Those that are voluntary and driven by your goals and desires, and those that are involuntary responses to stimuli.
Voluntary attention is when you consciously devote yourself to accomplishing a particular task while ignoring extraneous stimuli.
For example, if you’re looking for your friend at a party, you can focus on looking for her green shirt while ignoring anything that’s not green.
But not all voluntary attention is good.
Checking your e-mail at the party is voluntary too, which could result in you missing the opportunity to catch up with old friends.
Involuntary cues are caused by external, auditory, and visual stimuli.
You can’t help but shift your attention to them.
It’s a biological reflex.
Of course, involuntary attention shifts are an important part of staying safe.
For example, you need to be able to react instantly if the fire alarm goes off.
But much of the stimuli we experience day to day needlessly stimulates out reflexive attention, from flashing banner ads on the web to a vibrating cell phone alert.
Attention shifts do more than disrupt your focus for a moment.
They force your brain to suddenly shift gears, making it harder to get back on task when you want.
By some estimates, people waste up to 40 percent of their time because of constant task switching.
The key to staying focused is knowing what’s driving your attention and eliminating unnecessary attention shifts.
You might limit things like social media and news alerts on your phone so that you’re only notified once in awhile or eat breakfast before you go to work so you’re not distracted by hunger.
Reducing how often you’re subject to unwanted stimuli will free up your ability to concentrate on tasks that you want to devote your attention to.
Such as checking things off your to-do list or meeting an important deadline.
