May I Have Your Attention, Please?

Today’s newsletter breaks from what you’re used to from me.

Instead of delivering something researched, polished, edited and planned out well in advance, I’m letting you in on thoughts I’m having in real time.

With each newsletter I’ve released, I’ve been slowly and methodically unpacking what I call my protocol.

The tools I use to get the most out of my human experience.

So far, I’ve covered the tools that I use first in the morning, in order.
Those tools being:

• Strategies for better sleep

• 1 Page of journaling upon waking

• 10 minute of direct sun exposure at sunrise

• 10 minutes of grounding (usually while getting my sun exposure)

I organize which tool from my protocol I’m going to write about next based on what time of day I use it in my own life.

If I were to continue with that formula, I’d cover exercise next.

So a newsletter on exercise was scheduled for today.

But I decided not to send it.

How Come?

I will send it.
This time next week, it will be in your inbox.

But I’m pressing pause on the exercise newsletter to get real with you on something else.

Something I’ve been thinking about incessantly this week.

Attention Feels Like the New Currency

Let’s look at attention for a moment:

• Algorithms exist to vie for our attention and consumer engagement time feeds the social media algorithms

• Influencers can make a killing off their content because they’re really good at holding our attention

• Presidential candidate polls demonstrate whose gotten the most favorable attention from the population

• Neflix has a net worth of $212.41 BILLION.

• You get my point. Attention is money.

So why am I bringing attention up?

Because my own attention is going through a reckoning.

I’m literally in the thick of figuring out how to:

• spend my attention

• prioritize what gets my attention and

• remove or reduce my exposure to that which I don’t want to give attention

And if you’ve been a subscriber since the beginning of my newsletter, you may recall I launched this newsletter because I want to be useful to others.

So Here’s Something You Might Find Useful

Whether it be in conversation with my husband, in my journal entries each morning, or in thought while doing the dishes, I’ve been asking myself a lot of attention-related questions lately.

And in the name of being useful, I thought I’d share them with you. Maybe they’ll get you thinking about your own attention and how you spend it.

If anything, these question might get you paying more attention to what you’re paying attention to.

• Am I spending my time and attention on things that align with my values and goals? – This question helped me assess my focus to determine if what I’m giving my time and attention to is in harmony with my broader life objectives.

• What topics or activities do I wish I spent more time focusing on? – Let’s say I wanted to learn how to play guitar. Am I consuming any content that lends a hand in me learning guitar, or am I passively letting that dream pass me by because it lacks my attention?

• How does my attention shift throughout the day, and what patterns do I notice? – In the morning, my ability to focus my attention is high. By the end of the day, I become glued to my social medias. This shift in attention seems to correlate to my mood. With this insight, I’m learning a lot about what manipulates my internal experience.

• In what ways do I cultivate my ability to concentrate and stay focused? I have a lot I want to accomplish in this life. In order to do so, I live by a calendar pretty religiously. If I don’t, too much gets left to chance. In a world vying for my attention, a calendar keeps my priorities in focus.

• How does my interaction with technology affect my attention span? I am not a “technology bad” person. In fact, I am obsessed with technology. But I like to think of technology like a hammer. You can use it to build something or you can use it to do a lot of damage. It comes down to how you use it.

This Is a Lot to Chew On

I hope one or more of these questions got you thinking about how you’re spending your own attention budget.

It’s far from my intention to overwhelm you.
My whole aim with this is to maybe inspire you to make changes with your attention if you feel like you need to. 

It’s so easy to get caught up on our phones and in our information consumption; the terms “doomscrolling” or “binge watching” are popular phrases for a reason.

If you’re human, you’ve experienced both.

But if you feel like there are goals you’d like to set, dreams you’d like to see come true, or habits you’d like to form and yet you’re struggling to make any of it happen… perhaps take a look at your attention.

Where is it getting spent?
Where could I stop spending it that’s not serving me?
What changes could I make to improve my attention efforts?

Some Actionables

If you’re anything like me and want to take this whole attention thing a step further, I recently performed the following actions.

Social Media Audit

I went through who I follow on Instagram with the finest of tooth combs and unfollowed a TON of accounts. Anyone that wasn’t a:

• close friend/family member

• person I learn or draw inspiration from

• person whose stories I don’t automatically swipe past or

• person whose content I find useful or genuinely entertaining
  
  I unfollowed.
  

I don’t use the feed feature on Instagram the way I used to; I’m mostly a Stories viewer. So by trimming down who I follow tremendously, I can control whose content I am consuming.

When it comes to other apps besides Instagram: is there one you just want to stop using altogether? Facebook, TikTok, Twitch? For me, I’ve never been a big Facebook fan and haven’t had one for over 6 months.

App Limits

Instagram is my social media of choice. So I put it on a time limit through my phone’s settings. Basically, if I reach my pre-determined time limit on the app, it will notify me and lock me out of it until midnight.

DOOM SWIPING THROUGH STORIES NO MORE.

Don’t Let Me Ruin a Good Time

I am going to end this newsletter with an important caveat. I am not here to be a buzzkill. 

If you don’t feel like you have a problem with your attention and get a lot out of the content you’re consuming, that is awesome and by all means, you should continue.

Even for me, there is an acceptable amount of perusing the internet that I’m 100% good with allowing myself.

To live is to experience and a lot of our current experience is online or by watching others in their lived experience.

People are fascinating and I want some of them to have my attention, even if it feels silly and pointless.

And with that, I genuinely hope this newsletter was not silly or pointless to you.

Be well.
🩶

Katie June