Reposted from Tim Richardson

“Enjoy 5G at the Major League Allstar game and elevate the experience!” wrote an executive at a T-Mobile recently. So, you can stream the latest show while watching the Allstar game? No thanks. I would love to attend athletic events, theater performances, conventions, and concerts where people were fully engaged in the experience, not glued to their phones or other screens! Sadly, there are increasingly fewer places to fully disconnect. Moments without distraction are few and far between in our world. Screens competing for our attention are seemingly everywhere – at the gas pump, at individual tables in restaurants, in waiting rooms, throughout airports, at sports arenas, concert venues, and even places of worship. In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport argues that the more distractions we allow into our lives, the more unable we will be able to accomplish deep, focused work. Deep work is where creativity and problem-solving flourish. Deep work is where entrepreneurship happens. Deep work is where big ideas are born. Deep work is thoughtful and thorough. We need to create time and space for this type of work, but it’s nearly impossible to escape the barrage of information competing for our attention and brain power to do that deep work. I’m sure that you’ve experienced a conversation with someone who couldn’t stop looking at their phone. Didn’t every single notification cause an awkward lapse in your discussion? People with those habits are very far from the self-mastery that Newport recommends for Deep Work. This is where regular digital pauses can be really helpful.

Maybe you could start by adopting a Tech less Tuesday. Block out part of your day to engage more with people minimizing or even eliminating the use of any technology during predetermined times. If you lean heavily on AI for help, ask for a trusted colleague for input instead. Purposefully plan some unstructured time free from digital distractions. Strengthening the muscles of focus and attentiveness can only happen when we have the discipline to say no to the distractions all around us while creating space for thinking. Just because we can watch movies on the airplane doesn’t mean we should. Just because we have a ChatGPT subscription doesn’t mean we allow it to think for us. Just because we have a smart phone doesn’t mean it Focus and attention are extremely limited resources today. If we don’t regularly practice using our brain power and deep-thinking ability, we’ll surely start to lose the ability to do both well.

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