (and for) the 20th century.

Today, allocating your time to a certain task does not guarantee that you will give it proper attention, because you can be distracted by various distractions and interruptions. Therefore, you need to move from time management to attention management.

You know that feeling, when you are overwhelmed with work, numerous other obligations and you know you have to do it all? And then you decide to get up earlier, roll up your sleeves, divide what you will do in the morning, afternoon and evening. And again... You have the feeling that you are constantly working, but you are not achieving anything and you are constantly tired. Why?

Because the distribution of time is not as important as the distribution of attention.

What is useful to remember about this?

• Focusing on a task means returning to it every 48 hours. If it takes longer, it means it is not in the "focus zone".
• There is a limit of 2 different tasks that you can complete in one day. It is not the work itself that exhausts you the most, but switching from one type of task to another exhausts you.
• The working week should be reserved for work. Personal projects are not something you should bring to work, but give them special attention, outside of working hours. Do not mix them.
• The more creative the task, the earlier you should work on it. Creative tasks require the most energy from you, so don't start them late in the day, when you've already exhausted your energy.
• Stability breeds focus. It is enough to convince yourself that you are doing a certain activity five minutes longer than usual. This can help you develop the continuity and stability that lead to high-quality focus.

It's been said before that a person can only manage two different tasks a day and you have to return to work every 48 hours to keep them in the "focus zone". This means that your total focus in the working week is a maximum of four projects. And less is more in this case.

Learn adequate attention management, because only deep focus, deep work as Cal Newport calls it, leads to high quality results and productivity.

Also, if you want to reduce the number of daily tasks, so that you can focus more deeply on the primary part of your work, without constantly shifting your attention to secondary tasks such as e.g. sending invoices, emails and receiving orders by phone and the like, consider creating a website that will work for you 24 hours a day. Learn more at this link.

Source: youtube.com/TheArtofImprovement