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in the background, random thoughts, and the IMDb page you just read
—and didn’t have
enough space left for your original intention. In this case, you meant to grab the grocery
list your partner left on the dining room table.
The same thing happens when work problems weigh on your mind as you drive
home from the office. In this situation, your mind may be even more full: decoding and
processing the talk show on the radio while ruminating on what happened at work that
day while running through the multiple habit sequences that let you drive home largely
on autopilot mode. If you had planned on buying bread on the way, chances are you
won’t have enough space to accommodate even that small, simple intention. You’ll
arrive home feeling overwhelmed, and only in the morning will you open the bread
drawer and remember the previous day’s task.
We have to work with intention as much as possible
—this is especially true when we
have more to do than time within which to do it. Intention enables us to prioritize so we
don’t overload our attentional space. Doing so also leaves us feeling more calm: just as
you likely feel
uncomfortable after overeating, stuffing your attentional space with too
many tasks can make you feel unsettled.
At any one time, your attentional space should hold at most two key things that you
are processing: what you intend to accomplish and what you’re currently doing. This
isn’t possible 100 percent of the time, especially as
you become immersed in a task, but
by being mindful of your intention, you can be confident that what you’re immersed in is
what you’re actually aiming to get done.
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If you find yourself responding to important work in autopilot mode, chances are
you’re trying to cram too much into your attentional space. By not stepping back to
deliberately manage your
attention, you allow it to overflow. Some familiar examples:
Taking care of your toddler while shopping.
Trying to walk and text at the same time. Just this morning I watched
someone bump into a mailbox because they were trying to do this.
Rewinding a movie, TV show, or audiobook because someone was talking to
you or because you simply zoned out for a while.
Adding baking soda instead of baking powder
to a recipe, because you were
ruminating on something or watching TV.
Leaving a theater with a stomachache, because you didn’t have enough
attention left to notice you’d eaten too much popcorn.
Forgetting to put the divider on the grocery store checkout belt for the next
person, like the lady in front of me forgot to do this
morning as she flipped
through a magazine.
You’ve probably experienced many similar moments. Some are impossible to avoid,
because life often presents us with unexpected surprises. But many
are
possible to
circumvent, and noticing that you’re beginning to feel overwhelmed is a great sign that
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you should check in to assess what’s occupying your attentional space. Chances are
you’re trying to cram too much into it at once.
The best way to avoid this overload is to be more selective with what you permit into
your attentional space. On the drive home, shut off the radio, which will enable you to
process the day and also remember your intention to pick up bread. At home, pause or
mute the TV so you don’t try to continue processing the show and forget that you’re
heading to fetch a note that’s in the other room. Making small changes like these allows
you to keep your attention on your intention.
Simplifying our attentional space lets us maintain enough room to work
and live
intentionally throughout the day. This lets us spend more time on what’s important and
meaningful in the moment. The state of your attentional space determines the state of
your life. When your attentional space is overwhelmed, you, in turn, feel overwhelmed.
When your
attentional space is clear, you also feel clear. The tidier you keep your
attentional space, the more clearly you think.
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