I am terrible for distracting myself from what I should be doing. Apparently I am not alone, and for the first time since the Gutenberg press was invented, mobile phone apps have overtaken books as a means of procrastination.
I thought my attention span was supposed to increase as I got older, not get shorter than a New York Second. But I seem to have lost the ability to focus on any one task, without distraction, with full absorption. It may be a product of this ever-connected, ever-informative (I use the word in its loosest sense) world.
When I watch my niece and nephews, they play with enviable single-mindedness, completely taken up in their own imaginations. I used to be like that, I sometimes still am in a movie, or reading. So why can’t I call on that ability on demand anymore?
Is it lost, or just a forgotten skill I need to revisit?
They say the secret is to create an insular environment – to deliberately cut away all distractions so you have no choice but to focus on the task in hand. A) that isn’t always possible and b) we didn’t need to do that when we were kids. Once absorbed, nothing from outside gets in.
We’ve forgotten that wonderful observation of F Scott Fitzgerald’s “that most limited of all specialists, the “well-rounded man.” This isn’t just an epigram — life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all.” (Great Gatsby). We’ve made ourselves multi-task, Jacks (Jills) of all trades, forgetting that a Jack of all trades is by definition master of none.
We cannot have it all, at least not simultaneously. We try and fail and then agonise over our “work-life” balance. That equation probably traces back to a generalised and somewhat creative interpretation of the old Greek saw: meden agan – Nothing in Excess, which dates back too far for accurate accreditation.
The ancient Classical world was very keen on moderation, discipline and austerity. And it’s that focus, that discipline that allowed Alexander and subsequently the Romans to conquer so much of the world. Empires are out of fashion now, and we’ve pretty much lost the discipline to focus like that (I am unsure which of those is chicken and which is egg), which view Donna Tartt echoes in 'Secret History' when her narrator talks of the modern mind as "discursive" and the classical mind as "focussed". This is what makes Amy Chua’s “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” so outrageous to the Western mind – because the East hasn’t lost this ability, and one of the best places to learn it is through the Eastern Martial Arts (this isn’t just me. Anecdotal evidence suggests karate may be more beneficial for ADHD than Ritalin).
It also explains why China and India are the rising economies, becoming serious threats to America
So, to reclaim that discipline that allows us to focus in spite of distractions, it’s probably best to start small – ignore the email icon when it pops up, until you’re ready to deal with multiple emails. Ignore the phone – easy when the caller ID is someone we don’t want to speak to right now. If it’s important, they’ll either keep trying or leave a message
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