Is Your Attention Going Where Your Work Matters Most?

A full day can still leave us wondering what we actually accomplished. Sometimes the issue isn't how much we're doing, but whether our attention is reaching the work that matters most.

It's possible to have a very full day and still reach the end of it wondering what you actually accomplished.

You answered messages, attended meetings, solved problems, responded to requests and took care of things that needed attention. You weren't avoiding work. You may have been working hard all day.

But the thing you most wanted to move forward is still sitting where it was that morning.

We often treat this as a time-management problem. Sometimes it is. But I think there is another way to look at it.

Where did your attention actually go?

Time and attention aren't quite the same thing

We all have a limited number of hours in a workday. But having time available doesn't necessarily mean we're able to direct our attention where we want it.

An hour spent moving between email, a meeting, two questions from colleagues and a problem that suddenly needs solving is still an hour of work. It just isn't the same experience as an hour spent thinking deeply about one important problem.

The difference isn't only productivity. Different kinds of work ask different things of our attention.

Some work can be picked up and put down fairly easily. Other work requires us to hold several things in mind, consider alternatives, make connections or stay with a problem long enough to understand it.

When that kind of attention becomes difficult to find, important work can keep getting postponed even while we're getting plenty done.

Urgency has a way of deciding for us

Most workdays contain signals telling us where to look next.

A message arrives. Someone asks for help. A meeting begins. A customer needs an answer. A deadline gets closer. Something that wasn't on the list suddenly becomes important.

Many of those things genuinely deserve attention. The difficulty is that work that announces itself tends to compete very effectively with work that doesn't.

Thinking through a decision may be important, but it doesn't send a notification. Developing an idea doesn't usually have someone waiting for an immediate response. Preparing for something three months from now rarely feels as pressing as solving something due this afternoon.

Without necessarily deciding to, we can spend more of our attention responding to what arrives than advancing what matters.

Being responsive can become part of how we're valued

This can be particularly difficult for capable people.

If you're someone others rely on, requests tend to find you. You know how to solve the problem, answer the question or move something forward. Being available and responsive may be an important part of your contribution.

Over time, though, responsiveness can consume more of the attention that might otherwise go toward your own most important work.

That's not necessarily because anyone is doing something wrong. It may simply be the way the work has developed.

But it is worth noticing when being useful to everything around you begins making it harder to contribute to the things for which you're ultimately responsible.

Look at the work that keeps moving

One way to understand your attention is to look at what consistently gets done.

What receives a response quickly? What rarely gets postponed? What kinds of problems are you always able to make room for?

Then look at what keeps moving to another day.

Perhaps it's strategic thinking, developing someone on your team, building a new capability, improving a process or working on something important that doesn't yet have a deadline.

The pattern can tell you something that a calendar alone may not.

It shows what your current way of working is making easy to pay attention to—and what it is making difficult.

Not everything important needs more time

The answer isn't necessarily to clear the calendar or protect large blocks of uninterrupted time. For many jobs, that simply isn't realistic.

It may be more useful to understand what repeatedly pulls your attention away and whether all of those demands require the same response they receive today.

Some things may need to be delegated. Some meetings may require less of you. A question that repeatedly comes your way may point to unclear responsibility somewhere else. Certain work may need a protected place in the week simply because it will never become urgent enough to claim one on its own.

The right response depends on the work.

But first you have to see the pattern.

What is getting the best of your attention?

We tend to evaluate a workday by how much we got done. That's useful, but it doesn't tell us everything about how we're working.

Another question may be worth asking:

Is the work that matters most getting the best of my attention—or what's left of it?

You may discover that your attention is exactly where it needs to be. Or you may notice that some of your most important work has been surviving on whatever attention remains after everything else has had its turn.

That's worth knowing, because what receives our attention over time has a great deal to do with the work we're ultimately able to do.