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Attention, The Real Treasure
Great cities long built defenses to keep invaders out, while allowing welcomed visitors in. We should do the same for our minds.
I used the Toggl app to log every minute I spend on work projects. I’m vigilant about that. I log how much time I spend as well on personal projects, like my attempts to improve my Spanish and learn a little French, Portuguese and Italian.
But what I should perhaps have logged is time lost to videos I never intended to watch.
I mean those mildly interesting short videos that Facebook adds unwanted to my feed. I click, and that initial video that hooked me then leads me to a few more short videos.
Not one of these videos is as interesting as the books I have waiting for me in my Kindle app. Not one of these videos is as valuable as the articles yet unread from excellent publications to which I subscribe. Still I watched them.
I’m far from alone in having squandered time this way.
We’re all facing siren calls today from screens.
Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt of the New York University Stern School of Business described well what’s at stake for us when we cave in.
