Pay attention.

Pay attention.

Never have these words rung so true.

In this age of the distraction economy, your attention has become your most valuable currency.

So use it wisely, as your time is finite - 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 52 weeks in a year - no more, no less.

Be inspired by Mother Nature. Like her at this time of year, proceed to shed your own ‘leaves’, so that you rein in your attention on what truly matters.

But where to begin?

Time and time again, I hear about the infamous mindless scrolling on social media platforms, and what a time waster it is.

Sadly a lot of us have become accustomed to this. After all, it’s so easy, as these platforms have been built and engineered to lure us and keep us trapped there.

I for one, always find excuses to check my notifications instead of tackling a more important task.

And before I know it, rather than sticking at the notifications, a post in my feed jumps at me and I start reading it. Then another one, and another one. I look up the time, and just like that, 20 minutes have passed.

It’s time to regain control. A couple of weeks ago, I attended the launch of the new Thrive Collective, led by social entrepreneur Clare Griffiths. One of the guest speakers, Kerry Watkins, talked about 24/six, an initiative she’s spearheading to help us find our digital balance.

We had fun creating our own card to remind ourselves of who’s the boss here.

I drew an hourglass and wrote ‘3 minutes’: I set a timer for 3 minutes to check my feeds, and when it goes off, I go back to my work. It’s still hit and miss, but I’m getting better at it.

Then there are the groups and networks you belong to.

How many times have you said yes to an invitation to join a group on socials in the past year? Perhaps it was a friend or a new connection, and you agreed to become a member.

Or perhaps it’s an in person gathering in your local community, like a business networking or a more informal group.

Or perhaps it’s a paid for membership that you subscribed to a while back.

Every now and then, review all these groups and affiliations.

What do you get out of belonging to them? Is it still worth your while to be there?

When I pivoted my business nearly a year ago, I let go of a few. It was liberating.

I’m in the process of doing the same again, because things change. We change, the world around us changes.

I know sometimes it seems easier to maintain the status quo, as we don’t have to face the ‘should I stay or should I go?’ stuff, but in the long run we get ourselves trapped in places and activities that eat at our time and siphon off our attention.

Speaking of which, what are the activities that you have kept doing out of habit, but are no longer relevant to you or your business?

It could be spending too much time building or maintaining your presence on a platform that is not used by your audience very much.

It could be forcing yourself to post or write to your email list every day despite watching your reach tumbling down.

It could be organising online or in person events that only a few bother to attend these days.

It could be applying for jobs for the sake of playing the numbers’ game, even if you hear crickets.

I’m guilty as charged on this. I know full well that if I want to engage with young adults, I’d better be on Instagram or Tik Tok, yet I’m still spending most of my time on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Why? I can give you lots of reasons why: habit, ego (I’ve built a presence on these platforms, I want to keep it), fear of the unknown (Tik Tok really feels alien to me), etc etc.

But now that the cat is out of the bag, I’ll think of you and anyone reading this as my accountability buddies and I’ll try to do something about it!

Well I hope that I’ve given you enough of an idea of how important it is to truly pay attention.

It really is our most valuable currency.

As they say, ‘where your focus goes, your energy flows’.

Choose wisely and the rest will fall into place.

PS1 - quick reminder of ‘Mentoring in the Park’, my new offer for young people living in and around Chichester. If you know anyone who might benefit, let them know!

PS2 - if you’d like to know more about the Thrive Collective, you can read the first edition of the magazine.