No one likes to feel like they are all over the place. It’s not fun when you are trying to focus on one task, but your focus keeps getting divided between daydreams, social media, and other people. You just feel depleted after an intended work session that plays out like this. If this is you, you probably have trouble keeping your attention and energy on one thing. 

In order to help you fix this problem. I put together many aspects and different points of view to help you understand why your energy is scattered. I promise you’ll find something valuable in here!

Signs Your Energy Is Scattered

To help you self-diagnose, I am going to include some symptoms of scattered energy. Although I believe that we tend to know intuitively. But some symptoms of scattered energy include fragmented attention, cognitive impairment, reduced cognitive performance and working memory, increased mental fatigue, and impaired decision-making. 

Fragmented Attention and Cognitive Impairment: 

If your attention is constantly being pulled in different directions, and you have trouble memorizing, concentrating, making decisions, or solving problems, then your energy is probably all over the place. This may show up when you are really trying to focus on a task, but you get pulled away due to the presence of a distraction such as music or social media. Or maybe you forget where you put things and give up whenever something requires deep and critical thinking.

• Fragmented reading may lead to faster and more efficient reading, but the reader’s attention quickly alternates between fragments without in-depth thinking
• This fragmented reading mode leads to a blockage in seeing how concepts fit together and prevents people from doing new things
• If this state continues it will disrupt attention control, working memory and other aspects of a healthy brain
• Cognitive flexibility also declines, resulting in a solidity of thinking and a reduction of creativity. 
• Constant switching between tasks reduced attention span which can hurt your ability to focus deeply and think reflectively.

Reduced Cognitive Performance and Working Memory

Reduced cognitive performance refers to a decline in mental abilities, including memory, attention, problem-solving, and reasoning. We touched on this a little earlier, but allow me to go a bit deeper. Remember those times where you were so sucked into a fantasy in your head that you just completely forgot why you entered a room or what you wanted to get done that day? If not, then you have no idea how lucky you are. But for those of us who experience this on a daily basis, it might be time to dig deeper into where your energy and your attention are going. 

• It does not matter if a distraction is from your outside environment or from your devices, or if it is created internally; they all divide attention and result in cognitive overload
• Research done on students show that divided attention causes students to take longer to complete tasks, decreases their accuracy, and reduces overall comprehension

Increased Mental Fatigue and Impaired Decision-Making

If you constantly feel annoyed or tired, it’s probably because your energy is going into places you really don’t care about. And if you find it hard to make good decisions for yourself, it’s because your energy is going towards things that don’t make you feel good. For example, when you come home from a long day, if you put your energy into doom scrolling when you said you wouldn’t, that makes you feel horrible, which may lead to you making bad decisions for the rest of your day.

• Our brain recalibrates each time we shift focus, and our brains also create what neuroscientists call ‘attention residue’—neural activity that lingers from the previous task, which interferes with our present focus.
• Constant engagement with brief content negatively effects one’s cognitive endurance

Why Your Energy May Be Scattered

Neurological Limitations and Cognitive Overload

• The human brain can only process a limited amount of information at a time; when distractions appear, learning efficiency declines
• Functional MRI studies show that multitasking doesn’t actually involve doing multiple things at the same time, but instead it is rather rapid switching between tasks
• Each switch results in a decline in performance and efficiency

Modern Tech and Digital Design

• The average American checks their phone 96 times daily, which is once every 10 minutes that we are awake
• Each time we lift our phone, we are bombarded various stimuli, such as notifications, news headlines, messages, entertainment options—all trying to harness our limited cognitive resources
• Many digital platforms use what researchers call ‘persuasive design’—tactics employed to maximize user engagement and retention though constant stimulation, rewards and feedback loops

Ego Depletion and Resource Limitation

• Engagement with cognitively demanding tasks for a long period of time leads an internal state called cognitive fatigue
• Cognitive fatigue can have various causes and effects, but reduced motivation for effort is one of its key aspects.
• Many people experience mental fatigue, especially after long periods of mental work. 

Things That Cause Scattered Energy

So many things contribute to scattered energy. Many contributors are very personal, while others are common. Here are just a few. You might have a couple of unique contributors in your life. I recommend you recognize and take note of them. 

Technology

• Notifications, regardless of device ownership and task difficulty, increase the amount of time required to complete a task. 
• Receiving notifications leads to immediate attention shifts that distract you from ongoing activities and impair your cognitive performance.
• Having your smartphone nearby reduces available working memory

Task Switching and Multitasking

• People who have lingering attention residues from switching tasks are more likely to perform badly on their next task
• Neuroscience teaches us that the brain cannot do two cognitively heavy tasks at the same time
• Instead, when we ‘task-switch” we make more errors and lose time
• This results in 40% less productivity, work needing to be redone and a decline in creativity

Environmental and Social Distractions

• Using your smartphone here and there while engaging in a cognitively heavy task results in a cognitive cost because it takes time to reconfigure yourself in order focus on the task at hand
• A study found that the simple presence of a smartphone consumes cognitive resources, without any voluntary shift of attention or use of the smartphone

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO INTENTIONALLY DIRECT ENERGY (THE “WHY IT MATTERS”)

Enhanced Productivity and Performance

• In a 10-year-long study where over 5,000 executives at work were asked about their flow state experiences at work
• The scientists showed that the executives in flow state reported that their productivity increased by 500%
• To create at your peak level, you need your full concentration on a single task for a long period of time
• High-quality work produced = (time spent) x (intensity of Focus)

Improved Cognition and Brain Health

• Flow state is defined as a state of peak performance indicated by accurate performance with heavy absorption in a task to the point where you dissociate from time and the outside world
• Refining your attention-directing skills is present in all goals and aims of mindfulness training 
• Recent neurophysiological evidence shows that engagement in simple mindful meditation significantly improves your ability to control your attention. 

Goal Achievement and Long-Term Success

• Setting goals is linked with self-confidence, motivation and autonomy
• The prefrontal cortex is the brain’s “control center” for planning, goal setting, and carrying out actions that serve a goal
• When you intentionally direct your attention, your prefrontal cortex is actively engaged, which mean you override distractions, shift away from automatic responses and stay aligned with your intended goal

TIPS TO HARNESS ENERGY (THE SOLUTIONS)

Practice Mindfulness and Attention Training.

Mediation is always helpful, no matter the situation. If you feel like you are all over the place, or you feel sad, or your day just didn’t go as well as you planned, meditate! I’m speaking from experience; anytime I’ve felt drained or sad, I meditate, and it brings me clarity as well as a state of calmness. It’s very simple to perform meditation; just focus on your breath and watch any thought that passes through your mind. When you first get started, meditate for just 5 minutes, then slowly increase the time you meditate for.

• 30 days of meditations guided by an app are linked to improvements in how quickly and accurately participants directed their focus
• Short mindfulness meditation training led to notable improvements in the participants’ FFMQ (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire) scores
• There was also significant enhancements in the executive control network part of the brain, which helps us stay focused, make decisions, and carry out behavior that contributes to our goals

Work On One Task At a Time

Is being able to multitask really something to brag about? If anything, the real achievement is found in being able to stay focused on a task for a long period of time, without burning yourself out, of course. But next time you sit down to do your work, focus on one task, then move on to the other. Doing all your tasks simultaneously only makes you feel overwhelmed. I mean, wouldn’t it feel better to knock out your to-do list one by one instead of feeling overwhelmed to get it done all at once?

• Research shows that single-tasking actually helps you get your work done faster compared to multitasking
• We all perform better and create higher quality work when we single-task
• Work deeply for as long as possible (up to 90 mins) without burning yourself out to minimize the chances of attention residue throughout the day

Strategically Minimize Digital Distractions

Notice how I said ‘strategically’ in the header? I said this because just telling yourself you won’t go on your phone while you’re studying for a math test and then keeping your phone next to you is just useless. Do yourself a favor and put your phone across the room in a drawer. This way you’ll be more reluctant to get it, and your attention and energy will be directed fully into your math work. And if you struggle with getting distracted while you’re on your computer, try a website blocker. Cold turkey is the one I use! 

• Blocking digital distraction improves attention, mental health, and your well-being
• Turning off push notifications to reduce screen time and improve daily experiences of well-being

Set Clear Goals for Yourself and Implement Strategic Planning

Becoming clear with your goals and setting achievable goals is great when it comes to controlling your energy. Imagine you just set this huge goal with no little goals in between; you will get distracted by all the possible ways to get to your big goal. Set a timeline and a few little checkpoints so you can map out your way to your ultimate goal. 

• Setting specific and challenging goals lead to better task performance than if you were to set vague or easy goals
• Forming a step-by-step plan to achieve a goal helps you see the when, where and how of reaching your goals

Cultivate Flow States

When was the last time you completely forgot about the time? Was it while you were on a walk, when you were listening to music, drawing, or reading? Whatever it was, ask yourself, “How can I do this more so I feel no need to distract myself with social media?” If you stay away from social media, being intentional with your energy will start to feel intuitive. You stop doom scrolling on autopilot, and you start doing activities that actually benefit you.

• Flow state is a state of full task absorption
• You enter your flow state when there is a match between your skill level and the task’s challenge level
• In your flow state the brain shifts how it processes information
• Instead of relying on slower, more energy-intensive systems of thought, it taps into faster, more streamlined systems of thought.

Build Recovery and Rest Into Your Schedule

This one speaks for itself, but we all need to rest. Hustling doesn’t do anyone any good. Resting makes you more productive, since you can use that energy from rest and put it into your work. If you don’t rest, when do you have time to conserve your energy, and where do you get your energy to complete the things that need to get done? If you feel like you need a nap, go ahead and take one. You’re not hurting anybody. 

• Employees who took short breaks, were far more productive than those who worked longer hours with no breaks

I know that it can get frustrating when you feel like your attention is fragmented and all over the place. That’s why I decided to write this article. Intentionally harnessing and directing your energy takes practice. Sometimes you’ll slip up, but slipping up and then improving helps us get to our end goal. 

I hope that this helped you with something in your life. Come back soon!