Try To Pay Attention To My Attention

Try To Pay Attention To My Attention

As I sat down to begin recording my periods of attention span, or lack thereof, I was reminded of the various times where not paying attention either caused me harm, inconvenience or frustration. It was easy to come up with the techniques that don’t work. The real challenge was discovering for myself what does. I have been fortunate to have never been seriously harmed by not paying attention like in a car accident, but could come up with a few dozen other examples of both mundane every day nuisances and serious life-changing mistakes.

I couldn't even begin to count how many times I've said to myself while driving that it was a good thing I was paying attention. So much so that at a young age I began to be hyper diligent in paying attention while driving that I became accustomed to expecting the unexpected. One time in particular while I was returning home from a bar-tending shift on Halloween night I approached a red light that turned green before I needed to slow down. In any other scenario like that it is normal to just keep on going through the green light, but I had this feeling. I slowed down a bit and sure enough a car came barreling through the intersection crossing the exact spot I would have been in had I not been paying attention.

I wonder sometimes if I am the exception to the normal in regards to tasks like driving or any other potentially dangerous scenario. I am military trained having gone through enlisted flight school where paying attention to detail could be a matter of life or death. Does that same training and experience I had then transfer to the everyday attempts at keeping focused when it is important? I will try to find the answer to that question by recording and making observations of my attention span over the course of one week.

Thursday February 6, 2014

Tuesdays and Thursdays are a long days for me. I have three lectures starting with Intermediate Microeconomics from 9:30 AM till 10:45 AM then MIS 411 from 12:30 PM till 1:45 PM followed later in the day with a computer programming course from 5 PM until 6:15 PM. I usually get up before 6 AM on Tuesdays and turn on the local public radio station then the computer before brushing my teeth etc. I don’t have a TV nor do I subscribe to any cable service other than high-speed Internet and I don’t think I ever would pay for cable again. I realized very soon when I decided to go back to college that having cable TV would be a huge distraction and I am pleased with that decision. So not having cable TV or a big screen HD certainly works in my favor to minimize distractions. TV sucks anyway!

After I eat and get ready for the day I sit down and usually go to both Blackboard and D2L to check for anything new from my instructors as well as checking my email accounts both personal and for school. I observed that if there was something new or unexpected that my attention would become focused on the content and away from the task of preparing for school. This happens a lot. For example when I get email messages from my advising office I am drawn and compelled to read them because they usually contain interesting and useful announcements that I otherwise would have no idea about. They certainly distract me if they are particularly interesting and from those observations I decided to create a folder in my Cat Mail to save them for later.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

I decided to make observations on the weekend because this seems to be a period of time where I am least likely to pay attention to the things I need to. As far as being distracted by a mobile device I really don’t have a problem with that. I’m not saying I wouldn't if I had more friends in Tucson but most of my friends in fact all of my friends live in other states and I definitely don’t communicate as much as I would if I still lived close to them.

So having no friends to distract me means I usually don’t have any plans on the weekends but sometimes struggle with keeping on with my studies. One behavior I learned that I struggle with is when I try to do everything at once. I saw that I would begin work on one subject and in the process of researching a relevant topic I would find an interesting news article or website that took my attention away from what I had initially begun work on. I cleared off my desk of all unrelated material and kind of by mistake found that if I use a web browser that doesn't have all of my hundreds of bookmarks I am much less likely to be distracted.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

I discovered as my math proficiency increased I would need to follow a particular routine to begin work on such rigorous material. After I decided not to go to business school and pursue a degree in Information Science and Economics I took on the requirements of a much higher difficulty level needed to get into upper division classes. I’d always noticed that I can’t just sit down and immediately feel confident when working out homework problems or exercises.

This behavior has been consistent with all of my difficult classes. I need a warm up phase of about 20 to 30 minutes before I feel as if I am in the “zone”. Any distraction while I am in the “zone” inhibits my focus and it takes another five or 10 minutes to get back to where I was. In one of our required readings Net Smart they referred to what cognitive scientists call attentional blink and I observed that if I had my computer on while working out some math problems for my intermediate micro economics course I could be tempted to surf the web.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

In reflecting on the past weeks observations in regards to my attention span I came to some conclusions about myself and what I could do to help mitigate periods of distraction. When I attempted to multitask I ended up getting less done when doing schoolwork. I wrote on a 3 x 5 index card in orange colored sharpie ink the phrase ”One Thing At A Time” and taped it to the mirror right by my desk where I do work. I guess I kind of stole that from the phrase that recovering alcoholics use but it works for me!

I try to be consistent with performing some type of exercise every day whether it just be push-ups and situps or trips to the gym. I absolutely observed that when I didn’t work out I would become irritable and less likely to focus on my assignments. Additionally, I have been trained in the beginning steps of mindfulness meditation and I benefit greatly throughout the day when I meditate for at least 10 minutes. I also have a little electronic device that tracks your pulse rate and helps me be aware of how my breathing affects my stress levels. I use it at least three times a day.

Taking the above steps to try to control my level of distraction in addition to what I've been learning in this class has had an immediate impact on my performance in school. I began to make regular appointments at the Campus Health Center to attend a healing touch session and have found that to be a huge benefit. The little reminders and set routines contribute to my ability to stay on task when I need it most. The more I learn about how easy it is to lose my attention and the underlying neurological causes the more I am able to come up with ways counter act distraction.