Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention by Johann Hari

🚄Quick Summary

The fast-paced modern world has created an attention crisis.
Individual changes are a good step, but they will only fix so much.
To fully regain our focus, action is required at the legislative level, which will need collective action.

📚Why I Read It

This book came to me at a time when I had realised my technology usage was at an all-time high, and I was feeling the consequences. I noticed that I was less creative, more reliant on tools like AI, drawn into scrolling and searching, but worst of all, that I was now no longer using my technology deliberately. It was becoming common to look something up on a whim, put my phone away, then reopen it moments later to check something else. I read this book to understand why my focus had been stolen, and what could be done about it.

🤷‍♀️Who It’s For

Anyone looking to understand more about how our current environments, with particular focus on technology and the systems we run on it, impact our attention.

📝Top 5 Takeaways

We can make changes to our relationship with technology; however, some changes are at the legislative level.
Technology is only part of the problem affecting our attention.
You must remember to be kind to yourself, and remember the engineers and marketers working against you on behalf of their product.
Collective action will be required to make lasting change to regain our focus.
The environment we are creating for our children is an urgent point to correct, to ensure they have the tools to succeed in life.

🧠Deep Notes & Ideas

The 12 Causes of The Attention Crisis

Cause #1: The Increase in Speed, Switching & Filtering

Over the last 130 years, information has been coming at us faster and faster, which is caused by the increase in the volume of available information.
Depth of understanding and knowledge takes time; however, it is easier than ever to move and switch between topics at speed, so depth is harder to develop.
Guy Claxton, from the University of Winchester, analysed slow practices such as yoga, tai chi, and meditation, which supported the view that these forms of slowing down improve your ability to concentrate by a significant amount.
Moving too fast can overload your abilities, which can lead to degradation. The aim should be to move at a speed which is compatible with human nature.
Repairing our ability to concentrate can take time, so start with monotasking for 10 minutes, then a minute where distraction may form, before returning to an additional 10 minutes. Build the individual time, so that eventually you’ll be working on one task for 15, 20, 30 minutes at any given time.

Cause #2: The Crippling of Our Flow States

There is a risk that you become so used to interruptions that even when we remove distractions, you will begin to interrupt yourself. Consider this the feeling of not having your phone on you, then distracting yourself to remind yourself where your phone is.
You may hear that the ultimate state of working is during flow, but it’s not possible to achieve or maintain flow when we live in a state of distraction.
Remember that flow is achieved through chasing one goal, which should be just on the edge of your abilities.
The aim should be to remove our distractions and repair our relationship with interruptions, whilst finding sources of flow, driving towards one goal.

Cause #3: The Rise of Physical & Mental Exhaustion

The importance of ensuring that our lifestyle, diet and sleep are optimised to replenish our bodies and minds.
Major challenges can be stimulation through caffeine, which means that when the caffeine wears off, we can be more exhausted than we would have been before.
On the subject of sleep, blue light should be avoided for at least two hours before bedtime.

Cause #4: The Collapse of Sustained Reading

Recent studies show that the amount of time spent reading for pleasure is declining rapidly.
Reading novels is a way of learning different perspectives, which has been supported by studies that reflect “The more novels you read, the better you were at reading other people’s emotions.”
Widening human empathy is a way of opening the world to be more inclusive and supportive, so the opposite may be true if we are reading less.
Consider that each social media platform you use will have a particular form of character, and over time your consciousness will be at risk of becoming more aligned with those views and opinions if allowed.

Cause #5: The Disruption of Mind-Wandering

Mind-wandering can be framed as a negative pursuit, and yet, having the space to let your mind roam is a crucial part of bringing ideas together.
The worry is that right now we aren’t focusing, but neither are we allowing our brains space to mind-wander. Whenever there is a moment of potential boredom, we can turn to some form of distraction, as opposed to enabling free-thinking time.
But there is a balance with mind-wandering, as it can descend into rumination.

Cause #6: The Rise of Technology That Can Track & Manipulate You

It’s a nice belief to feel we still control our attention, and if someone were to manipulate us, we would know about it. Unfortunately, when it comes to the technology we use, the money these companies make is dependent on you staring at your screen. For this reason, there are people out there specialising in manipulating your every move online and keeping you hooked.
Many people believe that their devices listen to them, which is often follows a certain ad presenting itself to you after a conversation. The reality is that this is now a result of accurate models which have the ability to gain a picture of who you are and make predictions around what you should see.
This type of assessment of your personality is known as surveillance capitalism, and there are calls for governments to take action and ban this form of business. This was achieved in 2017, when the European Union blocked some forms of tracking, including Gmail from scanning your mail. Despite this, the wider scanning of profiles continues.
An important point to note here is that it’s not just the technology itself which causes damage to our focus, but the software and applications that run on our technology. When certain apps need to keep you on them to make a profit, they will make decisions to achieve this outcome, even to the detriment of your well-being. There is an argument that our relationships with these modern devices would be greatly improved if the software and apps within them were blocked from keeping us hooked.
Finally, it is worth noting how social media currently sees false claims spread faster than the truth, as a result of algorithms that are designed to spread enraging material faster, as well as further.

Cause #7: The Rise of Cruel Optimism (or: Why Individual Changes are an Important Start, But Not Enough)

Individual changes to how we use our technology can be “the first line of defence”, which should begin with looking inward.
Typically, a negative usage of a device can be caused by getting into an uncomfortable state and replacing this feeling with distraction. Our aim should be to gain awareness of the triggers and find ways to disrupt them.
Where ‘cruel optimism’ comes in is through creating a belief that you are the problem and individual change is the solution. There is a mindset that you can make personal changes to fix your relationship with your devices, and those adaptations can happen quickly. But this means being blind to the deeper causes that lead to failure at some stage in the process.
Here are some tips for disrupting distractions from our devices:

Adopt a “ten-minute” rule: when you want to check your phone, wait ten minutes.
Create a “time-box”, which is a schedule for your day, that you need to stick to. Don’t allow the time for distractions to put you off course.
Block notifications on your devices which serve as your worst distractions. If you feel you can switch off notifications altogether, then do this, and set times for checking in on certain apps or communication channels.
Delete as many apps from your devices that serve as distractions.
Unsubscribe from email lists and have “office hours” on your email, so you only check them at certain times of the day.

Cause #8: The Surge in Stress & How It Is Triggering Vigilance

If you want to remain focused, it is important that you feel safe.
When you are stressed, not only is it harder to focus, but you also struggle to sleep due to an inability to wind down.

Causes #9 & 10: Our Deteriorating Diets & Rising Population

The diet you consume has a major impact on your ability to focus. The more processed food and drink you consume, the harder it will be for you to achieve focus.
Studies are beginning to find links between ADHD and a bad diet among children.
In a similar way to the engineers encouraging you to use their apps and websites, behind processed foods are expert marketers trying to get you to consume their goods.

Cause #11: The Rise of ADHD & How We Are Responding to It

Studies from the US and Britain show very clearly that ADHD is on the rise.
ADHD is not something which can be predicted from birth, with the environment a child grows up in being the best way to predict the chances of ADHD.
A child raised in an environment with high stress is significantly more likely to develop ADHD and develop from attention problems.
That’s not to say that genes don’t play a part in our chances of ADHD, with a new technique called SNP heritability, enabling studies that have shown 20-30% of attention problems relate to your genes.

Cause #12: The Confinement of Our Children, Both Physically & Psychologically

Evidence shows that restricting children from their desire to move around impacts their attention and overall health negatively.
A growth in the need for parents to protect their children at all costs has meant that their lives can be mapped out, without providing the opportunities for children to explore the lives they want to build.
The goal should be to encourage children towards intrinsic motives, which is doing something because it is meaningful to them.
You should ask whether the school system is set up to enable children to flourish and find mastery in subjects, rather than serving as a reminder that they’re not good at anything.

✍️Favourite Quotes

“a life full of distractions is, at an individual level, diminished.”
“In situations of low stress and safety, mind-wandering will be a gift, a pleasure, a creative force. In situations of high stress or danger, mind-wandering will be a torment.”
“a digital detox is ‘not the solution, for the same reason that wearing a gas mask for two days a week outside isn’t the answer to pollution. It might, for a short period of time, keep, at an individual level, certain effects at bay. But it’s not sustainable, and it doesn’t address the systemic issues.’”
“You can try having self-control, but there are a thousand engineers on the other side of the screen working against you.”
“to pay attention in normal ways, you need to feel safe.”
“I believe that now we must focus together – or face the fires alone.”
“Your individual efforts to improve your attention can be dwarfed by an environment full of things that wreck it.”
“Most people don’t want a fast life – they want a good life.”

📈How I’m Using It

Stolen Focus highlights something that really hit home with me; it is better to be aware of the scale of the challenge we all face in handling our relationships with technology.

It is very easy to be lulled into a belief that we are somehow weak for allowing technology to consume us; however, there are billion-dollar companies working on strategies to keep us online.

For this reason, I am using this book to readjust my view of my relationship with technology, whilst seeking a solution which works for me.

🧐Final Thoughts

Stolen Focus is packed full of anecdotes and personal perspectives, which made this book an easy read. Yet, behind this, there is enough weight and realistic reasoning to help you understand the forces and factors which have impacted your ability to focus.

It would be easy if the answer were all on us as individuals to change our behaviours; however, the reality is that a collective effort will be required to make the necessary changes.

If you are interested in understanding more about the factors which have altered our ability to focus, and the solutions for the future, then I would highly recommend this book.

I want to leave you with what I feel was my biggest takeaway: my lack of focus isn’t a personal weakness, but the outcome of systems designed to steal it. Knowing that has already changed the way I see my phone and my work.