Attention: the resource we squander
We rarely lack time as much as we believe.
We lack above all available attention.
An entire day can pass without a single moment having been fully lived.
A limited resource
Attention is not infinite. It tires, it disperses, it allows itself to be captured.
And many things, today, are designed precisely to capture it: notifications, scrolling feeds, constant solicitations.
This is not a judgement, it is a simple observation.
Doing one thing at a time
The ability to handle everything simultaneously is often praised.
And yet, in wanting to do everything at once, one rarely does anything truly.
Eating without a screen, walking without a phone, listening to someone without preparing one’s response: these are modest exercises, and yet difficult ones.
A few reference points
What helps me, without anything extraordinary:
- setting aside short moments with nothing soliciting one’s attention
- choosing consciously what one looks at, rather than submitting to it
- accepting a little boredom, sometimes
Why it is worth it
What we call “being present” is nothing other than attention returned to what we are living.
The moments we remember are almost always those in which we were truly there.
Conclusion
Protecting one’s attention is not cutting oneself off from the world.
It is choosing, a little more often, where one places one’s gaze.
Yannick Costechareyre