Book Review of The 12 Rules of Attention: How to Avoid Screw-Ups, Free Up Headspace, Do More and Be More At Work
By Joseph Cardillo, PH. D. Published July 2020
The premise of this book is that our attention skills are linked not only to how we feel about ourselves but to the energy we apply to achieve our goals.
Dr. Cardillo distills this advice into what he calls the 12 rules of attention. Although the book is geared towards performing better in the workplace, the tools he provides can be applied to almost all areas of a person’s life.
I first learned how thoughts can affect your goals from reading the classic Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. One of the main themes of that book advises us to visualize what we want to achieve.
Visualization is a powerful tool used by many athletes. They know when you create an image of yourself winning a competition, it stimulates the same areas of the brain and creates the same reaction as winning a live event.
Our brains love patterns and routines. It’s one of the tools it uses to prevent sensory overload. Imagine if you had to start from scratch every day and learn how to handle every situation that arises. Instead, we automatically know how to take a shower, brush our teeth, get dressed, and make breakfast.
Chances are we take the same route to work and sometimes are surprised when we pull into the parking lot. We joke and say the car drove itself. What really happened is your brain remembered and implemented a pattern without you having to apply laser-focused attention. These pre-programmed behaviors give us the ability to react without thinking and analyzing every new situation.
Dr. Cardillo’s rules use the strategy of creating mental images to build new scenarios or patterns in your brain to help you achieve different outcomes.
Here are some key learning points from the 12 Rules of Attention :
- From Rule #1 – Your brain records your reactions to a situation in milliseconds and stores it for future use. When that situation comes up again, your brain will cause you to react the same way you did before.
- From Rule #2 – We have three tools available to use at any given time: Awareness where we know something but don’t need to pay attention to it right away, Mindfulness where we are present in the moment, and Attention where your mind is looking for patterns as discussed in Rule #1. When we integrate all three of those tools we operate at our optimum.
- From Rule #4 – Because we’re inundated with so much information all day, we should learn to compartmentalize, or intentionally squash information in order to focus on the task at hand. Focus on the most important activity that needs immediate attention. As an author, if you’re thinking about everything else on your ‘to do’ list, you won’t be able to give full attention to your writing routine. Instead, give yourself permission to focus only on your writing for a discrete period of time and tell yourself you will focus on other errands when that time is up.
- From Rule #7 – Sometimes you need more than your mind to help you focus and visualize. You might be too tired with low energy or too jumpy with high energy. Use music to help you stabilize your energy. Pick music with beats per minute (BPM) under 100 to help you calm down and music with BPM over 100 to excite the brain and give you more energy.
The book gives you visualization exercises to practice in each chapter. One I like invites you to think of a situation you would like to have better control over and a better outcome. My example is: you want the family to cooperate and leave you alone when you’re working on your book project. In the past, the conversations haven’t gone well.
Dr. Cardillo would advise you to visualize that situation, almost in the third person where you’re watching yourself. Imagine how you could behave to get a different outcome.
Envision the feelings you want to have and actions you want to engage in or disengage to get the family to buy-in. When you get the scenario exactly how you want it to go, play it over in your head. Make it brighter so you can pay sharp attention. Replay it over and over before the situation happens in real life. Those actions will create a pattern in your brain and help you focus when you have the actual conversation.
If you’re skeptical about using the techniques, I recommend you give them a try anyway. Dr. Cardillo is an expert in Attention Training™ and creative thinking and has taught his methods to over 20,000 students at various institutions. He holds a Ph.D. in holistic psychology and mind-body-medicine.
Find the books on Amazon (the link below is an affiliate link. I will get a small commission from Amazon if you purchase using the link):
