Our attention is highly fractured and leads to a constant feeling of restlessness. To quote author Rebecca Solnit, “a sense that we should be doing something else, no matter what we are doing.”
Technology is high on the list of things to blame. The internet drastically increased the speed and access of information, hastening the news cycle. Social media means FOMO of your peers. Connectivity of devices like a cell phone, vie for attention with a drip feed of notifications.
See also:
- How do we live a rich digital life and minimize the restlessness?
- Depression is living in the past, anxiety is living in the future, the restlessness we feel feeds into both.
- Maybe the answer is not so much abstaining from technology, but a digital mindfulness so as not to be swept away when it doesn’t serve us.
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Schedule Time Every Day to Work on Your Top Goal
It’s easy to get swept away by requests from other people and other demands on your time. This is why it can feel like you do a lot of work but make little progress on what’s most important. Blocking off time each day to work on your top goal ensures you make progress above all else.