For a while now, my ability to focus has been shot. Sure, my life was humming away per usual, to the outside observer. But inside, I knew things were different. I did not feel like “myself.” I could not seem to get things done in an efficient manner. I felt lost, even if I didn’t look it. I chalked it up to aging. In other words, decline.
My aha
When I happened upon an interview with Johann Hari, author of the New York Times bestseller Stolen Focus, I tuned in and perked up. Hari’s message is that we’ve all lost focus, thanks to products designed to steal our attention. That message was not new. My aha was his addendum: “And it’s not your fault.” Battling the focus-suckers is hard work.
Like me, you’ve probably had some awareness that you should fight back. And you’ve tried to step away from the obvious culprits—social media, doomscrolling, multitasking, etc. I know I have. But it’s hard. Maybe even impossible. So I liked Hari’s message that it’s not that I’m weak. I’m instead living in an ecosystem designed to keep me unfocused.
What I’ve lost
I have most keenly felt the loss of focus with reading. I have been unable to “get lost” in a book like I used to. Not very long ago, the thought of having some time to read would be a treat. And I could read for hours at a time. Now I am a member of two different book clubs, and honestly, the reading—even when it’s a book I really like—feels like homework. There is no joy.
I even find it hard to watch a movie or a streaming series without an occasional glance at the phone. I know I’m not alone. In fact, 84% of U.S. adults report using a second screen while viewing TV. When I pick up that second screen, I justify that it’s to retrieve important information, not for shallow distraction. For example, just yesterday when watching Tokyo Vice, I googled whether actor Ansel Elgort had learned Japanese for the part (answer—yes!). At the time, it seemed really important to know. Yet, does it really matter? The multitasking (which is a major focus-stealer according to Hari), removed me from the show for a few minutes, then my brain needed to catch up when it reentered the television screen. This reduces enjoyment.
Perhaps the most impactful effect of the focus problem is that I have trouble getting deep work done. To sustain total attention writing for an hour is difficult. As a result, I am much less efficient. It takes many more passes to accomplish what I used to do fairly quickly in one or two focused sessions. I seem to tackle other non-writing tasks haphazardly. Sure they get done. But I do not have that satisfying feeling of buckling down, concentrating, and accomplishing something big in one sitting.
Resources to gain focus back
Hari is quite candid about the fact that regaining focus is a daunting task, one that may be doable but is difficult. He offers some tips, which are only slightly less than obvious. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that a large part of this is unhooking from the phone and all things scrolling—from Twitter to the news. However, tech has been devised expressly for the purpose of giving dopamine hits intermittently to hold your attention. So the pull is real. Still, there are numerous ways to attack this.
You can physically prohibit access to your phone. Hari uses a product called the kSafe, a small container in which you lock your phone (or your Oreos). You won’t be able to open the safe until a time you pre-determine. There are also similar products that look like little jail cells for your phone. And don’t forget the actual bed-shaped phone charger Arianna Huffington sells in her quest to help people sleep better by staying away from their phones.
You can also use “softer” approaches to keep yourself off the Internet. A popular digital boundary-setter is Freedom, which I’ve used. The app prevents you from using the Internet (or any parameters, such as certain sites) while it’s running. Alternatively, some households use a timer on their Wi-Fi router, which cuts power after a certain hour to prevent access.
For me, this is extreme. Instead, I am beginning by developing my own awareness of how these digital activities are harming my brain. To do that, I am learning more and surrounding myself with input from experts who specialize in focus and technology’s impact on it. A couple of my favorites include:
Cal Newport – Newport is one of my favorite authors and hosts an excellent podcast (if you don’t mind major, but at least self-aware, nerdiness). A computer science professor at Georgetown, he has been a proponent of doing “deep work” by eschewing social media and email distraction for a long time now. One of the best places to get an introduction to his philosophies is in his interview on the Tim Ferriss show. Newport also is a proponent of time-block planning to increase deep work and sells a paper planner designed for this purpose.
Nir Eyal – Ironically, in Eyal’s first book, Hooked, he shared insights gained as a developer designing tech products to hijack your attention. Since then, he’s done a 180 and now helps people unhook. His book, Indistractable, attacks this problem with social media and technology and also presents very doable tips on dealing with distractions.
Tristan Harris – A long-time activist against the harms tech companies build into their products, he was formerly a design ethicist at Google and is currently co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology. A good place to learn about Harris’s work is this interview with Noah Trevor.
To be fair, in Stolen Focus, Hari offers 12 different ways our attention is being hijacked—including the surge in stress that brings increased vigilance, our deteriorating diets and pollution, and confining children indoors—with suggestions on how to deal with each on a personal and societal level. But I’m starting with what is clear I need to do: Put my phone away, put my head down, and do the work.
Photo by Tomer Dahari from Pexels