Jeremiah AlaladeDesign Engineer

Attention Is the New Currency

Attention is the new currency right now. Everything is fighting for it, especially online, with news, trends and a whole lot of noise.

I am a young person who is curious about timing and seasons, and I realised I needed to take control of my attention instead of giving it away.

Switching things off

I stopped watching the news. I got off Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and LinkedIn. I unsubscribed from some YouTube channels and muted some people’s statuses on WhatsApp. I wanted my focus back.

Figure 1Where My Attention Went
Me NewsSnapchatTikTokInstagramFacebookXLinkedInYouTubeWhatsApp
Nine places pulling at the same person at once.

My own problem

I also knew my own problem. I get distracted easily. When I start working on something, I spend a lot of time on it, then jump to another task, and end up finishing none of them.

Figure 2Five Tasks, Same Time
Jumping between tasksNone finished One task at a timeAll finished
In the top row the effort is spread across every task and none of them gets done. In the bottom row the same effort goes to one task at a time.

What Deep Work says

I remember reading Deep Work.1 One idea stayed with me: the ability to concentrate deeply is becoming rare, and because it is rare, it is becoming more valuable.

The book also gives a simple formula. High-quality work produced equals time spent multiplied by intensity of focus.

It made sense to me because I could see it in my own work. Hours alone do not produce good work. The intensity of focus inside those hours does.

Figure 3Time Times Focus
6 hours at focus 3Quality 18 2 hours at focus 10Quality 20
Width is time and height is focus, so the area is the quality of the work. The narrower rectangle wins.

Two months later

So I tried it for about two months. I focused on one task at a time, and I got my time back as a creative.

The noise

In this era of noise, it is very important to know what you want and what you are doing. If you do not, the noise decides for you, and you get carried away before you even start.

Attention is the new currency, and I would rather spend mine on purpose.

Footnotes

  1. Cal Newport, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, 2016. ↩

© 2026 Jeremiah Alalade