You’ve got 100s of unread emails, I know. You’re interrupted every five minutes with minor problems, I know. You’re managing geographically and generationally fragmented teams across myriad communication platforms, I know.

Sometimes your whole day is comprised of other people’s to do lists and you finish feeling emotionally spent without any of the rewards of productivity.

I know, because I’ve been there.

But ignoring people isn’t the solution.

Try this instead.

When we pay someone attention incredible things can happen.

But to pay attention properly requires mastery of this one skill: listening.

There are five levels of listening: novice, amateur, semi-pro, pro and expert.

When you become an expert listener, you’ll know what it finally feels like to actually hear.

It’s one thing fending off external demands on our attention, but how do we stop distracting ourselves?

Addicted may not be too strong an adjective to describe our relationship with our diversions.

We delude ourselves if we think we can defeat self-distraction with willpower alone.

But get radical with your interventions and in time, new habits will emerge.

How intentionally do you spend it?

Spend, because it is a scarce resource.

We have about 4,000 weeks of it each.

Some say that human attention is the only scarcity we have in this world.