The Attention Crisis

Crisis is often a word that comes up in the news. Cost-of-living crisis, climate crisis, war crisis to name but a few.

One crisis that rarely gets a mention is the attention crisis.

Our attention spans have been on the decline for many years. This has been accelerated by the introduction of digital solutions.

Let's take TikTok as an example. The consuming of short form content, flicking rapidly from one short video to the next, is a form of brain training (and not a good form!). It is training our brains to only be able to pay attention for a short period of time.

We are also constantly being interrupted by digital notifications, which take our attention away from what we are doing, and again train our brains to break attention regularly.

This can have a huge impact on performance and productivity in the workplace, and on our mental health as well.

The good news is, you can take action to increase your attention span.

Try to get out for a daily walk (even if it is just for 5 minutes) and focus in on everything around you. What can you hear? Smell? See?

Meditation is also good for increasing our focus. Start with closing your eyes and repeating sounds (such as 'om') for a short period of time (1 minute may be enough at first). Slowly increase the time you are able to sit with your eyes closed.

Other good activities for increasing attention include adult colouring in, completing a jigsaw, reading, crafting, and anything else that requires you to focus your attention. If you find you struggle to focus on any of these tasks for long, start with small increments of time and increase as you find your ability to pay attention increases.

Do you find your attention span is not what it used to be?

Should we stop our children having phones until they are 14 years old?

The smartphone free childhood movement have just launched The Parent Pact, which asks parents to sign to agree they will not give their child a smartphone util they are 14 years old.

Of course, there are many benefits to this. But I also have reservations. I talk more about this in this week's YouTube video:

Free Download: The Impact of a Negative Digital Culture (and how to avoid it!)

A negative digital culture can have a detrimental impact on performance, productivity and wellbeing.

This guide will help you understand what a negative digital culture looks like, the impact it can have AND how to create a more positive digital culture in your organisation.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE GUIDE HERE

What A Turn Off!!

Your Digital Wellbeing Tip of the Week

Your phone isn't the enemy. It can be used to help improve your wellbeing!

This week, I want you to see your phone as a tool to improve your wellbeing. Pick one or two apps or approaches from the ideas below to use your phone for good!

1. Fitness apps - there are lots of fitness tracking apps that can encourage you to exercise more and give you routines to follow. You could try Coach To 5k to start running or pick an exercise app, such as FIIT, which gives you guided workouts.
2. Meditation - there are many meditation apps out there. I personally love Insight Timer. You could also check out Calm or Headspace. Or even just follow a guided meditation on YouTube.
3. Nutrition - want to improve your eating habits? Why not download a healthy recipe app, such as Mealime, which allows you to meal plan with numerous recipe choices.
4. Focus and productivity - there are many apps that encourage you to focus (such as Flora or Forest) and that can help with productivity and good habit keeping (such as Habit Tracker).

These are just a small few ways to improve your wellbeing with the help of your phone. Do you use any apps to improve your wellbeing?

What Actually Is Digital Wellbeing?!

Not sure what digital wellbeing actually is? This post should give you a bit more of an idea!

See you next week for more digital wellbeing insights!