How to Grab Attention in Milliseconds

This morning, as I was doing my usual browsing through news and social sites, my attention was completely arrested by this great headline:

There was no way I could go about my day without finding out about that cigar. <-- (link to full article - and the explanation is not what you might be expecting!)

The great headline drew me in. If Michael DeBoer has instead written, "How a contractor got me to spend more money than I wanted to," I would have passed the article by.

Let's get right to the point: you have seconds, maybe even milliseconds, to capture attention in ANY communication - an article, an email, a speech, a networking introduction, a sales pitch. We're all scanning and making instant decisions about where we'll focus.

Not minutes. Certainly not hours. Seconds. This means we have to be immediately relevant and interesting, right up front.

Why? It's because your focus is controlled by a marvelous part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). Here's a quick and simple explanation of how this works.

The RAS is the gatekeeper of attention and focus in the human brain. We have to make the RAS happy if we're going to communicate with others.

Communication design, which is the subject of my upcoming book on clarity, is a hugely important skill for any professional. And one of the most vital best practices is getting right to the point in headlines, subject lines, opening introductions, etc.

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So, here's today's takeaway: in a relatively short time, you're going to compose an email, right? Before you send it, pause and remember - your recipient is sorting through dozens of inbox messages, and only the ones with interesting subject lines and first sentences will stand out.

What is most important in your message? And how can you bring it forward in the subject line to make it RAS-friendly? Do that, and you've begun practicing communication clarity.

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Steve Woodruff is the author of the book?Clarity Wins?(and the upcoming book The Point - How to Win with Clarity-Fueled Communications). He facilitates?workshops for organizations and teams looking to equip their employees with superior communication skills.