Attention Management, Manage Your Attention, Not Your Time

Maura Thomas is an award-winning international speaker, trainer, and author. She is the most widely cited authority on attention management and helps driven, motivated knowledge workers control your attention and regain control over the details of your life and work. Her new book is Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity – Every Day. In it, she reveals how to effectively manage your attention — not your time.

Top Takeaways: Attention Management, Manage Your Attention, Not Your Time with Maura Thomas

I got a really great education in all thing’s productivity
How has productivity changed?
What is your time management strategy?
Time management is making an appointment with yourself and it used to work before internet connected devices
Who is the first person you’d break an appointment with? Yourself?
You can’t manage time
Time management gives us the impression we have some sort of control over time, we don’t
Time blocking is not working for most people, it needs something more
How you manage your time doesn’t matter unless you stay committed to it
How you manage your time only matters to the extent you also devote your attention
The myth of the multitasker
Distraction and multitasking are nearly the same thing
Not enough time is not the problem, it is managing our distractions
It’s very difficult to change a habit you don’t know you have
Until you recognize it is a habit, you can’t change it
We have become habituated to distraction
For one week, make daily notes of what distracted you
Action is the antidote to anxiety