How to start paying attention to your attention

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Helping young people own their attention and build the skills and mindsets they need to flourish as humans.

How to start paying attention to your attention

Sometimes all you need is a good metaphor (or three)

Meghan Fitzgerald

Mar 24, 2026

I’ve always loved and lived by this notion, paraphrased from philosopher, Hannah Arendt:

> “Metaphors are the means by which the otherwise invisible is made visible.”

The right metaphor cuts to the heart of something, revealing meaning in a way that is clear to one’s mind, heart and senses, and all in a way that is deeply memorable. Metaphors give us a grasp on what would otherwise feel abstract and unreachable.

Our attention is one of those abstract, unreachable things. And, it’s not just one single thing. Rather, it’s several systems that interact with one another, serving complimentary purposes. Together, these attentional sub-systems enable us to direct, shift and sustain our focus in the service of things we value and seek to do—even as we navigate a dynamic world that provides an overwhelming amount of input.

Enough already…what’s the metaphor?

It’s actually a trio of metaphors, one for each of three attentional sub-systems: your flashlight, your floodlight, and your juggler.

I first heard Amishi Jha, attention expert and neuroscience researcher at University of Miami, describe these three in an interview. I promptly obtained and inhaled her book, _Peak Mind_. And, after encountering piles more research, I continue to find the three metaphors about as helpful as any description, especially when helping young people become acquainted with their attention.

First, there’s our flashlight. This is the part of our attention system that we use to select, prioritize and focus on certain information over other information. Researchers refer to this as our _orienting system_. You can think of it as shining a bright light or directing a narrow channel of attention onto a certain thing. That object of your focus becomes brighter and more salient, while other information fades and becomes dimmer.

We may shine our flashlight on something going on in the present moment. Or, quite often, we shine our flashlight back onto memories of the past, or ahead onto wonderings about the future.

I find helping kids notice their flashlight helps them explore questions like: When am I able to direct my focus on something, and when does that become challenging? When do I focus too much on one thing? What types of things capture my flashlight (the enriching, the empty or even the harmful)?

Then, you have your floodlight, which is a softer, wider light. It is the open awareness we cast all around us, like a floodlight illuminates a baseball game at night. This is referred to as our _alerting system_. This part of our attention system allows us to be open to what is happening, stay alert to new information and notice how the current situation is shifting.

I find that kids often forget about their floodlight, especially when they are hyper-focused on something that they find engaging. Remembering to open up our floodlight and notice what is happening around us can help us be more present or “in the moment.” This can be especially helpful for noticing someone else’s feelings and emotions. Flexing our floodlights can also help make us feel more balanced, offering a break from the flashlight’s directed attention, which can easily get drained these days.

Finally, there’s the juggler, or what researchers refer to as our _central executive_—part of a suite of capacities called executive function. The juggler is always balancing and trading off between new inputs of information (floodlight) and how or what we are prioritizing (flashlight). This is the part that enables us to shift or sustain attention and behave as needed, both in response to a dynamic world and in the service of our goals or wishes.

I find the juggler a bit harder for kids to notice at first–something I’ve found true for executive function skills in general. But, over time, kids benefit from having a way to visualize and understand that switching and balancing are a huge part of attention–not just “being in the moment” or “staying on task.”

How these metaphors can help kids

Human attention is a complex and deeply nuanced human capacity. Breaking down complex skill sets like attention into more discrete subsystems can make it easier for kids (really, anyone) to notice, understand and even control how their own attention operates.

Once we give each subset a metaphor, we provide language and a mental model through which to understand not only how that aspect of attention works, but also how it is both powerful and vulnerable. And, it becomes easier to identify concrete ways to strengthen each component and, in turn, feel in more control of the whole of attention.

Introduce the three subsystems

Even just realizing that you can think about your attention as the interplay between your flashlight, floodlight, and juggler gives kids a new way to notice their attention at work and think about how attention operates.

I’ve collaborated on two posts with young people (~10-15). Together, they lay out some basic definitions of attention and introduce this trio of metaphors. Read or listen to the first post with kids, or have them check it out on their own.

Flex and strengthen your flashlight, floodlight, and juggler

Once you start looking, there are so many simple ways to help kids (and ourselves) explore and strengthen each of these attentional subsystems.

Read more about how each of the following subsystems operate and simple ways to strengthen them:

It’s worth noting that consciousness and attention are related but distinct. I think of attention as the mechanism that operates _within_ consciousness, deciding what gets prioritized and helping us squeeze the juice out of whatever that is. Nevertheless, Gopnik's metaphors map rather well onto the flashlight and floodlight concepts. And, her observation that we tend to shift from lantern to spotlight as we age feels especially urgent when we think about adolescents, who are at that hinge point between childhood and adulthood, and who would benefit greatly from knowing and nurturing both their lantern/floodlights _and_ spotlight/flashlights.