This post exists as a link source for me (a CEO/Programmer, long-time amateur goal-setter) to explain what I think of as the "Attention Pendulum." I presume I'm not the first person to conceptualize "attention" as similar to a pendulum on both "short" and "long" time scales, but when I Google "attention pendulum" as of Dec 2024, there are no links that describe this phenomenon the way I conceptualize it. So the rest of this post will explain how I conceptualize this idea, and why it's useful to factor in to goal setting exercises.
When a person takes up a new pursuit, whether it's athletic like "shooting pool" or "parkour," or more abstract, like "photography" or "gaming," there is a natural "proficiency uptick" that can supply enthusiasm for however long the uptick occurs.
The "learning curve" for hobbies has a hypothetically infinite range, but the pursuits I've attempted seem to cluster between 1-6 months. After that point, the easy improvements in whatever novel hobby give way to more difficult, methodical improvements.
If we define "attention" as "the capacity to spend time working toward a chosen pursuit," it's empirically observable that attention tends to swing between different extremes at the same (or similar) 1-6 month cadence where a hobbyist is enjoying rapid proficiency gains.
In this sense, every "pendulum swing" is the tendency to be naturally interested in a new hobby, goal or pursuit for 1-6 months. Each new pursuit will experience an "interest peak" where it is maximized in
After attention has been maximized for the current pursuit, it's attention will, by definition, wane. Often, it seems to wane at an exponential pace, as a new interest rises to subsume attention.
The "backswing" of the "attention pendulum" is the interval after your natural attention in the pursuit hit its local maxima, and the retreat of "easy to focus in this domain" means that any goals, friendships, equipment, etc., that were associated with the previous pendulum swing get washed away.