Save your attention span

It’s pathetic what the average attention span evolved to be. Prolonged focus and reaching a flow state is a relict of the past. It feels like living with an impaired brain thinking back to intellectual highlights where “focus” was a thing. If we continue down this road, we better wave goodbye to feeling at ease with ourselves and work. In an attempt to tackle some of the issues, I spent Four days in a remote cabin to realign my thoughts.

Being without the internet, communication, or even your computer makes you wonder what to do with your time. You end up pondering things. It’s the stuff that happens while munching oatmeal and staring at the fire for four hours. Then there is the discomfort of the digital void. A pretentious feeling of “disconnection” despite insignificantly less contact with real humans. And finally, there is calm. Calm in chores and discomfort. Clearly defined tasks, uninterrupted work, and alignment with the pace of nature make a difference between day and night.

The latter isn’t necessarily feasible in the race our societies have come. But taking yourself away from distractions is no utopian idea, at least for a few days every month. The other option is living in cognitive misery. What a choice…

I made a video about it with more of the experience. If you want a challenge, try watching it whole in one go and count the time you would like to cop out to check something else. 42 minutes can be a long time.