FOCUS DEFINED!

                          FOCUS DEFINED!

⏩people tend to think of focus as having tunnel vision. They believe it’s the ability to ignore
everything around them and zero in on the task sitting in front of them.

But focus and attention management are far more complicated than that.
 In reality, we
manage different types of attention throughout each day. 

These different types dictate what we
notice and don’t notice, and what we ignore and choose not to ignore. 

They also have different
uses and imposes different challenges.

Confused? Rest assured, everything will become clear by the end of this section. 

Let’s start
by discussing voluntary versus involuntary attention.

⏬Voluntary Vs. Involuntary Attention

These are the two main types of attention. Voluntary attention is what you use to consciously
focus on something. 

For example, suppose you’re reading a book in the same room in which
your family is watching television. 

You may struggle to concentrate on the text.

 You have to
consciously block out the noise around you in order to focus on your book.
That’s voluntary attention.

 You control it.

 You decide what captures your notice and what
doesn’t.

Voluntary attention is like a muscle. Unfortunately, it’s a muscle that has, for most of us,
atrophied to the point of being useless.
 The good news is that voluntary attention can be
strengthened through the application. 
Like any muscle, it grows stronger with exercise. That means
you can overcome distractions and develop the ability to concentrate on-demand as long as
you’re willing to put in the work. Fast Focus takes you through this process.
Involuntary attention is the opposite of voluntary attention. You have no control over it.


A gunshot will grab your attention regardless of how focused you are. Likewise, a blood-curdling
scream will break your concentration, even if you’re working in a flow state.
Involuntary attention has great value when our safety is at risk. Imagine our ancestors
hunting for food. They would’ve been vulnerable to attacks from wild animals as well as from
members of neighboring, aggressive tribes. Involuntary attention kept them alert and thereby
kept them safe (most of the time).
We’re seldom in situations today that threaten our lives. We live in relative safety. We go
about our days unconcerned that our lives might be put at risk at any given moment.

The problem is, our involuntary attention, an important part of our genetic makeup, is still
there. It continues to work hard, drawing our attention to changes in our environment that might
warrant our notice. But instead of wild animals and warring tribe members, it sounds the alarm
over things that are trivial by comparison.
For example, your phone beeps, chirps, or vibrates, immediately drawing your attention and
compelling you to check the reason. Or you notice that you’ve received a new email and
immediately check to see who sent it. Or you notice a friend’s Facebook updates and are unable
to resist the temptation to read them.
That’s your involuntary attention at work. It has less use today since our lives aren’t under
constant threat (most of us, anyway). But it continues to toil in the background, trying to earn its
keep. Unfortunately, it only succeeds in creating an endless stream of distractions.
The takeaway is that voluntary attention and involuntary attention are different mechanisms.
You control the former but have little to no control over the latter. Note that you dampen the
influence of involuntary attention by exercising more control over voluntary attention. We’ll talk
more about this throughout Fast Focus.
Let’s now define the difference between broad and focused attention.

⏬Broad Vs. Focused Attention

Broad attention allows you to evaluate circumstances from a bird’s-eye view. You use it to see
the forest rather than the trees.
For example, suppose you’re a general in a theater of war working on military strategy.

You’d use broad attention to map outstrike plans, envision supply lines, and forecast the
movements of large groups of troops, including those of your adversaries.

Or suppose you’re the coach of your son or daughter’s basketball team and you’re creating a
game strategy. 

You’d use broad attention to predict the myriad of situations your players might
find themselves in, and devise appropriate responses.
The best way to think of broad attention is that it provides the big picture. 

Once you have a
grasp of your overall situation, you can apply focused attention to address the details.

Focused attention allows you to appraise specific situations and come up with the most
suitable approaches are given your resources and goals.

Let’s again suppose you’re a general working on military strategy. 

A challenge you might
face is how to overtake a particular area in a war theater given the strength and number of your
adversary. 

You’d use focused attention to resolve this challenge.
Or let’s again suppose you’re the coach of your child’s basketball team. 

It’s near the end of
the fourth quarter with 10 seconds on the clock, and your players are up by two points. 

The
problem is, the opposing team has a player who excels in sinking three-pointers. 

You’d use
focused attention to create an effective three-point defense strategy.
The good news about broad attention and focused attention is that both are in your control.

Unlike involuntary attention, you decide how to best wield them to your advantage.

Keep in mind, both broad attention and focused attention pose potential pitfalls. 

⧫For example,
concentrating only on the big picture (broad attention) will allow important details to fall through
the cracks. 

Zeroing in on specific situations (focused attention) to the exclusion of the big picture
can lead to tunnel vision, impairing your overall awareness.

⧭I ADMIT, this has been a relatively long section. But having a full appreciation of the different
types of attention, as well as how they work, will prove useful as you learn to develop and
sharpen your focus.
In the following section, we’ll take a quick look at the most common reasons we tend to lose focus.

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