Can I Have Your Attention, Please?
Oh good, you’re here. I wasn’t sure if you would open this, but - hello! I’m glad you are with us.
Today, we are turning our attention to…attention. Our lack of it, frustration with it, division of it - no matter how you phrase it, more often than not we refer to attention in terms of its deficit. You would think, then, that we’d do everything possible to prioritize getting the best of it. Instead, we give it away without a thought, while admitting that we feel more frazzled than ever. Frazzled is most definitely the opposite of flow.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman remarked, “When you’re in flow, your attention is where you want it to be.” But how do we get there? Half the frustration comes from thinking we can’t control it. Or that our lack of it is reflective of a deficiency within ourselves. Neither of these things are true.
We are no strangers to the stretching of our attention and feeling like we have no control. It bothers us so much because deep down we know: where you put your attention matters.
It’s funny, because in education we have a term that, at its root, means attention: engagement. While its origins are noble, engagement is a term that we would suggest has become bloated and notoriously overused. In this question posed last week on Twitter, where 51 alternative definitions were given, only two people mentioned attention:
If we have trouble with attention, it is way worse for kids, whose brains are still developing and therefore need to be taught how to focus.
I know, it sounds boring or too simple. But like anything worth doing, practicing it will profoundly affect execution.
It’s becoming clearer to us now that part of the problem with all of this has to do with teachers feeling like it’s impossible to achieve focus and motivation without first being “engaged” by an outside force. How can we ensure students will focus on any task if they aren’t interested?
Our Latest Blog
To help answer that question, we’ve written a blog post on this topic, titled A Left Turn.
This post reviews the wide diversity of definitions for engagement, the neuroscience foundations of focus, the importance of it as a skill, and how both relate to setting the conditions for flow.
When you’re done reading, click here to share what you’re thinking in our Twitter Community, and connect with other readers.
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The Next #Optimalist Chat…
All engagement is not created equal. So what are the rules, and how can we re-shape them?
Join us on Twitter this Thurs, March 31, at 8:30pm ET, for a conversation on The Rules of Engagement w/ John Miller, Head of The Eaton School in Mexico city. Search the tag #optimalist to follow along.
NEW! Book Club Launch (let’s try it out, shall we?)
We’ve decided it’s time to bring you all along on this journey even further by offering a chance to read with us! We will be reading Peak Mind: Find Your Focus and Own Your Attention by Dr. Amishi Jha this April and we’d love for you to join us. We’ll be looking for you to help bridge the gap between our own attention work, and that we can do with our students. We’ll hold 1-2 group discussions/happy hours in April, as well as opportunities to discuss asynchronously. Leave a comment below to RSVP and let us know your thoughts! We’ll give copies of the book to five of those who leave a comment…
The Optimalist Recommends…
As a complement to the work we are doing, we would like to give you a path to discover the words of other educators and researchers who share our philosophies.
Age of Distraction: Why It's Crucial for Students to Learn to Focus | KQED
Mindfulness Moment:
Each issue, we will offer you an element of mindful living that you can try yourself, and hopefully in your classroom. This week, it’s focus, of course. 🧘
10-minute Meditation for Focused Attention and Concentration
New Feature!
Each issue we will include an original infographic to highlight research, frame ideas, or introduce techniques. This gives you a way to visualize new concepts and share them with your PLN. Use #getfocusable when you share on socials!
Download here: Brain Facts to Blow Your Mind
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We are a small team of product and community managers who would love to connect with you and start learning together. Are you ready to join our school of fish? 🐠
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Don’t be afraid to say hello, and use the tag → #optimalist when you do!
Coming soon…
Nominate an optimalist educator
what’s your idea of the optimal learning experience?
the science of goal-setting: what’s its place in the classroom?
our first book club gathering
opportunities to partner with us!
I am excited to take part in the book study!
I'd like to join the book club please. :)