A recent article by a doctor on carotids.com talked about the effects that being in IT have upon those doing that type of work.
Here are the four most common complaints:
#1 Horrible Sleep Hygiene
#2 Headaches
#3 Back Pain
#4 Poor Attention Span
I want to specifically zero in on the "poor attention span" symptom, as that's the one that I notice the most when I research, consult and generally talk to other online marketers and workers.
This is one that I've puzzled over for a while as I have the hardest time convincing online marketers to concentrate on accomplishing one thing. Some of the observations and conclusions by this doctor give some insight into the problem.
Last post we talked about the most necessary thing that online marketers need. This post even underscores further why that is needed as the most important aspect of marketing, no matter what business you are in.
Here is what the doctor says about attention spans:
"...the issue of attention span is likely to have a particular resonance with "the geek population" due to the prevalence of born multitaskers in the IT world, as well as the issue of how geeks train their minds.
"He adds that as a result of being trained to multitask, IT professionals will lose focus when forced to think about just one thing – such as when sitting in a meeting, for example.
"If I were to go and try to run a few miles this weekend, I would not be able to easily do so. My muscles are just out of shape from my lack of exercise over the last few months. However, if you take one of the these college basketball athletes, any of them would be able to run miles without even breathing heavy. However, if you made them sit down and try to learn Java for 12 hours a day, most of them would be asleep at their desk before lunch.
"The typical geek trains their brain to be heavily focused while multitasking day after day. Is it surprising that this same brain does not do well when forced to isolate down to one task? Listening in a meeting is a very isolated, very passive event. Coding, developing, debugging — these are not passive at all. The geek brain is just not trained to sit quietly and listen."
I believe this is one of the reasons that numerous people that attempt to operate online businesses fail so often, or don't stay with anything long enough to be successful.
To be successful you have to be in something long enough to give it a chance to fail or succeed. If you, through your conditioning via online multi-tasking, don't allow yourself to be able to center in on the purpose of your business and why you believe in what you are offering so deeply, pretty soon you are doing mechanical, technical things that may or may not connect to the overall purpose of your business.
You must remind yourself over and over again concerning the purpose of your business and how your product or service fits into it. You will struggle mightily to build a steady, consistent business if you don't do that.
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