An Eye-Opening 5 Step Attention Audit
Where are you focusing your attention?
This is one of the most important questions you can ask yourself. Why?
Energy flows where attention goes. Your life follows your attention.
The five steps below give you a clear, honest evaluation of where you’re putting your attention, as well as a path forward.
Your attention is a precious asset. It’s so important that companies pay billions of dollars for it. To live the life you want to live, and create at your highest level, you need to be intentional with your attention.
5 Step Attention Audit
Note that this is a PRACTICE.
Yes, you should read it (and hopefully enjoy it), but don’t stop there. If you want to gain more self awareness and reclaim your attention, you need to actually do the steps outline below.
And good news for you. The whole process is kinda fun.
Step 1: Screen Time
How much do you think you use your phone every day? Well, let’s see.
Take out your smartphone
Go to Settings
Go to Screen Time
Write down your daily average screen time from the last week
Now write your answers to the following questions:
Did you have any mental/emotional reactions to seeing your phone usage?
Do you want to use your phone less or more?
Step 2: Content Consumed
Social Media:
Go back to your screen time data
Go to “See All Activity” and see your usage of specific apps
Write down your average daily time spent on the five social media apps you use most
Below each one, write:
Your intention for checking that app (in general).
How that app makes you feel every time you check it.
Example:
Instagram - 33 minutes per day
Distraction, habit, sometimes to see what my friends are up to
Comparison-mode, like I’m missing out, inspired sometimes
Tik Tok - 55 minutes per day
Distraction, habit, entertainment, the thrill of finding something new
Scattered, guilty, curious
YouTube:
Now go through your YouTube watch history.
List the last 10 videos you watched.
Below each one, write:
Your intention for watching it.
How the video made you feel.
Step 3: Your Schedule
If you want to know where someone is going in life, look at their daily habits.
What you do every day is a clear reflection of where you’re putting your attention. With that said, let’s take a look at your daily schedule.
Here’s what to do:
List everything you do on a regular workday.
Next to each, write anything that typically describes your experience (thoughts, emotions, adjectives, or any other descriptors).
Example:
Wake up - Tired, sometimes dreadful, sometimes grateful
Meditation - Relief, peace
Coffee - Love it, enjoyable, savoring
Stretching - Happy, mentally preparing for work
Commute - Music, making the most of it
Check work emails - Overwhelm, urgency, other people vying for my attention
Work task - Trying to focus, sometimes I get into flow state
Meeting - Bored, uninspired
Here are two journaling questions to reflect on your schedule:
What does this schedule say about your attention?
What does this schedule say about the direction you’re headed in life?
Step 4: Letting Go
Now let’s take a look at what you want to let go of.
List the habits you want to limit or cut out entirely from your life.
Examples: Drinking alcohol, watching tv, checking my phone all the time, procrastination, being late to things.
List the beliefs or thought patterns you want to let go of.
Examples: Not feeling good enough, lack of confidence, being hard on myself, imposter syndrome, judging other people, believing I can save people.
From the lists above, pick out a couple with the biggest emotional charge for you, and journal about why you want to let go of them. Allow any new insights to emerge.
Step 5: Daily Habit Upgrade
Okay here’s the last part, upgrading your daily habits. It’s time to take all of the awareness you’ve created and apply it toward your evolution.
Do this:
Write 2-3 new habits you want to commit to.
Under each one, write:
All of the specific details (when, where, how you’ll do it, anything you need to do to prepare, etc)
A “commitment statement” for each.
Start at least one of these habits tomorrow.
Note: If you’re having trouble thinking of new habits, look at what you want to let go of (from part four) and think about what would be good replacements for those.
Example:
New habit: Reading books at night instead of watching tv.
Details: I need to buy the book I want first.
Commitment Statement: I commit to reading books every night instead of watching tv.
New habit: Hiking
Details: Hike at least once a week, even if it’s a short nature trail. I’ll keep a list of nearby hikes I want to do.
Commitment Statement: I commit to hiking every week.
What’s Next?
This is the first step to reclaiming your attention and upgrading your life on all levels.
The next step is to truly master your focus, attention and direction in life. That’s why I wrote the book Information Alchemy.
Information Alchemy is the process of transforming raw information into knowledge and wisdom. It’s being a master of information, not a slave to it.
The book gives you seven principles to reclaim your attention, find your purpose and create meaningful work.
Here’s where you can get it: Information Alchemy
Much Love,
Stephen Parato
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