1. The mind at work – Attention Span The mind at work
How well do you control your attention span?
Excited and motivated or bored and uninspired
Careful and precise or reckless and distracted
Best effort or just trying to get by
Driven to success or indifferent
The mind at work
- An article appearing in Time.com, May 15, 2015, entitled You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish
The average attention span for the notoriously ill-focused goldfish is nine seconds, but according to a new study from Microsoft Corp., people now generally lose concentration after eight seconds, highlighting the affects of an increasingly digitalized lifestyle on the brain.
Researchers in Canada surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others using electroencephalograms (EEGs). Microsoft found that since the year 2000 (or about when the mobile revolution began) the average attention span dropped from 12 seconds to eight seconds.

2. How to increase our focus
The usual tricks
Better sleep habits
Better nutrition
Drink plenty of water
Weight control
Exercise
Environment control
The unusual tricks
Wiggle your toes
Up the cute quotient
Varied nostril breathing
Lucid dreaming
(Wiggle Your Toes) #1
Feb 26, 2013 / By Stephanie Taylor Christensen / Comments #s (Pranayama breathing)
#4 (Lucid dreaming with a journal)

3. How to increase our attention span
The mind at work
How to increase our attention span
Driven focus – 1 Peter 2:2
Purposeful focus – 2 Cor. 5:1-2
1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
Long for: “(to yearn); to dote upon, that is, intensely crave possession (lawfully or wrongfully)” (Strong)
Grow up: “1) to cause to grow, augment 2) to increase, become greater 3) to grow, increase”
2 Corinthians 5:1-2 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,

4. How to increase our attention span
The mind at work
How to increase our attention span
Driven focus – 1 Peter 2:2
Purposeful focus – 2 Cor. 5:1-2
Diligent focus– Heb. 6:11-12
Hebrews 6: And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, (12) so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Earnestness: “1) haste, with haste 2) earnestness, diligence 2a) earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything 2b) to give all diligence, interest one’s self most earnestly” (Thayer)

5. How to increase our attention span
The mind at work
How to increase our attention span
Driven focus – 1 Peter 2:2
Purposeful focus– 2 Cor. 5:1-2
Diligent focus– Heb. 6:11-12
Consistent focus– 2 Peter 1:5-8 & 10
Patient focus– 2 Peter 3:13-14
2 Peter 1:5-10 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, (6) and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, (7) and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. (8) For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (10) Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
2 Peter 3: But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (14) Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.

6. How to increase our attention span
The mind at work
How to increase our attention span
Best effort focus – Heb. 4:9-12
Courageous focus – 2 Cor. 4:16-18
Hebrews 4:9-12 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, (10) for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (11) Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (12) For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
2 Corinthians 4: So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. (17) For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, (18) as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.