Finding the signal through the noise.
In the Attention Age, hijacking of the mind happens constantly. Human attention is the most valuable resource. So it is human attention that is bought, sold and transacted.
You are the owner of your attention. Tech companies lease your attention and sell it to the highest bidder. They lease it from you in return for some form of value, typically entertainment or social connections. Often though, they outright steal.
Today more than ever, it is vitally important to keep your attention sacred. Only spend it on the people and the things worth spending it on.
How can we maximize the value of our attention while protecting it from the ravenous tech wolves who borrow, lease and steal our precious, life-giving attention?
Three ways to protect your attention by lowering the noise threshold
What is the noise threshold? I give a background of the noise threshold in a previous article. In this post, I will deep-dive into the top three ways to lower the threshold. The goal of lowering the threshold is to amplify the signal—those golden nuggets of wisdom and opportunity.
Every stimulus you take into your mind is a form of noise. Whether you’re listening to music, background chatter in a crowd, a podcast, or the lawn mower, it is all noise. There are generally two categories of noise: positive/enlightening noise, and negative/degrading noise. While it is clearly imperative to reduce as much negative noise as possible, too much positive noise can weaken your ability to spend your attention appropriately.
#1 – Kill the notifications on your phone
The cell phone push notification is a leading cause of distraction.
Scenario: I attended a conference with an extraordinary group of people, many of whom are making massive progress in their personal lives and their businesses. This group knows how to stay on task. One of the speakers had everyone pull out their phone to write something down. Over the next five minutes, while the speaker continued to talk and teach, I witnessed nearly half of the room still on their phones. They were responding to texts, emails, checking their latest social media notifications, and probably much more.
This group, that by and large almost never checked their cell phones during the event sessions, spent nearly five minutes glued to the flashy screen. What happened?
Two things; first, the speaker makes the critical mistake of encouraging them to turn on their phones. Second, the tantalizing notification bar was full of delicious treats for the eye to see. Naturally, since we’ve been conditioned to the point of addiction to that bar, conference members succumbed and checked their notifications.
Action Tip: As you go throughout your day, observe the number of people who are actively distracted on their phones.
I have a friend who traded in his iPhone for a ‘dumb’ phone 3 years ago. I asked him what change he had noticed in his life since ditching the smartphone. He said the biggest difference was the amount of time he now had.
At the first sign of boredom, our 21st century selves instinctively reach for our phones.
And the first thing we look at on the screen is the notification bar.
Step 1: Kill the notifications on your phone.
Goal: Lower the noise threshold by limiting distracted time spent in apps that don’t make progress on your day.
If the app has a bottomless feed, you are inviting a loss-of-time when you allow notifications. Below I have my recommendations for how to set up your phone notifications. Naturally, the nature of your work may require certain access and push notifications from apps. Use your best judgement.
For reference, I am an Android user. While iOS has similar features, they may have different names.
Bedtime mode – I have my phone set to activate bedtime mode between 9:30pm and 5:30am. This mode turns the screen black and white, and suppresses all push notifications.
Phone calls – Calls always come through, even at night. My job dictates that I have some sort of accessibility. A phone call is also the only type of notification that vibrates.
| App | Sound or Vibrate | Push Notification | Notification Bubble on the Icon |
| Phone | Vibrate | Yes | Yes |
| Messages | No | Yes | Yes |
| Whatsapp/Signal | No | Yes | Yes |
| No | No | No | |
| Social Media | No | No | No |
| Bank apps/Paypal etc… | No | Very few apps under certain criteria | No |
| Slack/Basecamp | No | Personal messages only | Yes |
| All other apps | No | No | No |
My methods may not fit yours, but the point is to radically restrict the potential that your notification bar derails your attention.
The single best way to prevent your cell phone from distracting you is to put physical distance between you and your phone.
Humor me this week—when you need to get some deep work done, put your phone well out of arm’s reach. Leave it in the car, put it in the next room over, or lock it in your safe. The physical always translates to the mental. If your phone is far away, it will be further out of your mind, and will not distract you.
#2 – Cut TV / video game / scrolling-time in half
The average American watches 5 hours of TV every day. Much of that is while dual screening—watching something on the TV while browsing a tablet or phone.
We’ve all heard that cutting out TV for an hour every day and reading instead will translate to 20 books in a year, blah blah blah. The point is that many of us spend ridiculous amounts of time every day watching TV, playing video games or scrolling the feeds.
Side note: do you know why it’s called a social or a news feed? It’s because that app is feeding on your attention while you presumably feed on news or the latest gossip.
Here’s the thing about TV, video games, and social media apps—they are specifically designed to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen. The creators and curators make money in proportion to the amount of time people spend in their games or apps.
When you indulge in a video game or a TV show, you are giving your attention to the makers of the entertainment. If it is a free game / show, you’re probably seeing ads. And if you pay for it, subscription or not, they need you to keep watching so you keep paying.
If the TV, video game, or social app creators have your attention, then you don’t. You’ve given them what is most precious.
Now, I get it. My wife and I enjoy watching a show every few evenings as a way to relax.
But here is the challenge—just cut the time in half!
Step 2: Cut TV / Video Game / Scrolling-Time in Half
Goal: Lower the noise threshold by taking some time and attention that normally gets drained into a game or a show or the social media app, and using it to make progress on a real goal.
The key here is to define what you will replace your mindless entertainment time with, and when you will do it. Make sure it is not drastic.
- If you are in a relationship, replace some entertainment time with a weekly check-in meeting. Get on the same page about the different aspects of life. COMMUNICATE!
- Select and interesting topic and jot down a short list of books you would like to read in that topic. Then start reading.
- Practice writing, or playing an instrument.
- Learn to code computers.
- Take some time to spend on big-picture vision for your work.
- Read the Bible. Memorize Scripture. Meditate.
As any habit guru will tell you, a habit has three components: the trigger, the action, and the reward. To develop positive habits, you must define that trigger, action and reward.
For Example: Every Monday evening at 8:30, my wife and I will sit down at the dinner table and check-in. The reward/goal is to have deeper communication, have a set time for talking through big decisions, and maybe have some dessert.
Pick a mode of entertainment to cut in half, and define what you will replace it with and when.
#3 – Limit your podcast/audiobook listening time to half of your commute/exercise time
Whoa, what are you saying? You’re telling me I need to listen to less of the good stuff?
Yes, yes I am.
Podcasts are great. Audiobooks are the best. But too much of a good thing becomes a firehose that prevents you from processing and internalizing.
When you take in too much food you feel slow and sleepy. Taking in too much water is called drowning. The same is true for information. Too much good information will numb your mind.
We are humans. We are thinking creatures. Us humans need time to process.
If you are a leader (which you are), you need to spend some time and attention thinking about your people and the mission you are inspiring them to achieve.
You are the visionary of your life.
Guess what. . . you will never read all the books you want to. You will never listen to all the podcasts you want to. There are millions of hours of great content out there to learn. You need to focus on the little bit of it that truly matters to you and will progress you toward your vision.
Listening to podcasts or audiobooks used to be the default when I began a workout or jumped in the car.
I’ve slowly reduced that to less than 50%. I do my best thinking while on a run, so on most runs I don’t put in the earbuds.
Sometimes I have a plan for what thinking I need to do, but many times I don’t.
Listening to a podcast or an audiobook does not exercise the mind. It adds a new piece of equipment to the gym or optimizes a current one. You exercise your mind when you think–when you spend some attention on a concept or problem.
Step 3: Limit your podcast/audiobook listening time to half of your commute/exercise time
Goal: Lower the noise threshold by reducing the amount of good information intake, and spending time and attention thinking and processing.
The challenge – next time you exercise, especially if it is outside, leave the earbuds or headphones at home.
You may see some immediate results, but more likely than not, it will take some practice. We’re used to a constant barrage of noise.
Lower the noise threshold today
The three biggest things you can do to lower the noise threshold and begin to see the golden nuggets of wisdom and opportunity are simple:
- Kill the notifications on your phone
- Cut TV / video game / scrolling time in half
- Limit your podcast/audiobook listening time to half of your commute/exercise time
Lead yourself. Lead your family. Lead your team.
Get after it. Live on purpose.
If this interests you, I’d love to hear from you! Schedule a phone call or send me an email.
