Unpack Your Crowded Mind
Can I have your attention? I know, I know. I need to get in line.
Wow, This line goes out the door and around the block!
OK, let’s see. Who is in here, fighting for your attention?
photo credit: cloudvisual.co.uk/unsplash
Starting with your basic needs (H/T Maslow), you have to give your attention to your hunger and tiredness. Plus, those new shoes are killing your feet. And, hey, can they turn the air conditioner down? It’s November!
Then there's that jumble of emotional reactions that always seem to get tangled up in the corner, waiting for you to express your feelings.
We also have your to-do list vibrating down here, bubbling up all these DO-IT-NOW! tasks. They were “important” last week but not yet “urgent.” Now they are overdue and starting to stink up the place.
In the shadow of your to-do list, I see an amorphous shape that won’t come into focus. It's the gnawing fear that you forgot something important. When sparks of anxiety fly off them, they ignite a dumpster-fire of fear.
In our post-Maslow world, I also see a whole professional class of attention-demanders. They elbow their way to the front of the line using neuroscience and addiction research. With their lab-designed tendrils, these attention-demanders creep into your most vulnerable brain centers to make sure that you get triggered to drop everything when your phone dings or blurps.
Fighting for a minute of your time, I have to say that there are some SHARP elbows down here! Your brain feels like a bank on payday with only one teller open.
Seeing all of these together, it's no wonder that you’re more distracted than a preschooler coming off a Halloween-candy high.
With all of these forces dividing your attention,
How can you block off time to do deep, creative work?
How can you plan ahead?
How do you do anything but react?
If you are looking for answers to these questions, you should check out “Get Focused," the new 3-week program to help early-career female-identifying professionals carve out the space to breathe …for longer than your phone notifications usually give you.
Learn how you can manage your crowded mind and hold the rest of the world at bay so you can make a thoughtful decision. Come join us for a Free Intro Talk to the upcoming program “Get Focused (How You Can Become inDISTRACTable).”