Attention

I read Alice GG's post about attention this week, and it really resonated with me.

The post is about attention and the internet. But I think the idea goes much further than social media.

I have seen the same thing at work.

As a freelancer, I have worked with quite a few organisations. There is a big difference between workplaces in how they consume your time and attention. I won't name names, but some have a calmness in management. There is a clear direction, especially over the longer term. Others create a constant stream of things that need attention now.

That difference matters more than I used to think.

I like being busy. I like being active. I am ambitious and I find it very hard to stagnate. I want to keep learning and teaching. I want to build things. I want to add value. I want to contribute to open source, organise events, help at the sports club and do things that are useful beyond my day job.

And then there are my kids. Being there for them matters most. I want to be healthy and sportive, and I want to see them grow and succeed. I want to travel. I want to make time for things like a business experiment I want to do with my kids.

Life does not consist of one thing.

That is probably why attention feels more valuable to me now.

Work can bleed into everything else. I am always willing to be flexible when that helps move the business forward. But the other side of that flexibility is that it never really ends.

I tried to step back a little this week. My inbox punished me for it immediately.

That's the problem in miniature. Attention has a way of filling whatever container you give it. The urgent always crowds out the important.

Even small things get pushed aside. Finding time to buy a new sweater. Getting a new backpack. Doing something with the kids. Going for a run. Having some space to think.

None of these things are urgent. So they are easy to postpone.

But a life can be made up of things that are not urgent.

I don't want to do less. I want to be smarter about what gets my attention in the first place. That means protecting the calendar more. Saying no to the meetings that could have been an email. Leaving actual space to think.

Not because work is unimportant. Because life is made of more than work.

I guess it also has to do with personality. I tend to want to please people, so saying no is genuinely hard for me. And sometimes people push into that. They sense the open door and walk through it. That is not a criticism of them. It is something I need to manage better on my end.

Attention is one of the most valuable things we have, and I want to treat it that way.

Written with assistance from Dobbie, Frederik's AI assistant.