Attention spans are declining. We have countless distractions! In this interview, David explains that you CAN take control of this problem.
Listen in as David reveals:
- Why addictions aren’t destructive and what to do about it.
- How to let go of distractions.
- Why ‘playing a game’ is good for your focus.
- How to meditate on the task at hand.
To find out more about Scott Colenutt from the Site Visibility Internet Marketing Podcast, go to https://www.sitevisibility.co.uk/ and watch the FULL INTERVIEW here.
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– TRANSCRIPT –
Scott Colenutt: [00:00:00] And so what I’m curious to know from your perspective, it sounds like you’re still of the optimistic view that despite all of these ongoing distractions, these increasing distractions, the ads, emails, the videos, the story content that we’re exposed to, you still think it’s possible to take control of what is essentially our declining attention spans.
David Wood: [00:00:21] Absolutely. Absolutely. And that’s what this is. This is perhaps the main focus. My business now is helping people take control of what you said. Is that ever-declining attention span now. I don’t think addiction is bad. I think we’re addicted to lots of things. We’re addicted to water and that’s not bad.
So I used to think addiction was scary and now it’s like, Choose your addictions well. That’s my answer. So I woke up this morning and I thought, I want to check Instagram. I didn’t get to it. And I never do, but I thought because one of my addictions has been a computer game. There’s a hugely complex computer game that I like to try and master over and over and over again.
And I’ve recently uninstalled it. I’m kind of going through withdrawals and I thought.
Scott Colenutt: [00:01:10] What’s the name of the game?
David Wood: [00:01:14] Is StarCraft two. And I go through phases. I’ll like really devote myself to it for six months and then I’ll uninstall it for a few years. But I was thinking Instagram’s, that’s not a bad addiction to see what my friends are up to to see what’s going on with them.
I don’t usually have time to do it. I’m like that. Wouldn’t now I see why people might do it. Cause I don’t have StarCraft in their life. They’re like, all right, I’ll check through. So I don’t think addiction is bad, but we need to balance our addictions. We need to like, cause if I play StarCraft for six hours straight, I’m not going to feel good about myself.
And if all we do, if we just constantly distracted and checking email and then you’re checking Facebook and then text messages and whatever, at the end of the day, there’s a frustration. There’s a frustration that I could have done so much more. And I don’t want that for any of your listeners. I want you to feel like you nailed it.
Like you had chosen what was most important, and then you nailed it. So yeah, you turn off your distractions, not all the time, but for your sprints. And so if there’s one thing you get from this episode, I would suggest that you block off sprints in your calendar. I think two-hour blocks are good and then show up for those sprints and you’ll choose it at the beginning.
This is what I will do. You turn off all your distractions and then play a game, play a game called I’m going to do only this. I even have sometimes at my clients, have a later list, put, have a notepad next to you. And when something comes up into your brain or you catch yourself, Not doing what you said you would do.
You write it on the later list and then after the sprint, you can come and decide if you’ve got to do what’s on that list. It’s actually light meditation, but instead of meditating on your breath, you’re meditating on the task at hand.
