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You're Not Distracted. You're Depleted. How to Get Your Focus Back
Everyone talks about managing time.
But what if time is not the problem?
In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores one of the biggest challenges facing leaders, professionals, and high performers today: the erosion of attention.
Research shows that our average screen attention span has dropped from 2.5 minutes to just 47 seconds. Meanwhile, every interruption can require up to 23 minutes of recovery time.
The result? More stress, less productivity, and a growing sense of depletion.
Kari unpacks groundbreaking research from Dr. Gloria Mark and Dr. Amishi Jha to reveal how attention actually works and why understanding it can dramatically improve your leadership, performance, and well-being.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
• Why attention is the true currency of a high-performing life
• The hidden cost of interruptions and multitasking
• The three attention systems: Flashlight, Floodlight, and Juggler
• Why decision fatigue is not a character flaw, but biology
• How your attention directly impacts energy, productivity, and leadership effectiveness
• The “Token Model” for managing cognitive energy throughout the day
• How to schedule your calendar around attention instead of tasks
• Practical ways to restore focus and prevent burnout
Key Takeaway
Stop managing your time and start managing your attention.
The quality of your life, leadership, relationships, and results depends on where your attention goes. When you learn to protect it, replenish it, and direct it intentionally, everything changes.
Citations and Research
Primary Sources
Dr. Amishi Jha, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami and Director of Contemplative Neuroscience. Author of Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day (2021).
Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and field-tested with members of the U.S. military, first responders, elite athletes, and corporate leaders.
Website: amishi.com
Dr. Gloria Mark
Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (2023).
Her work includes more than 20 years of empirical, screen-based attention research. The 47-second attention finding was replicated across multiple independent studies conducted from 2014 to 2020.
Website: gloriamark.com
Supporting Data
• Gallup, State of the Global Workplace Report (2024): Estimated a $9 trillion global productivity loss associated with employee disengagement.
• University of California, Irvine: Research found that returning to a task after an interruption can take approximately 23 minutes.
• Jha et al. (2007): Mindfulness Training Modifies Subsystems of Attention, published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. The study demonstrated that mindfulness training can improve alerting, orienting, and conflict-monitoring attention systems.
🎧 Share this episode with someone who feels busy all day but ends the day wondering where their energy went.
View all episodes
By Kari Schneider
4.8
99 ratings
Everyone talks about managing time.
But what if time is not the problem?
In this episode of the Empowered Team Podcast, Kari Schneider explores one of the biggest challenges facing leaders, professionals, and high performers today: the erosion of attention.
Research shows that our average screen attention span has dropped from 2.5 minutes to just 47 seconds. Meanwhile, every interruption can require up to 23 minutes of recovery time.
The result? More stress, less productivity, and a growing sense of depletion.
Kari unpacks groundbreaking research from Dr. Gloria Mark and Dr. Amishi Jha to reveal how attention actually works and why understanding it can dramatically improve your leadership, performance, and well-being.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
• Why attention is the true currency of a high-performing life
• The hidden cost of interruptions and multitasking
• The three attention systems: Flashlight, Floodlight, and Juggler
• Why decision fatigue is not a character flaw, but biology
• How your attention directly impacts energy, productivity, and leadership effectiveness
• The “Token Model” for managing cognitive energy throughout the day
• How to schedule your calendar around attention instead of tasks
• Practical ways to restore focus and prevent burnout
Key Takeaway
Stop managing your time and start managing your attention.
The quality of your life, leadership, relationships, and results depends on where your attention goes. When you learn to protect it, replenish it, and direct it intentionally, everything changes.
Citations and Research
Primary Sources
Dr. Amishi Jha, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology at the University of Miami and Director of Contemplative Neuroscience. Author of Peak Mind: Find Your Focus, Own Your Attention, Invest 12 Minutes a Day (2021).
Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and field-tested with members of the U.S. military, first responders, elite athletes, and corporate leaders.
Website: amishi.com
Dr. Gloria Mark
Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. Author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (2023).
Her work includes more than 20 years of empirical, screen-based attention research. The 47-second attention finding was replicated across multiple independent studies conducted from 2014 to 2020.
Website: gloriamark.com
Supporting Data
• Gallup, State of the Global Workplace Report (2024): Estimated a $9 trillion global productivity loss associated with employee disengagement.
• University of California, Irvine: Research found that returning to a task after an interruption can take approximately 23 minutes.
• Jha et al. (2007): Mindfulness Training Modifies Subsystems of Attention, published in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. The study demonstrated that mindfulness training can improve alerting, orienting, and conflict-monitoring attention systems.
🎧 Share this episode with someone who feels busy all day but ends the day wondering where their energy went.
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