Are you in laser mode or lighthouse mode?

The 2 modes of attention

🏷️ Categories: Attention.

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A creative mind needs to disconnect in order for inspiration to arise.

As she lost awareness of external things... her mind kept pouring out from its depths scenes, and names, and sayings, and memories and ideas, like a fountain spurting out in jets. — Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse

In this passage from To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf was describing what, in her own experience, are the two modes of attention: focused and diffuse. Both are equally valuable, but they serve very different purposes.

To do your best work, you need to master both.

However, most of the time, we believe that “focusing” is synonymous with working. That if you’re not staring at the screen, writing, calculating with a furrowed brow, then you’re not being productive.

But that view is incomplete. And above all, inefficient.

You’ll see why it’s not about working more, but about combining focused and diffuse modes…

Focal Attention

This is the one we’ve all known since childhood. The sit-down-and-concentrate kind, no distractions, checking tasks off your to-do list. It’s the mental state in which you direct all your attention to a single stimulus, and it makes you highly productive—if you reach the flow state.

And yes, it’s powerful. But it’s not everything.

This mode consumes a high amount of energy. And when we use it without rest, our creativity runs dry, our productivity plummets, and we begin to make more mistakes and remember things less effectively.

To fix this, we need to swing to the other extreme—towards diffuse attention.

Diffuse Attention

It’s familiar: You spend the afternoon thinking about a problem and can’t find the solution…

• But you go for a walk—and the solution appears.

• You take a shower—and the solution appears.

• You do the dishes—and the solution appears.

The diffuse mode activates when the mind wanders. When you're not thinking about anything in particular, yet your brain is still processing in the background. It’s the mode of unexpected connections, of creative ideas, of seeing the bigger picture (Zedelius & Schooler, 2016). Just to give you an idea: walking aimlessly and pressure-free can increase creativity by up to 60% compared to sitting still.

When you search for the solution, you don’t find it; when you stop searching, it comes to you.

• Focused attention is sharp and intense, like a laser beam.

• Diffuse attention lights up everything, but nothing in particular, like a lighthouse.

Both modes are necessary to be productive and creative.

The Bird Pecking and Scanning

A bird needs to concentrate to peck grains off the ground (focused mode), but it also needs to look up once in a while to scan the sky for hawks (diffuse mode) (Oakley, 2014).

If it only pecks, it gets caught.

If it only looks up, it starves.

Our minds work the same way. Focused mode gives you precision. Diffuse mode gives you perspective. One helps you move forward effectively by focusing on a single task, while the other ensures you see the big picture and recover from the draining effects of constant focus.

Multitasking claims to be the ability to be in focused mode on several things at once.

As you can see, that’s impossible—multitasking is a myth.

Combine Focused and Diffuse Modes

So, how can you apply this in your daily life? Here are a few science-backed (and personally tested) strategies:

• Work in intense intervals: Set a clear goal and focus on it for 50 minutes, then take a 10-minute break to clear your mind. Build the habit of switching between being 100% focused and 100% diffuse. This boosts your productivity and prevents mental fatigue.

• Disconnect with intention: Diffuse thinking doesn’t show up while endlessly scrolling through TikTok. Go for a walk, water your plants, or do some physical activity that frees your mind. For me, aimless walking with soft music works wonders. Find your favorite diffuse-mode activities and pair them with focused work to stay at your best.

• Avoid the middle ground: Social media isn’t a true form of rest. If you’re going to take a break, choose relaxing activities. Being stuck between mindful and diffuse attention just drains you more. Those who give themselves more space to wander tend to plan their lives better than those in a constant rush (Bench & Lench, 2013).

To perform better, you don’t need to spend more hours focused. You need to know when to be 100% focused and when to be 100% diffuse.

It’s about switching smartly from one extreme to the other.

✍️ Your turn: What do you do to go into lighthouse mode and let your mind wander?

💭 Quote of the day: “Intelligence is the door to freedom and alert attention is the mother of intelligence.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

See you next time! 👋

References 📚

1. Bench, S., & Lench, H. (2013). On the Function of Boredom. Behavioral Sciences, 3(3), 459–472.

2. Oakley, B. A. (2014). A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). TarcherPerigee.

3. Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152.

4. Woolf, V. To the Lighthouse.

5. Zedelius, C. M., & Schooler, J. W. (2016). The Richness of Inner Experience: Relating Styles of Daydreaming to Creative Processes. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.