When you’re reading a book and listening to music at the same time, are you more focused or distracted? Regardless of whether it’s learning or working, we all need sufficient attention time. The question is, how can we ensure that we adjust our attention to focus on the main target?
Understanding the Edge of Attention
- You can’t help but open your messaging app after reading for a few minutes;
- You planned to work from home, but you ended up browsing shopping websites for an hour;
- You went to a coffee shop to study, but you were distracted by people walking around and couldn’t focus;
- …
These are the kinds of problems we often encounter. A good external environment can help us maintain our attention for a long time, greatly improving our work or learning efficiency. On the other hand, various external distractions will pop up from time to time and disrupt your attention. So, how do you deal with these distractions?
Next, I’ll share a cognitive model - Attention Model - that helps you analyze who is “stealing” your attention.
Attention has an Edge
I recently learned about the Attention Model. The author of the book believes that human attention has an edge. We can’t put all our attention on multiple things at once; the thing in the center of our attention is most easily perceived, while the thing on the edge of our attention is often sensed by our peripheral vision, hearing, and sense of smell. Therefore, the thing in the center of our attention is most clearly perceived, so feedback is also faster.
Based on this, the author divides attention into three levels, using a common car driving scenario as an example to see how drivers allocate their attention:
- The road ahead occupies the driver’s visual center and is the main attention
- The rearview mirror, instrument panel, and pedals are in the periphery of the driver’s vision and are secondary attention
- The surrounding environment sounds, such as horns and sirens, and the ambient noise, form the third level of attention
From this, we can summarize that attention has three levels:
- Main attention is related to visual perception and is direct. For example, a driver’s attention to the road ahead or a computer user’s attention to the screen.
- Secondary attention objects are farther away. For example, people’s attention to sounds or vibrations that don’t require direct attention.
- The third level of attention objects are on the edge of our attention range and include sounds, lights, or environmental vibrations.
When a driver is driving, if someone keeps talking to them, their attention model becomes:
| Main Attention | Secondary Attention | Third-Level Attention |
|---|---|---|
| Visual awareness of the front window, road conditions, and vehicle position | Rearview mirror, instrument panel, pedals, etc. | Conversation content with passengers |
The driver’s third-level attention is occupied by the conversation content, so the surrounding environment sounds are blocked. Assuming this car uses a touchscreen navigation system, when the driver uses the navigation system, their main attention will be blocked. Therefore, using touch control in non-autonomous cars is a poor design.
Attention Model for Using Electronic Devices
Let’s go back to our daily lives. In general, when we’re working or studying, our attention state looks like this:
| Primary Attention | Secondary Attention | Tertiary Attention |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic screens and book content | Screen edges, notifications popping up, people walking by | Environmental light and sound, reminders, discomfort from sitting for a long time |
Do you think your ideal learning environment is something like this?
| Primary Attention | Secondary Attention | Tertiary Attention |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic screens and book content | Unoccupied | Unoccupied |
Secondary attention being unoccupied is not always a good thing. Our brains often have random thoughts that distract our attention to other things. For people who are generally easily distracted, they might constantly check their phones, look at WeChat, suddenly think of some lip balm type, and immediately log onto Taobao…
So, the key to focus is to reasonably allocate attention’s center and edges, allowing them not to interfere with each other and leaving minimal space for thoughts to wander.
Occupying the Edges of Attention with a Calm Mindset
Imagine you’re sitting in a coffee shop on a weekend, preparing to read a book, but the noisy environment makes it hard for you to focus: children running around, laughing loudly; the couple at the next table is being affectionate, and anyone can’t help but wonder what will happen next; the chair designed to prevent customers from sitting for too long makes your buttocks and back feel like they’re searching for an ideal contact area; and then your phone’s lock screen displays “You have a notification”…
What should you do?
Perhaps you might throw away your phone and find another coffee shop, or maybe you’ll kiss the girl at the next table before turning around to run out the door, tripping over the children running by…
This is definitely not the way.
First, you need to turn off all notifications on your phone or put it in silent mode. Most phone apps want to keep users engaged for as long as possible, so becoming the master of your phone is a prerequisite for improving your focus and action power.
Second, you need to block out visual pollution, making sure that there are no objects that can attract your attention at the edge of your vision. I’ll tell you about spotlights in the next section.
Finally, you need to block out distracting sounds, wear earphones, and play some soft music. Besides that, a comfortable chair and a soft cushion will soothe your tactile nerves.
Your attention should be like this:
| Primary Attention | Secondary Attention | Tertiary Attention |
|---|---|---|
| Electronic screens and book content | Objects that are not easily distracting, relatively dark surroundings | Soft melodies, comfortable leaning feeling |
Creating a Stage-like Environment with Spotlights
Secondary attention can occasionally snatch away visual focus. Using spotlights can greatly enhance concentration and create a stage-like environment for work. From an attention model perspective, when secondary attention is surrounded by a relatively dark environment, it’s less likely to interrupt primary attention within the visual field.
Many lamps or display lights on the market balance protecting vision with spotlight effects.
Easily Ignored Third-Level Attention
Many people like using noise-cancelling headphones to block out environmental sounds. I think the actual effect varies from person to person. For example, someone who often has random thoughts popping up in their mind may find it hard to stay focused even when lying in bed pretending to sleep… This is why I advocate occupying attention’s edges rather than leaving a vacuum, as thoughts are like birds with long wings that can easily fly away to unknown places.
My way of occupying attention’s edges is by listening to music. Some people might think listening to music distracts attention and makes it hard to focus on work. Others may find it necessary accompaniment. Whether it’s distracting or not depends on the type of music, lyrics, and volume. Familiar melodies and vocals require less attention to understand, and music won’t easily jump to higher-level attention and interrupt your work, as long as the volume is relatively low.
However, listening to music can get old, so I use Pandora www.pandora.com to meet my need for occasional changes in musical style. Its recommended songs and self-learning capabilities are the best among all the apps I’ve tried. You can also create your own work-study background music playlist on the web version of Pandora.
Comfortable Tactile Sensations
For someone who loves reading, I firmly believe that the most suitable human reading posture is half-lying down. A comfortable recliner or bedhead pillow allows you to read without frequently changing positions, accompanied by warm-colored lighting, making pre-sleep reading a habit.
I hope you’ve already figured out which external environments need improvement after reading this far.
Conclusion
This article first introduces the attention model, which has three levels: primary attention at the center and secondary and tertiary attention on the edges. Then I suggest using spotlights, background music, and comfortable leaning sensations to quietly occupy attention’s various edges, allowing your inner self to immerse in work and learning.
The article focuses on controlling attention through external environments, but in reality, internal factors often play a more crucial role. There are many methods for regulating attention, such as establishing outline models or mind maps. There are also many tools for gradually improving attention, like the Pomodoro Technique. This article will not elaborate further; readers can find suitable methods for themselves.
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