Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life

Philosophers have been worrying about distraction at least since the time of the ancient Greeks, who saw it less as a matter of external interruptions and more as a question of character—a systematic inner failure to use one’s time on what one claimed to value the most. Their reason for treating distraction so seriously was straightforward, and it’... See more

Milner, after keeping a diary and trying to pinpoint what experiences truly make her feel alive, realizes that she seems to pay two kinds of attention: “narrow attention” and “wide attention.” She describes them in a chapter called “Two Ways of Looking”:

(1) Narrow attention. – This first way of perceiving seemed to be the automatic one, the kind of... See more

Why would focus compound? Part of it is time. If you care about less, you spend more time doing what you care about most. Also, you are always nonconsciously processing the thing you focus on.So cutting priorities means you work even when it looks like you’re not working. These days,I’ll spend the afternoon playing with the kids, doing the dishes, ... See more

Our entire existence is shaped by the orientation of our attention. Each day unfolds as a culmination of the things we choose to focus on from when we wake up until we fall asleep.