Regaining focus – Manu

A life full of distractions is, at an individual level, diminished. When you are unable to pay sustained attention, you can't achieve the things you want to achieve

— Stolen Focus, Johann Hari

Now I’m trying really hard to slow down. Pay complete attention. Lately I’ve internalized there’s something so sacred about focus, rather than constantly deliberating between monitor screens and plans and side hustles. Depth rather than breadth. In a world that is increasingly accelerating — social media eyeballs and immediate gratification and a p

As your old emotional reactivity recedes, your attention becomes more stable. Instead of flitting away into endless reactions, it stays more easily in the present. Without a thousand unintentional side trips, all of life becomes easier. This stabilizing of attention is immensely valuable — in fact, it is the goal of many meditation and attention pr

If your focus isn’t strategic and you become a victim of modern mental enslavement, your potential is already decided. Your attention will be manhandled, your sense of self will be an unconscious monstrosity, and you will end up an average clone without your knowing. Nobody wants to wake up wondering where the time – or information – went.

The goal is to more quickly notice when you are distracted without beating yourself up about it, so that you can redirect your attention to where you want it. The result is that you end up owning more of your attention, and thus owning more of your life.