TJL #27: Be aware of the spotlight effect (Daily productivity #2)
Simple tips & tricks to be more productive
Welcome back to Today Jan Learned (TJL) #27. In this newsletter I share the best of what others have figured out already. To get the full TJL experience, subscribe today.
Today: Become more productive using the spotlight effect.
The spotlight effect
Fun fact: You are not the center of the universe. You are the center of your universe.
In other words, we vastly overestimate how much people pay attention to us.
This is called the Spotlight effect:
The spotlight effect is the phenomenon in which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are. Being that one is constantly in the center of one's own world, an accurate evaluation of how much one is noticed by others is uncommon.
The reason for the spotlight effect is the innate tendency to forget that although one is the center of one's own world, one is not the center of everyone else's.
Remember that guy a while ago that did something really embarrassing? Probably not. Why? Because we have our own things to worry about.
Application
How do we apply this idea?
The principle of the spotlight effect remains true. I am the center of my world. You are the center of your world. Every other person is the center of their world. Because we experience the world from our own point of view, we tend to worry way more about our own failures than about other people’s failures.
Use the spotlight effect to your advantage! Because people pay so much attention to their own failures instead of yours, you can take more risk, look more stupid, and try out more things!
Previous TJLs
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