Daily Inspiration: “A measure of a day’s success? Short, sharp shocks of small activities!”

“A measure of a day’s success? Short, sharp shocks of small activities!” – #Futurist Jim Carroll

Focus is a precious resource! There is so much going on from so many different perspectives that it is exceedingly difficult to keep at any one particular task or activity for any length of time.

Right? And you probably beat yourself up about this, but maybe you shouldn’t. We were already all becoming attention-misfocused prior to this ‘thing.’

The fact is, attention spans were already decreasing prior to this crisis. I released some client pre-event videos I filmed prior to the crisis, for a retail conference now scheduled for November. Take a look:

“Seeking ‘Future Normal’: My Pre-Event Videos for the Path to Purchase Expo, Chicago, November 2020”

Seeking ‘Future Normal’: My Pre-Event Videos for the Path to Purchase Expo, Chicago, November 2020

The conference – and these videos – are all about the new world of consumer interaction in the world of retail, and how we might gain the attention of this new hyperconnected consumer in the store. (It seems quaint as we now all order groceries online….)

In one of the videos, I had some fascinating statistics – we reach for our mobile devices 1,500 times a day; our average attention span has gone from being able to concentrate on one thing for 15 seconds in 2010 to 8.7 seconds today. My oft-used quote that a goldfish has a longer attention span than a human.

I can only imagine what it is now as we flip from the news to preparedness sites to an online grocery shopping portal to yelling at our kids to keep in down. Confinement accelerates short attention spans!

How do you deal with it?

Rethink the idea of time management today! Use the phrase : structure your day around short, sharp shocks of activities. Don’t try to overwhelm yourself by tackling the big things in one go – attack them in many small bursts of time.

If you break it down into short, sharp shocks, it becomes more manageable, and perhaps, more successful!

My own success? I managed to finish this post without once looking at the news!