take back control of your attention
“So much can be accomplished in one focused hour, especially when that hour is part of a routine, a sacred rhythm that becomes part of your daily life.”
— Dani Shapiro
— Dani Shapiro
David Brooks • Your Mental Diet
If I believe my inner world is an “ecology” and social media’s algorithms are “incursions” and “extractive”—then I have to think hard about my own part in sustaining the fragile space of my attention, a place I’ve been cultivating with great care all these years.
Lia Purpura • The Ecology of Attention
No matter how much time I spend catching up on all the interesting links in my inbox, the Internet generates content way faster than I am able to consume it.
Sari Azout • Check Your Pulse #43
The act of focusing our attention on a single thing (or at least attempting to do so) reveals to us how distracted we’ve been all along.
Allison Fallon • The Power of Writing It Down: A Simple Habit to Unlock Your Brain and Reimagine Your Life
People who experience flow describe it as “a state of effortless concentration so deep that they lose their sense of time, of themselves, of their problems,” and their descriptions of the joy of that state are so compelling that Csikszentmihalyi has called it an “optimal experience.” Many activities can induce a sense of flow, from painting to raci
... See moreDaniel Kahneman • Thinking, Fast and Slow
A few years ago, drowning in email, I successfully implemented the system known as Inbox Zero, but I soon discovered that when you get tremendously efficient at answering email, all that happens is that you get much more email. Oliver Burkeman
We’ve been given no shortage of digital tools that should, in theory, help us work better, with more focus and efficiency, and connect us more easily with our colleagues. Instead, email, instant messaging, remote-meeting apps, work-flow and project-management software and so on can feel like so many buckets with holes in the bottom, maddeningly in
... See moreCal Newport • The Digital Workplace Is Designed to Bring You Down - The New York Times
