What is an attention list?
A newer work primitive from the Grok Bot team: priorities that come from your activity instead of your intentions.
Last reviewed August 29, 2026
A stated priority list goes stale by mid-morning. An attention list is different: a Grok Bot watches where your attention actually goes — the Slack channels you're active in, the threads that name you, the meetings on your calendar — and keeps a running picture of what matters right now.
The idea comes from how the Grok Bot team uses a Chief of Staff Bot internally. It is emergent, not declared.
How it differs from a to-do list
A to-do list and a goals doc are things you author. An attention list is derived. You don't maintain it; a Bot does, by reading your activity. It answers "what am I actually spending myself on" rather than "what did I plan to."
What it's good for
Two uses, per the team that coined it:
- As a filter — a Bot uses it to decide which of the day's thousand messages and emails to raise with you and which to let sit.
- As a mirror — you compare your stated priorities against where your attention really went this week.
Setting one up
Ask a Bot that has your Slack, email and calendar (and meeting notes, if you use a tool like Granola) to build and keep an attention list: watch those sources, infer what you're focused on, keep a short ranked view, and refresh it through the day. Pair it with a routine — for example, hourly, archive email that doesn't name you and doesn't map to the list.
Keep sending, purchasing and deleting behind approval. The list guides attention; it should not act on its own.
Frequently asked
- Do I write the attention list myself?
- No. You set up a Bot to infer and maintain it from your activity. If you're writing it, it's a to-do list.
- Which connectors does it need?
- Whatever carries your work — typically Slack, email and calendar, plus a meeting-notes tool. More sources make the inference better.