I have a financial planner. A separate financial advisor. An estate attorney. A banker. And an accountant.
I don't have an attention advisor.
Neither do you.
We track every dollar. We ignore every thought. We guard our credit scores.
And…we give away our focus for free.
Something's deeply wrong with this picture.
Money is renewable. Time isn't. Attention is the bridge between them.
I run a company. Make decisions daily. Sign off on six-figure expenses. But my most valuable resource isn't capital. It's clarity.
Clear thinking creates everything else. And lately, it has become more and more difficult to think clearly in this noisy world around us.
What's In Your Attention Portfolio?
Financial advisors obsess over diversification. Asset allocation. Risk tolerance.
What about your attention assets? Let's break it down:
Deep Work Equities: Hours of uninterrupted focus
Social Media Junk Bonds: High-stimulation, low-return time
News Consumption Commodities: Mostly volatile, rarely valuable
Relationship Blue Chips: High-quality time with people who matter
Creative Capital: Space for ideas to develop without pressure
Most of us are heavily over-invested in the equivalent of penny stocks. Quick dopamine hits. Endless scrolling. Constant reactivity.
We're attention day-traders. Chasing the latest headline. The newest outrage. The freshest crisis.
In the end we confuse the appeal of the ups and downs with the goal of sustained growth.
The Daily Rebalancing
I am learning something at middle age. Nobody else will protect your attention. Not your boss. Not your family. Certainly not the devices in your pocket.
The rebalancing has to be deliberate. Daily. Sometimes hourly.
I started small:
Morning: No email or headline scrolling until after workout
Midday: One-hour block on my calendar for device-free nap or meditation
Afternoon: Noise-cancelling headphones without music
Evening: No Phones at dinner
Small barriers. Big returns.
The Risk Assessment
My financial advisor asks about my risk tolerance. My time horizon. My liquidity needs.
No one asks about my distraction tolerance. My focus horizon. My creativity needs.
So I asked myself.
I realized I'd accepted absurd levels of risk. Daily raids on my attention that would never be tolerated in my financial life.
Think of it this way: Would you let random strangers withdraw small amounts from your bank account all day? That's what notification settings do to your mind. Notifications happen on their timeline, not yours. And if you are not careful, the aggregate of their needs will bankrupt you.
Value often hides in the spaces between actions. Not the actions themselves.
The Attention Emergency Fund
Financial planners recommend six months of emergency savings. Cash you can access when things go sideways.
Where's your attention emergency fund? The reserved capacity to think clearly during actual crises?
Most of us operate at maximum cognitive load. No margin. No reserves. Then wonder why we make terrible decisions under pressure.
I've started building my attention emergency fund. Protected blocks of nothing. Just space to think. To process. To exist without input.
It feels uncomfortable at first. Like money sitting idle. But that's the point.
Value often hides in the spaces between actions. Not the actions themselves.
The Long-Term Investments
My retirement accounts won't pay off for years. I invest anyway.
Long-term attention investments work the same way:
Reading books
Walking without podcasts
Painting
Staring out windows
Writing by hand
Sitting in silence
These aren't productive in any immediate sense. Neither is putting money in a 401(k).
But compounding interest with thought works the same way it works with money. Small daily investments. Massive long-term returns.
Surround yourself with people who value what you should value.
The Advisory Board
We seek professional help for legal matters. For health concerns. For financial planning.
Who's on your attention advisory board?
Mine includes:
My wife who calls me out when I'm distracted
My mentor who protects their own attention fiercely
My friend who listens intently and thanks me for sharing so deeply
My colleague who respects communication boundaries
Surround yourself with people who value what you should value. Who protect what you should protect.
The Only Asset That Truly Matters
Money can be replaced. Careers rebuilt. Even health often recovers.
But time spent with a scattered, reactive mind is gone forever.
Your attention is the asset underlying all other assets. The resource that gives meaning to every resource.
Start treating it that way.
Build your attention portfolio with the same care as your financial one.
The returns might not show up on any statement. But they'll determine the quality of everything else in your life.
The balance of this account is what you'll reflect on when all the others stop mattering.
And that day comes faster than any of us expect.
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