Attentional Health for Writers

and the need for attention sanctuaries

Hey there. It’s been a while! I’ve been busy with coaching and a book project I’m really excited about but can’t yet share, so I’ve been MIA for good reason. However, this week, one topic kept popping up that I wanted to chat more about.

Day Dreams - Paul Fischer (public domain)

This morning I listened to an episode of the Ezra Klein Show (podcast) called “Your Attention Is Being Fracked” in which Ezra interviewed D. Graham Burnett about the attention economy and what it’s doing to our brains. And yesterday, I listened to an episode of the Mel Robbins podcast called “Before You Waste Time, Listen to This” about what our phones are doing to our brains and our time. Both got me thinking. (By the way, if you’re interested in listening to the episodes, Ezra’s is more academic/philosophical and Mel’s is in plainer, easy-to-digest language and has action points. Both are great but different.)

Obviously, I’m aware of the phone problem (and social media problem.) I’ve been talking about it for years on my blog and in newsletters. I’ve done the detoxes. I’m a big fan of Cal Newport’s Digital Minimalism. I teach a class on focus for writers. This information wasn’t new to me, but sometimes I need to be reminded of it or hear it said in a different way. In the Mel Robbins’ episode, the stat “you’ll spend 20 years of your life on your phone” was thrown out there, and that definitely hit hard. And then in Ezra’s, he used the term “attentional health” and that really clicked for me.

Attentional health.

We talk about physical health, mental health, and spiritual health, but we just throw attention into the mental health bucket. However, I think it’s such a big part of our lives that it should have its own label. What we pay attention to IS our lived experience. Our attention is a big deal. That’s why companies spend all their resources trying to capture it. And those companies are winning. Twenty years of our lives looking at a little glowing rectangle? I mean, wow they aren’t just winning, they are crushing it. Or, more accurately, crushing us.

Our ability to pay attention or to maintain sustained attention is being stolen from us. (Note: I’m not talking about those with diagnosable attention disorders.) Those of us who have been present for both the pre-smartphone era and the aftermath can really feel the difference in the things we used to be able to do (be bored, read slow-building books, do one activity at a time, sit through movies that had actual opening credits and no jump cuts/explosions/superheroes, entertain ourselves without electronics, etc.) We know we had powers we no longer have. And we feel the loss.

So this idea of working on attentional health really appeals to me, especially as a writer. Beyond our attention creating our lived experience, it’s also how we get inspiration. Writers have to see what others don’t notice, feel things besides the numbing effects of scrolling through our phones, and get exposed to things that aren’t served up by algorithms that are flattening culture. We need to be in control of our attention and be able to look longer at something than others so that we can explore it in our writing.

I’ve been working on my attentional health over the years by doing digital detoxes and curtailing much of my social media, but I know there’s still work to be done. Phones are designed to be addictive, and I can fall back into the habit of mindless scrolling just like anyone else.

In the Ezra Klein episode, Burnett talked about sanctuaries for attention, and I think that can be a new avenue to give thought to. Where are the places or activities in your life where you have sanctuary from the distractions, particularly your phone?

For instance, I’ve recently taught myself to crochet so that I have something to do with my hands while I watch TV (or as was the case last week, get stuck on a plane for way longer than anticipated.) If I have yarn wrapped around one hand and a crochet hook in the other, it’s a real pain to reach for my phone for just a quick peek. So instead of having nothing to show for an hour of scrolling, I have part of a scarf and I’ve actually paid attention to the TV show I was watching. That feels good.

Burnett shared in the podcast this quote that sums it up:

“So my answer is, find a sanctuary. It's there.

And your listeners out there, they all have their different sweet spots where they are able to protect themselves from the [attention] frackers. It might be gardening. It might be that they actually can weld. And when they've got their visor down and they're in the puddle of the hot metal, that's when everything is zoned out. They may be knitting, and they may be doing a Zumba class.” —D. Graham Burnett, The Ezra Klein Show

So if you feel your attention is fractured and are looking for ways beyond the digital detox to find your way back, start looking for your personal attention sanctuaries.

I’d love to hear what your attentional sanctuary places or activities are! Also, what do you think of the term attentional health?