The Butterfly

The Butterfly has a short attention span, fluttering from one task to the next, alighting on a leaf for a moment before spotting something brighter and more colourful and flying off to investigate.

Projects are initiated with energy and enthusiasm and a sudden flurry of activity.  It’s common for the Butterfly to have several projects on the go at once; it suits their need for variety and appeals to their short attention span.

Tasks often drift without much significant progress being made and the Butterfly finds that much of their energy is used up by starting and re-starting projects – having to review what stage they’ve got to each time they pick up a project to spend some time on it.

There are a few tips we could offer the Butterfly.  

One might be to practise concentration, building up the length of time focussed on one task over a period of time.

Start with some self-study to work out the existing attention span.

Some people find it difficult to focus for just 10 minutes. Others delude themselves they can focus for 2 hours but in reality find themselves experiencing the pull of the outside world every 30 minutes, feeling jumpy and fidgety and needing to check emails or make a phone call.

Once the threshold is established, begin to build it up, little by little, until you can focus for a full hour.

In the meantime, break tasks into chunks that you can realistically achieve in the 10, 20 or 30 minutes that you can concentrate. That way you‟ll experience the joy of completion, that sense of actually getting something done.