Creating space to think

Smartphones and social media are designed to keep you going back to them by offering little hits of the chemical dopamine — tiny rewards that entice you and then hold your attention. We know this; their inventors have admitted it. Smartphones could just as well have been designed to disrupt writing, because what writing requires is absorption: sustained attention without distraction. So give your brain a chance to think. If you can’t bring yourself to switch off your phone and Wifi connection, then at least mute alerts. That way, you go to your device when you want to, not every time it calls. Why not try working for an hour with your phone on airplane mode, and an hour as normal? Afterwards, compare your productivity over the two hours. You might be shocked by the difference.

James McConnachie
3 October 2019