I still find procrastination to be my biggest attention drain. Anytime I really need to get something done, I find something else that just has to get done first. I know it’s a dodge, but I do it anyway. Maybe that’s why I’m not wealthy … yet.

I have enough “attention bubbles” to fill my own bathtub, but that would be just another distraction keeping me from my business.

I’ll look forward to trying the exercise you suggest here. Maybe by writing things down and identifying my own “happy bubble” I’ll be more productive.

In the meantime, I am making a promise to myself to take these blog posts to heart and not just read them for entertainment. There’s a lot of good value here.

I find that a flaky email system on my PC that is overwhelmed by spam steals a ton of my time. Because of all the filters (antivirus, spam, etc.) that are in place, my PC gets completely bogged down and I have to continually WAIT on it or even frequently reboot it. So I am setting things up on autopilot to deal with 98% of the junk and/or newsletters and the things that really need my attention can be dealt with on MY time table.

Other than that, I am able to restrict most distractions fairly successfully except for my own temptations to get sidetracked. I have to make a decision to not allow myself to be sidetracked by my own temptations and whenever possible - reduce or eliminate all outside distractions.

Thanks for the incredible information!!

C.D.

Well Rich you have again quite elgantly put together in thought and paper what ails us entreprenuer wannabees! Not that we are not intelligent but we need someone to tug us along in the right direction and I want to express a deep heartfelt Thanks for your efforts!
I suffer from many distractions including family, work, telephone, email, chatting etc. etc. My solution?… divorce the family, quit work, turn off the phone, set up filtrations on email, not read any more offers or buy them, chat only with those you want to communicate with and ignore pretty much all of the new ones claring for my time, unless they come to me as referral… (just kiddng about the family! I have 2 sons, a husband who is a doctor and my mom to take care of! My older son is severly handicapped but in excellent health!) I hope to see the changes to fruition and success!
Sunita - working mom and Independent Distributor of Reliv International

Creating an attention bubble sounds really good like a prayer closet. If I get as many answers to business in my hot pink bubble as I do in my prayer closet I would certainly give it a go. Great plan !!! Dona

Speaking about attention! My Attention was pulled in from so many direction today only… I met with a friend who came to visit from out of state. 3-hours. I jumped on a list building teleconference call. 1.5 hours. I needed to take to post my thoughts here. 5 minutes. I’m off to the bank, return a two phone calls, on and on and on.

Attention magnetics all around, or I just haven’t learned it yet?

Thanks Rich once again for the reminder..

-Scott Y.

http://www.MLMSponsoringPro.com

P.S. My biggest attention drains are emails, emails and more emails. Telemarketers, power outages, computer trouble, work,and body ailments.These prevent me from learning more, applying what I learn, concentrating on the all important destiny I have.

The first comment said it for me - I would just add deja vu … it was even signed by an alter Philip

Hi, Reading all the other comments, rings a bell, seems like there is a common thread there EMAILS… lots of them!

Still need to work on that myself. Although I HAVE to read anything that comes from Rich
I will try the happy bubble! Should be fun…

Can’t wait for Part 2 of the AA Doctrine.. Brilliant information, Thank You Rich, always much appreciated.

Cheers Dianne Kneller

Hi Rich,

Attention Age II Anticipation
I’m really excited about the sequel to the Attention Age Doctrine.

Question Disclaimer
My attention drainer requires a bit of background information so I apologize for it’s length but I believe a lot of other people may also encounter this same attention draining problem …

Background
I have become pretty good at focus and working through tasks, working one task at a time and resisting the temptation of extraneous multi-tasking.

Lead The Field
In Earl Nightingale’s, “Lead The Field” he recommended people start off each day by listing their 6 most important tasks and then placing a number next to each item in order of importance and then completing each task one by one in that order … it’s something I am pretty sure you would have heard from Earl … and combined with your kitchen timer strategy, is a way to get things done that I use.

1 Out Of 6? or 5 out 6?
But the weakness of this is some days I only get 1 out of my most important 6 tasks done, as one specific task can take that long …

Solutions?
Maybe time blocking is a solution so I can pause long tasks, and move onto other tasks so at the end of the day 5 out of 6 tasks are complete as opposed to just 1 or 2 out of 6?

Productivity Itself
So my biggest attention drain is specific tasks that take too much time and too much energy that negatively effect my ability to complete other less important tasks.

Best regards,

Alan
http://alanwho.com

Hi Rich
Just want to say thanks forall the good info, I will have totry the bubble
Thanks again

As time goes on I am becoming better and better at getting things done. Understanding myself and how I tick helps a lot. I know why I procrastinate and I know what distracts me.

Having said that there is still much work to be done. My biggest one is that I love research and would do that above all else if I could. My computer has so much information on it from all the research I have done for my online library which I couldn’t use it all in a million years.

That is my next challenge, Rich, as far a productivity goes and your information is always of extreme value to me.

Best Regards,
Lesley

Wow! How did you know that my life is just one big information overload. Trying so hard to get my Internet business going I am constantly bombarded with “deals” that sometimes I’m working two at a time. Your post came about a week after I decided to focus on just one idea and drop the rest. Thanks for the boost to my decision. I’m looking forward to part two…so much so that I copied your attention bubble with two of your remarks and put them on a piece of paper which now hangs on my desk just so I’ll never go back to the old way.

Blessings,

Daron

Rich,
Great exercise.

As someone who helps small business owners and their sales teams create the focus necessary to create breakthrough results, I commend you on raising the bar on helping entreprenuers to eliminate distractions and create more focused attention on achieving more with less stress.

Even though I coach and teach similar strategies I, too, sometimes succumb to the challenge. In this information age it is almost impossible not to and we need all the tools we can get to create new habits of thinking, feeling and acting that will allow us to create the resuls we desire.

Skip

As a Teacher of “Enlightened Ways to Wealth”- getting people to believe that they have the power to LET GO OF ALL THAT MENTAL DISTRACTION…and learn ELEGANT TECHNIQUES for TRAINING THEIR Attention on what matters most — is one of the greatest challenges in training!

Thanks RICH your Awareness of this number one most important TO SUCCESS in ANY Endeavor….fills me with THANKFULNESS that there is someone else out there sharpening people’s discernment of what is important and how to apply it.
Best
Sue Stebbins
CEO Wealthymindwaves

Well Rich I don’t have much to say in that there are so many tangents I can go from here. But basically what you are saying is for us to make a pro and con list of what we want. By making this list we begin to train ourselves into thinking about what we could do an a “bubble”. Well for motivated people that is a fantastic idea…. this is coming from an engineers mind so if I am way off tell me. I do like lists and this type of thinking is welcome in my book.

Hey Rich,
I am your newest in your fan club

I joined your coaching program this month and already floored with the advice you gave me during coaching call. I am working on it to improve me offer. You remember..the free trial was actually hurting my business stuff you told me..?? It was just awesome!!

I cannot wait for part 2 of AD..it will be awesome.

Regds,
Dee

http://www.PLRVideoDepot.com

Hi Rich,
Trying to find the best product takes up a lot of my time. Of course, a better one will come out tomorrow! Unsubscribing from the “I’ll promote anything” people has been a huge help.I should be spending more time on the basics such as article submission, building a list, split testing, etc. I’m getting better, but it does require a commitment.

Ted

Has anyone ever experienced this?…

You stumble upon a website of interest and are just about ready to buy something that you want, but you see another link that for some reason you feel the need to click on. You are taken to another website and repeat this action a few times. Before you know it you end up on a totaly unrelated page reading something you are not even interested in but somehow you were lead there just by some sort of natural flow of words on the pages or images that you felt compelled to click on? Am I alone? And Mr. Schefren, what do you call THAT phenomina? Does this relate to what you are talking about? Thanks. Arnold.

Rich,
I’ve worked on the most of the attention grabbers except me! I’m a singer songwriter and the creative part of my business is inspiration and for the most part inspiration is how I function. But it doesn’t work when I need to have a to do list for my assistant, or laying out my ideas for everyone that works with me. Their waiting for better understanding and I waiting for inspiration! So if I’m not inspired I do other things, mindless things, like reading emails, taking walks, thinking. How do you create an Attention Bubble (golden brown) attention bubble protecting me from ME?

Pippi Ardennia (when you need to feel the music)

For those of you who may be having a challenge in identifying all the ways that your attention is getting drained, you may want to take a free focus assessment I created to help the members of my coaching program, which is called “Breakthrough F.O.C.U.S.” - the 25-point assessment can be taken for free at this link:

www.WeismanSuccessResources.com/FreeFocusAssessment

Enjoy,
Skip

Hmm, I’ve got quite a list:

Motherhood. My Mom once described parenthood as “one interruption after another.” She was right. My biggest job is as an unpaid chauffeur, medic, counselor and cook.

Email. Way too much of the stuff.

“Swatting gnats,” as an astute programmer friend once called those small, annoying but essential tasks. Client’s contact form isn’t working right. Client can’t quite figure out how to add this or that. Web host updates PHP and breaks my script. And so on.

Web research. I go to look up something like how to add dynamic text in Ajax and find myself a half-hour later on Google News reading about Anna Nicole Smith’s star-crossed gay lovers.

Too many projects. Hard to stay focused on one project when you’re juggling six.

Thanks for all the great info and strategies. You’ve got an appreciative audience here.

Well, let us imagine for a second that you’re constantly outside your bubble - you’re just running around “putting out fires” because you’re not yet making enough cash to justify any time on growth. Effectively, there is no bubble yet. What’s your advice in that scenario? I feel a “sort yourself out” coming

Reading what you just wrote really inspires me to get off my ass and do what I really want too and leave behind my old life and start the new One. Im young wannabe entrepreneur that opens his eyes everytime I read something of yours!

Hi Rich,
I am just tired of trying to hold it all together and convinced that if I don’t keep learning, innovating, ‘doing it and doing it and doing it’ that it will all come tumbling down. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle without the picture… sorting out the colors, trying this and trying that and hoping that something will materialize to give me a sense of what the picture is supposed to look like. Oh, I have a plan but where do all these pieces fit? I better check this out. Oh, what’s that over there. Hey, here’s a great idea. Gotta listen to that teleconference. Oh good! another email from Rich. I better read that… but I’ll do the two-columns-on-a-piece-of-paper exercise later… when I have more time. I know, I’ll add a comment. That will make me feel like I’ve accomplished something.

Hello Rich,

Interesting piece on the “Doctrine” as you call it which includes “Information Overload, Interruption Overload and the Paradox of Choice.” It can be a bad thing and a good thing all at the same time. I truly believe that once I put all that wonderful information to work for me in the right way, it won’t seem as overwhelming and time consuming as anything is when you first are exposed to it all. Interruptions like telephone calls, e-mails, etc. are part of doing business and can be allocated accordingly. And yes, we have many more options at our disposal now adays.

Thanks for your suggestions for addressing and taming these problem areas.

Sue Chartock

Hi Rich:

Great Job in describing the age old problem in the context of current environment. Clearly the solution is to be able to make the right choices — to be able to separate wheat from chafe; to be able to pay attention to and focus on what is important; and be decisive about what is unimportant and get it out of sight in File 13.

It is very interesting the way you have described the problem, and your approach to an effective solution. It is important to recognize that there is a problem because to be able to solve the problem one must know and acknowledge that there is a problem.

I am looking forward to your followup on this.

Great post. So in other other words, you really have to enter “The Zone”, that place where you’re doing the things that are important but not urgent (like putting out fires, answering the phone) or anything else that’s totally distracting you from the goal…
Sometimes the biggest drain can come from just not getting enough leverage to “do” all the important things that need to get done.

Hey Rich,
this is a great post. Even though I am less distracted by outside influences than I was before I still spend too much time talking and brainstorming instead of putting it all together.
This is a great idea and thank you for bringing it to my attention. Gotta go as I have a bubble to build….

The symbolic bubble is a great visualisation of the isolation concept. If you practice traditional meditation, this is what you learn there.. cut out the cacaphony around you and learn to get along with the work in hand!Human nature being wht it is, even the most accomplished yogis have to practice concentration exercises on a daily basis to prevent slipping behind.

Certain degree of tenacity of purpose is an absolute must to tackle this problem. The timely reminder should serve all our young friends.

I think the issue of being unable to complet listed tasks for a day needs some comment( Alan’s posting above)
The carried forward tasks should figure as the first entries for the next day and then undergo the prioritisation. There is an old wisdom that if something was left undone for a week’ it probably was not woth doing anyway!
When dealing with a big task that takes up your whole day, it is possible to break it down too two parts one that needs to be done by you alone and the other that can be delegated to some one else.This way you will find time to attend to other priority activities also.

I get into the “thick of thin things” as Covey calls it. I do a brain dump of all the things I have to do (by looking through the heap of papers on my desk, and writing what comes to mind) and then I start work on them. Every day the list gets bigger, and I find myself working on the easier things just to get some of tasks off my plate. Then I think, God, I can’t wait until Saturday when I don’t have to look at this list. Then on Saturday I write up another list. Major distractions include: emails, computer issues (mine and other peoples) phone calls, cell calls, and “oh crap I forgot to…” as well as procrastinating on the big stuff on my list that I know will take a lot of time and leave me with a bigger list tomorrow.

I have to agree with Luke, when he says, “
Maybe I ought to check this out”. He explains it well.We feel like we haven’t found the best way as yet, and keep looking. I need to decide which is most important so that I don’t leave anything out that would be good for business, such as writing articles and such. My weakness is thinking that I could have a better way to advertise or do business and I succumb to too many suggestions and try too many. I need to weed them out and focus on what would be best and forget the rest of the distractions. In other words finally be satisfied unless I can definitely see that it is not working.

I have to throw this one in. One of the posts talked about jumping from page to page rather than sticking to what you want to do on that Website. This is one great reason, I do not allow other links on my Website to distract and take people away from the train of thought that I want them on. I only allow links that take them to more of my Websites of information. I am anxious to read your comments.

Dynamite!!! You’ve been reading my mind. The other side of the bubble is a disease….an addiction. I hit my online bottom and from now on am going to keep it Zen SIMPLE!! One step….one day at a time.

Looking back…I’ve had several incredible success’s….and they all came through….KEEPING IT SIMPLE and LAZER FOCUS.

Thanks…Roy..Las Vegas

Hi Rich,
Thanks for the great bubble secret. I am almost afraid to try this exercise as I might have to face the true hard facts. I could still be wasting time on the internet.

Two weeks ago I decided I had wasted enough time and money spinning my wheels and getting little accomplished. I banned myself from the Warrior Forum and deleted all the “IM gurus” that email me their latest and greatest offers almost on a daily basis. I must say that it was very hard for me to do this but afterwards it had a very uplifting and mind clearing effect. Now I plan to FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful and have vowed to remain on course.

So why am I responding on your blog you might ask?

I admire and learn so much from you that I consider it an education not a distraction.

I believe you truly enjoy helping people grow and I am most grateful to you for your willingness to share your knowledge.

All the Best!
Jeanne

I have a hard time focusing on one thing because I don’t know that what I am trying to focus on is worth the time and effort or am I waisting my time and really should be doing something else. I have spent the last nine months trying to learn about internet amrketing and all the many aspects of it. I have spent lots of money which I really didn’t have, to find a system I could learn from A to Z and begin making money which will give me some peace and afford me more time to continue my learning.
But, I am still where I was nine months ago. I still feel kind of clueless and don’t have a step by step system to follow that works to completion and is making me money. :o(

I can absolutely relate to what Arnold said — I seem to end up reading comments to news stories, which digress off into religious debates and out-and-out insultfests. I’m not interested in that kind of thing, and don’t participate, but I have ended up on page 2 or even 3 of the comments before I “come to” and realize that I’m not doing anything that’s productive or helpful. I’m also guilty of being way too efficient at answering e-mails, opening them and replying to them as soon as they come in. When I really get into what I’m doing, I’m able to focus and keep most of the distractions at bay — and then my husband comes downstairs and has to tell me something right then, or just wants to “see if I’m okay,” or tell me he loves me. That’s great, honey, but it’s not helping me to get anything accomplished just at the moment. I don’t mean for that to be as cynical as I think it may sound, and I certainly don’t think you can do anything about my husband, Rich But he IS one of the sources of my distraction. But I’m much worse than he is, letting “way lead on to way” like Virginia mentioned. I’ve never been any good at multi-tasking, as I really can’t split my attention — even with trivial things, like trying to read something simple, a quote on my box of tea or something, and chat on the phone to a friend. I either have to ask my friend to repeat herself saying “Sorry, I left for a minute but I’m back now,” or else I have no idea what the tea box actually says. I’m not trying to multitask on the important things, but when this crap grabs my attention, it’s so hard to wrest it away. (Excuse the vulgarity, but it’s an accurate descriptor.)

Just realised that reading so many posts is draining my attention. I’m going back to my bubble!

Hi Rich,

1) You won’t know something is important / relevant to you until you have read it, and that takes time.

2) There is always this mental psychotic state where the information (email, etc) that you missed, could lead to the most important, life-changing experiences you will ever have. Not having read/processed it, we’ll never know, won’t we?

3) We spend time attending seminar after seminar, all trying to sell some package / system / courses to you. You are looking to tap into a person’s experiences, hoping to shortcut the learning process by learning the “wisdom”, gleaned from many years of research / exploration, to only do what works, and avoid the pitfalls. We search and search for the perfect solution, that makes sense to us, and get information overload at the end of the day. Can this be avoided?

As you so rightly pointed out, we have limited time, effort, $$ and now, even attention is a scarce resource.

How do you filter out what works / is relevant to yourself, from tons of other data / information?

How can we do our own “data-mining”, to distill the “gems” of relevant info?

Please share your thoughts on the above issues. Heartfelt thanks!

Rdgs,
TSH

Looking for solutions to business that almost meets a preliminary goal…….over analysis, sticking with something too long that is not working, being able tpo tell the difference between a tactic that does not work, and one that requires massive action that is overwhelming..like 5000 articles published vs 100

In other words lack of results in a reasonable amount of time forces me to look elsewhere,,,,,a cycle of distraction then perpetuates itself…….

Hi Rich

I think we are leaking our mental and energy resources all over the place simply because we do not have a vision for our life, a plan to achieve it and the simple discipline to keep on checking ourselves through the day to see how we are doing.

I get great help from Mike Litman’s motto,” You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going”.

All The Best

Alex

Hi Rich,

Another Great relay from what has already been discussed.
Its really benefiting me this blog and all your work so thankyou, Guru has become a dirty word to me so I will not put you in this context because you are not a look at me type person, you are a “here are the facts, here is my research” and I love that.

You are one professional Business Man that I think taking this seriously and not messing with real peoples lives, that is totally admirable. Thankyou

Lisa Lomas

Hi Rich,

wow, your blog posts are so powerful!!
I get many mails every day(like all of you).
This is the only one that I open and read.

Thanks for the great information
Sedat