Henry David Thoreau writes in Walden that “there is an illusion” in modern improvements. “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things.”
In a recent blog post, Cal Newport dances around the idea that society is becoming less serious. The rise of TV, then the internet, and now social media is extinguishing concentration, decreasing our already thin attention spans. He despairs that Twitter is becoming the go-to forum for political and philosophical discourse. We have serious issues to solve, yet we debate them in childish ways, 280 characters at a time.
Macro-level issues aside. You only have so much mental energy each day. How do you want to spend that energy? Entrepreneur Laszlo Nadler understands this. His time management system stress attention energy, not time.
You have only so many “attention units,” as he calls them. When they run out, you lose focus and the willpower for more. Studies have shown that knowledge workers have no more than six hours of mental energy per day. Many of the greats in their fields only focus on their work for three to four hours.
The more attention you devote to trivial matters, the less attention energy you have for serious things: children, reading, productive work, your partner.
How much time do you spend on your phone? Instead, should you be studying, playing with your children, connecting with friends, or enjoying nature? Perhaps it’s time we adopt the foyer method when at home. Better yet, leave it there, and go for a walk.
