Take your attention seriously and actively pay attention to it, as this will allow you to be present for more moments of your life and improve its overall quality.
Practice, develop, and train your attention skill because it has profound implications for the entirety of your life, including relationships and leisure activities.
Commit to 12 to 15 minutes a day of formal attention training, as this duration has been shown to keep attention stable over time instead of declining.
Engage in a foundational ‘find your flashlight’ practice by sitting in an alert, upright posture, selecting a prominent breath-related sensation, and focusing your attention on it for a short period, starting with two minutes.
During breath awareness, focus on your chosen sensation, notice when your mind wanders (considering it a win), and then redirect your attention back to the breath-related sensations, engaging all three attention systems.
Learn about the three distinct systems of attention—flashlight (focus), floodlight (broad receptivity), and juggler (executive control)—to better understand and manage your cognitive processes.
Recognize that the brain networks supporting focused attention and broad receptive attention are antagonistic, meaning you cannot be fully focused and broadly receptive at the same time.
Train for better fluidity, handoff, and moment-by-moment awareness of your current attention state (focused or broad) to improve your ability to switch between them as needed.
Engage in mindfulness meditation, which involves paying attention to present moment experience without story or reactivity, to prevent your attention from being hijacked away from the here and now.
When beginning attention training, choose a comfortable, quiet place to practice, treating it as seriously as any other personal betterment activity to set yourself up for success.