I heard it somewhere that, we call 'paying' when it comes to 'attention' because its something we should pay for and also because it pays us back. I was obviously surprised by this 'silly talk' until I understand the 'true' meaning of it.
Paying attention to everything has great power. We all can't do that. It's not about just noticing what others are saying or warning. It's more about noticing every single detail. It's from noticing our own feeling of noticing the beauty of nature; everything.
It's very difficult to make our mind skip every distraction around us. It's nearly impossible to notice everything happens around us. But it's not impossible if we can learn to pick what matters most.
Find out what annoys you and whatnot.
Point out what interests you and what you mostly notice.
Find out what you usually ignore.
learn them one-by-one.
Once you learn the 'one-by-one' technique you can distinguish what you need to notice. It will make things so much manageable and easy. Like if noticing 'human behavior' interests you and the surrounding noise is annoying you; then you must pay attention to what noises are there. If it's talking, or the TV or the traffic, once you notice you can skip that. And thus you can pay attention better.
You can any other example depends on your interests. And if you follow this simple technique on that you will find it really helpful, I guess. It can be noticing nature or your office environment. mastering your own domain will lead you to know what to pay attention to. And our brain will learn to skip the unnecessary 'noises' from our brain. Try this simple technique and I can assure you it will help you in many ways.