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.

Recent research discovered a startling facet of life—brief periods during which consciousness is absent while the body carries on its well-rehearsed duties: driving, doing the dishes, or reading a long and uninspiring office memo. To an observer, everything looks normal while the subject is, in fact, zoned out. During these episodes of mind blankin