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- Sep 04 2007
- 57 Comments
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So, the second part of the Attention Age doctrine is coming out very soon.
I hope you’re as excited to discover my secret solutions, as I am to give them to you.
I promise these secrets will change the way you live, work and think - so you can breathe... relax... smile... and make more money, while also enjoying the great gift of life.But in order for you to really grasp, absorb, and - more importantly - apply the solutions that I’m going to give you, you need to truly understand "The Attention Age” and why we are in it.
I explained the Attention Age (AA) in the first part of the doctrine, but in hindsight I really would’ve liked to have said more. The purpose of this post, and a few more to come, is to explore and dissect the AA itself. To give you a tour of the “ADD-World” we now live in.
Three concepts discussed in part one of the doctrine: Information Overload, Interruption Overload, and the Paradox of Choice. These are the three main characteristics of the Attention Age—we are so connected, we are disconnected. We are so frequently interrupted, we are becoming less intelligent. And we have too many choices and options that we tend to make poor decisions.
The world we live in today provides endless content sources of information, and it is more than likely that you will be interrupted during anytime of the day - whether you’re in the office, having dinner, at your first born’s christening, or even while you’re using the bathroom.
Not only are we bombarded with information, but we are also competing for everyone’s undivided attention.
Think about this:
We are depleting attention at one end, and demanding it at the other - from cell phones, text messages, e-mail, you name it.
So our attention is our most scarce and valuable resource. It's more important than intelligence in many cases, and is considered to be one of the (if not the) prime factors in determining how successful you are in your career.
Optimizing your attention, and focusing on the correct people and objects in life, can truly make or break you. It really defines who you are and indicates what you will accomplish in life.
As Herbert Simon once wrote,
“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a death of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”
I would simply add information overload, interruptions, too many choices, clutter, maxed-out bandwidth, psychic ram, and fear of missing out on new opportunities—all consumes our attention.
Now you can see why I deem this period of our life... The ATTENTION AGE.
With this said, what if we didn’t experience these negative effects of Information Overload, Interruption Overload and the Paradox of Choice? What if we were never distracted? What would we get done? What could we really accomplish?
Think about it for a few minutes.
In fact, try this little exercise:
Take a sheet of paper. Divide it into two columns; have one column be your common attention-drains during your day, and next to it, how much time those attention-drainers cost you. Add up all the time-costs. Then, in the second column list all the things you would do if you were sitting in an invisible-isolated bubble. Make it a bright, colored, invisible bubble if you would like. Once you’ve filled out both sheets of paper, look at your “color-bubble” list. Ah, what a dream it would be to get all those things done in one work day….
Here’s a secret:
If you’ve ever wondered or been in awe of how much successful entrepreneurs get done - it’s that they spend most of their time in that “colored bubble.”
Now, take a look at your attention-drainers and time (they cost you) list - don’t you just want to scream! What if all those annoying drainers didn’t have to take place? What if you could make that entire left column disappear, so you could act on everything you listed in your right column? How nice it would be to return to your happy bubble...
And that, my friend, is what the second part of the doctrine is all about.
Secrets to reclaim your own attention, so you can be the productive person you’ve always wanted to be (and are when you’re in your bubble!) And how to capture and hold on to your market’s attention and skyrocket your business (hint: It’s the steps I used to take Strategic Profits from a standstill to 7.5 million in 12 months.)
So, tell me and the other readers:
What are your biggest attention drains? And what are they preventing you from accomplishing?
I’ll review (as I always do) your comments and do my best to customize my solutions to your situation(s).
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- Aug 17 2007
- 24 Comments
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Most online entrepreneurs just like you either suffer from too little or way too much information: There simply is no in-between.Where do you stand? How do you figure out which amount of information is “just right?”
Today, we’ll continue the conversation on information overload that we started in an earlier blog post. And, boy, is there a lot of material to cover …
Let’s begin with one of the biggest issues.
I’m often asked by nervous entrepreneurs:
When is “enough” information really enough?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this question from clients – “newbie” business owners and veteran business leaders alike.
So many smart people are convincing themselves that they are just not smart enough. Stop doing this to yourself and your business.
As we mentioned in an Aug. 15 posting on this blog about information overload, you can’t possibly know everything, so don’t even try. You just need to recognize what you don’t know and fill in the gaps along the way.
One of our blog readers, Dan Scott, put this urgency in perspective: “Often we keep acquiring more information so we can put off pulling the trigger … at some point, you’ve got sufficient information and should just act.”
Excellent point, Dan.
Think about it:
It’s great to have an impressive vocabulary, but you don’t need to memorize an entire dictionary in order to enjoy a good book. If you don’t understand a new word, simply look it up. It’s that easy to do.
You just have to trust yourself – and your brain. After all, even Albert Einstein couldn’t remember his own telephone number. He reasoned, quite accurately, that he didn’t need to memorize his phone number because he knew where to find it in the phone book.
Einstein didn’t question his knowledge of the unknown, even for little things like remembering a phone number. You shouldn’t either.
Sometimes knowing how to access information is more important than the information itself. Remember that – I’m sure it will become more and more important to you as your business grows.
There’s another puzzling question I hear a lot, and this one is funny when you say it out loud:
How do I know that I’ll know what I need to know when I need to know it?
Questions like these reveal a disturbing unease about strategic business process – and a lack of confidence among business owners. The questions don’t lead to business solutions; they just heighten our anxieties and pick at the scab of uncertainty that irritates us all.
“What if I can’t keep up with my competitors?” …
“What if I don’t buy every business book, read every e-mail, and scan every RSS feed?” …
“What if I miss the one bit of information that could truly set my business on fire?”
“What if …”
This kind of paranoia freezes growth opportunity.
It discourages risk-taking and leads to indecision, inefficiency, and ultimately, paralysis.
This is no way to run a successful business.
Information anxiety plagues many good business people. But the great ones are able to sort through the clutter of information and inaction and get to the part that really matters – the information that leads you to take action.
Again, knowing how to access and interpret information is sometimes more important than the information itself.
Think about this example. What turns the lights on in your house? Simple answer: A light switch.
You don’t need to know about volts, ohms and amperes in order to turn on the lights. You just need the lights to work so you can see what is in front of you.
The ability to see what is in front of you: This is what so many of us seem to have lost.
Instead, we block our own view, and distort our business vision, with needless stacks of irrelevant information. The “stacks” don’t have to be physical. Even a virtual impediment is a blockade to creativity and productive thought.
Oh yeah, one more thing …
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You’ll still make them, no matter how much information you have in your memory and at your fingertips.
Let me share a secret with you.
If you’ve done anything at all – not just business – then you have valuable experiences locked inside you that are just waiting to be rediscovered
You know what has worked and what hasn’t in certain situations. This will ALWAYS provide the best information you need to succeed. It is personal to you and it is timely: Two strong reasons why it’s more valuable to you than most information you’ll come across.
Most likely, no other business guru has ever shared this secret with you – because, if they did, it would be bad for business.
But I’m willing to do this for you because I believe you really must understand this. I’ve had some of the best mentors in the world – Jay Abraham, Michael Masterson, etc. – but even with that star-quality guidance, I needed something more.
The most important, impactful and relevant information I ever received that has helped me be successful has come directly from my own experiences – good and bad.
You are the best source of information for your business.
You know what works best and what doesn’t. You’ve thrown yourself into the fire and perhaps you’ve been burned by a few failed business decisions.
So what? That’s nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, it may be just what you need to assure success in the future.
Your experiences, your passions, your successes and failures, all come into play as you move forward in any business venture. Each bit of experience you have gained along the way becomes a pebble on the path toward future growth.
Don’t turn that pebble into a boulder by blocking your ability to move forward with confidence.
Often, clients tell me that watching me make a mistake, rebound and leverage it for future growth has inspired them to really change their way of thinking. They are no longer timid with fear of failure. Instead, they are ready to pounce on opportunity, even if it is born of error.
While you may be tempted to ingest all sorts of information from outside sources, and many of these sources may prove remarkably helpful, the ultimate business decisions are made by you.
It is essential that you take control of that decision-making function.
And no matter what, do not discount what you know already or make your own knowledge any less important than anyone else’s. It is your wisdom that has value because you are living with it.
Last year, in a Sept. 8 blog posting, I offered tips on how to attack information overload and the resulting anxiety it causes.
In it, I asked my readers to overcome “the single biggest obstacle to achieving lasting success online and offline.” That obstacle, for many, is their own personal craving for more and more information.
You may be an information junkie, but don’t let information anxiety turn your business into junk.
What’s causing you to delay action in favor of more research? What impulses are preventing you from “pulling the trigger” on action-oriented solutions?
Your responses on information overload have been illuminating, and I’m learning from all that I receive and read.
Share your secrets to “getting going” on new tasks. Do you have a certain ritual you follow? A certain method you use to kick-start your productivity? How do you know when enough is enough?
Let me know how you do it … There are a lot of people hungry for your ideas.
To Higher Profits,
Rich Schefren
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- Aug 15 2007
- 102 Comments
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If you've ever experienced even a twinge of information overload, here's a unique solution that will get to the root cause of the problem once and for all.From what I can see, most recommended solutions are Band-Aids at best. That's because they only deal with the symptoms you're feeling and not the root cause. So they never really eliminate the problem once and for all.
Since the cause of information overload isn't obvious, let me ask you a question.
Back when you were in school, did you ever get nervous before a test?
Almost everyone I've asked has always said “yes.” Primarily because there's always some worry about the information you'll need to understand and hold in your memory once you sit down to take the test.
If you've ever asked a teacher "Is this going to be on the test?" – like when you had to memorize the times and dates of obscure Civil War battles – you know that feeling of anxiety.
Of course, the answer you were silently praying to hear was always "NO."
The reason is clear: You know what you know, but at that moment you were also keenly aware of what you didn’t currently know.
For most of us it’s what we know we don't know that is so scary. And that fear never goes away no matter how many tests you've aced in the past.
The subtext of the question "Is this going to be on the test?" is another question: "I don't want to waste my brains on information that isn’t relevant to my immediate future, so do I really need to know this?" The feeling is so prevalent in school because we often find ourselves studying and being tested on information in which we have very little interest.
Somehow, when we become entrepreneurs, we forget this survival mechanism from our past. Rather than getting very clear about what we already know and what we still need to know to do well (like we did when we were students), we chase scattered information from everywhere – considering all sources we think might have something useful to share. The net effect is we waste our time, our resources, and our intellectual capital in pursuit of new discoveries. And within the blink of an eye, we become victims of information overload.
There is an underlying cause for our haphazard information gathering and it's resulting information overload. Believe it or not, it comes down to self-esteem.
You see, instead of trusting what we already know, we're afraid of everything that we don’t know. It's this fear that becomes the road that takes us off course. We're trying to prepare for the non-existent test that has EVERYTHING on it and it leads us down a rabbit hole of procrastination that kills productivity.
You may even be on that “bunny trail” right now.
Serious online entrepreneurs are arguably still students themselves. They are searching for solutions and strategies that give them an edge. But it's self-directed learning, so those of us who succeed develop the profitable ability to focus on what information matters most to our core business goals.
In baseball terms, entrepreneurs can “drive the fastball” when it comes our way, no matter the velocity. We know it is coming and we are ready when it arrives. But as soon as someone throws us a curveball by introducing something new, it challenges our comfort zone. We’re left flailing and unsure of ourselves.
Believe me, I know the feeling.
And that, my friend, is all it takes to get the anxiety wheels rolling. Doubt creeps in, self-confidence plummets, and market opportunity is lost. Spooky, isn’t it? And it can happen in an instant.
We’re left thinking and worrying about the curve ball as the fastball whizzes by. In shock, we ask ourselves, “How could this happen to me?”
This scenario occurs each day with business leaders who experience information overload.
Entrepreneurs are bombarded by information. Not all of it is beneficial to their business goals. Yet, if you try to absorb it all – if you feel a need to gain and retain all information – you’ll lose sight of what is most important. You end up frazzled and overwhelmed – the proverbial “deer in the headlights” paralyzed by fear and unable to avoid certain disaster.
The net effect of the info-overload is that we diminish our ability to discern the great from the good and, in the process, make ourselves mediocre by measure.
Through our abundance and ambivalence, we lose our business edge – and profitability suffers.
Don’t become a paralyzed entrepreneur mesmerized by the flashy headlights of all the information coming at you. You have to push yourself away from the bountiful harvest of information and only select what you truly need to fuel your business growth.
Another great way to look at it is similar to the way we are told to look at food. I'm sure you've heard the fitness mantra, “food is fuel.” The same can be said for the role information plays in your life. Anything more than you need will just leave you bloated, inefficient and insecure.
It’s time to start trusting your instincts more. You have to be confident enough to work intelligently toward your goals – whether it is passing an exam or developing a profitable Web site. What you absolutely must not allow to happen is to become paralyzed by the fear of not knowing "everything" and the fear of failure in the absence of knowing exactly what you must know and what you don't know.
In fact, the ability to make decisions in the face of ambiguity (like this) is a key trait of successful entrepreneurs. Your expertise in this area comes from experience.
There’s an old adage: “No one is an expert in his own backyard.” It’s relevant for entrepreneurs who struggle with information anxiety.
Like Boy Scouts we should “always be prepared,” but we can’t assume that we’ll be perfect. We can’t possibly “know it all” and we can’t expect everyone to believe that we do, despite what Stuart Smalley tells us to repeat to ourselves in the mirror: “I'm good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it . . . people like me.”
So, value what you know already. It's a lot more than you probably give yourself credit for. Real growth, the type that translates into wealth, is more often accumulated through your direct experience. You can search for more knowledge – Hey, I spend time daily searching for the latest and greatest but I don’t discount the value of the wisdom I already possess, and you shouldn't either.
Odds are, unlike me, you’ve never read a sales letter written to sell the knowledge you already have trapped inside your brain. But take it from someone who knows: If you had my close friend, world-class copywriter John Carlton, pitching your ideas, you would immediately place a lot more value on what you already know (You'd also get a lot more buyers).
Too often we take for granted what is already familiar to us. We devalue our own knowledge gained through experience in favor of “outside sources.” We erroneously place a higher premium on information that others create and sell. This is seemingly contrary to entrepreneurial impulse, yet it happens again and again.
Remember: You cannot conquer uncertainty by burying it with more information.Wisdom comes not from devouring information, but by filtering it through personal experience and taking action on it. It’s the action or reaction, not the information itself, that makes us wise.
I have much more to share with you about this, but first I’d like to hear your thoughts.
Do you see this as a pattern in your own lives? Are you constantly devaluing your own knowledge – minimizing your own experience – in your quest for greater wisdom? Let me know by commenting on our blog.
What are some of your secrets for remaining confident and making decisions in the face of ambiguity?
How do you overcome the feeling of inadequacy when faced with overwhelming amounts of information that seem important, but you’re just not sure?
My readers are a sharp bunch. I know you’ll have some great tips and suggestions to share.
We’ll follow-up in another blog post with a continuation of this conversation. I’m looking forward to your ideas.
To Higher Profits,
Rich SchefrenP.S. The Attention Age Doctrine continues to move forward. Me and the entire Strategic Profits team are busily preparing the next installment. For a “retro” trip back to our previous media reports, get your keys to the Profit Vault here:
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