The Economics of Your Professional Attention
Your attention is your scarcest professional resource. Its allocation follows economic principles: you invest it where you expect the highest return. Poor investment leads to bankruptcy of time and reputation. Many professionals, however, spend this currency reactively, on the demands of others’ agendas, rather than investing it strategically in high-yield activities. Conduct an audit. Categorize your weekly tasks into high-return (builds a core skill, visible to key leaders, impacts a strategic goal) and low-return (administrative, repetitive, low-visibility). Your goal is to systematically shift time from low to high. This requires building barriers to protect your attention—saying no, delegating, and batching low-value tasks. The return on this investment compounds, as focused attention on strategic work generates greater visibility and opportunity. Managing your attention economics is a vital professional development strategy. It is the foundation of professional agency. For a...
