Critical Ignoring: The Skill Your Attention Is Begging For

Send us Fan MailEpisode 271Ish arrives with a voice that sounds like it’s been dragged through gravel, but fortunately it’s not illness; it’s karaoke. Ten songs, a bit of Blues Brothers, and a final assault on Sweet Child O’ Mine will apparently do that to a man.Once the vocal cords have been accounted for, we get into something most of us are probably terrible at: critical ignoring. Because between Slack, Teams, email, Instagram, notifications, hot takes, random rabbit holes and apparently an urgent need to learn everything about Mesopotamia, the problem isn’t just knowing how to think. It’s deciding what deserves your thinking in the first place.This episode is all about attention: where it goes, what steals it, and why being able to deliberately ignore things might be one of the most useful skills we can build.They explore the difference between critical thinking and critical ignoring, why businesses can’t be brilliant at everything, and how your diary and internet history may reveal your real priorities more accurately than what you say your priorities are.There’s also a live inspection of Ish and Sacha’s Instagram algorithms, Sacha’s inability to finish researching skincare, the idea that your attention may need its own nightclub bouncer, and a mildly terrifying detour into AI agents that are apparently prepared to throw Susan out of spin class to achieve their goals.Underneath all the chaos is a useful question: what are you allowing into your brain, and is it helping you do the things that actually matter?Key Learnings1. Decide what deserves your attention before you start thinking about it2. Protect your best working time3. Your actual priorities leave evidence4. Make distraction slightly harder5. Critical ignoring is not the same as avoidance“Critical thinking matters. But first you have to decide what deserves your thinking.”The 30-Minute Presenter ProgramLearn how to map out your content, structure your thoughts, and craft messages that truly matter.Check out our 30-Minute Presenter Program today.Click here to learn more