How to Use the Involuntary Attention Technique to Find the Time and Focus to Write

If you are trying to balance writing with a day job, family responsibilities, and all the other demands we all face, you may find it difficult to quickly switch your attention from task to task. There is a quick way to use nature to help you do this, based on new research into dealing with stress.

As reported in Utne magazine, environmental psychologist Andrea Faber Taylor has discovered how contact with nature can relieve anxiety and stress and help the healing process.

She points out that 'directed attention' (used for things like making a presentation or writing a report) makes us tired, while 'involuntary attention' (such as meditating, or looking at nature with no particular end in mind) gives our directed attention a chance to recover.

She cites studies in which patients who could see trees from their hospital beds after having gall bladder surgery needed fewer painkillers and had shorter hospital stays than those who looked out at walls. She did her own study of children living in public housing, comparing those whose apartment overlooked trees and grass with those whose view was pavement. The 'seeing-nature' kids were better able to concentrate and control impulsive behavior, as measured with standard psychological tests.

Those of us who are trying to juggle writing with all the other things we have to do can take advantage of this effect by simply taking five minutes between tasks for involuntary attention. This doesn’t have to be meditation (in fact, if you ‘try’ to meditate, you’ll be defeating the purpose!). It can be just five minutes taking a walk around the block, five minutes watering your plants, or five minutes to leaf through a book of beautiful photos. It sounds simple, but it will have the effect of giving your directed attention recovery time.

ACTION: The next time your feel yourself too stressed to focus on writing, try the five-minute involuntary attention exercise. At the end of the five minutes you’ll feel refreshed and ready to re-focus your attention.