Why Johnny Can't Think Anymore

Our daughter in Capetown recently sent me an article by Omar Najjarine published on Substack called, Of course you can't focus. You live a life of permanent interruption with a subheading of Why we can't think clearly anymore. If you subscribe to Substack, I urge you to check out the entire article because I won't be able to do it justice in a short blog post.

The original article is over 3,800 words. It has been said that the average attention span of a person today is about 47 seconds before they switch tasks or windows. As such, I'm not sure the people who NEED to read the article will have the ability to slough through it. Hell, for that matter, you may have already abandoned this article. For that, I stick out my tongue at you :) Our lack of ability to concentrate is based on a few factors:

• Screen Attention Span - This is where the average 47 seconds comes from, which is down from about two and a half minutes in 2004. It measures how long someone can stay focused on one screen.

• General Sustained Attention - These measures how long someone can maintain focus on a single stimulus or task before switching. This is also known as the goldfish comparison. Studies report ~8 seconds on average which is shorter than the sustained attention of a goldfish.

• Tasked-base or Work Attention Span - How long someone can stay engaged in a work task before drifting or switching. The average work-related attention span is down to about 2 hours from 4 hours in 2000.

When I was working, I always prided myself as a multitasker. I could jump from task to task, project to project or emergency to emergency at a moment's notice. I would check and answer emails during conference calls, juggle crises and requests as they came in and plan agendas for future meetings while texting or talking on the phone. It would be usual and customary to be rocking at least three computer screens at once. I thought of this as a good thing.

It turns out, like many people, I've got a short attention span. According to THEM (You know THEM, the people who study life and report back to the rest of us), the reason attention spans are shrinking are due to things like:

• Constant digital interruptions (notifications/alerts).

• Short-form video platforms like TikTok, Reels, Shorts.

• Habitual task-switching.

• High daily screen time.

• Cognitive overload from multitasking.

One study documented that the average person checks their phones 205 times per day (If you're a knowledge worker, this increases to 275 times a day). Americans on average spend about seven or eight hours of our waking moments looking at screens.

How does all these distractions affect our lives? Omar's Substack post had several key points that I'll try to summarize here but again, read the original article please:

• Stupefying work creates a stupefying life. Because many jobs drain our mental energy, our "free time" becomes recovery time, not creative or meaningful time.

• People misdiagnose themselves as ADHD or having depression when in reality, they're just experiencing mind-deadening monotonous work.

• Our work habits spill into the rest of our lives- all the fragmented, pretending and emotional numbing we experience at work carry over into our free time out of work.

• In order to regain mental vitality, we need to reduce as much meaningless work out of our lives as possible.

• Our minds function better with fewer inputs.

• Short-form content trains our brains to constantly crave novelty and destroys our ability to stay with anything meaningful.

• Smartphones are not just distracting - they are conditioning us to NEED distraction in our lives. Treat your phone like a tool - us it with intention and then put it away.

What's the answer?

Short of a total digital detox, make a conscious effort to declutter your life - some suggestions from the article and my personal insights include:

Meditation - "Look Buffy, it's not just for those weird guys in the robes anymore" - While meditation has been somewhat watered down here in the west, its purpose remains the same:

• Learn to be comfortable with silence - turn off the radio, the tv, the internet, the noise - learn to be comfortable without the outside stimuli. Yes, it's maddening at first, but it's doable. You don't have to become Buddhist to meditate. Try sitting quietly and let your thoughts go where they may without fighting to understand them. Those of you that know me understand that when I was studying Buddhism, I really struggled. My mind would go EVERYWHERE - I would fall asleep or was so wired that I wanted to crawl out of my skin. The key is to learn that you don't have to constantly be doing something or watching something or responding to something. Omar says our suffering comes from the mind's habitual clenching, not from life itself.

Learn that NO is a complete sentence. We don't always have to be "on" - we don't always have to do what everyone wants or needs from us. There can be a real cleansing and a powerful dopamine rush that comes from being alone and relaxing.

Contemplate what you hear and see - rather than coming home from a job that's just tearing you apart and numbing yourself with mindless entertainment - take time to try to understand your day and learn from it. Go over your interactions in your mind without judging them, try to glean some knowledge from what happened today.

Learn from the Amish - The Amish community believes that time is a gift from God and believe in the importance of living in the current moment. They don't multi-task, worry about the past or fret about the future. They work diligently on the task in front of them, quietly and to the best of their ability.

It doesn't all happen at once - Baby steps...pick one thing in your life that causes you distress and figure out a way to reduce it or eliminate it. EXAMINE YOUR LIFE. Make a list (if you have to) of everything that happened yesterday and ask yourself if it was a good thing or a bad thing. If it caused you pain or got you worked up, could you drive a stake in the heart of it to avoid it in the future? Can you learn from the experience? This goes back to contemplation.

When I retired, I was so concerned about ensuring my days were full of activities and that I kept busy to avoid falling into the "old man" syndrome of spending all my time taking naps and watching television. If I didn't have at least a few things to do with myself every day, I'd feel guilty and that I was wasting my life away.

I'm still a multitasker. I still have three monitors going at once. I still try to do something every day. But I'm also learning that many of the tasks and responsibilities that pulled at my life weren't as important or beneficial as I once thought and that there are much better things to do with my time left that are VERY important. I'm getting there...I'm spending my time doing things I enjoy, haven't reached enlightenment yet but learning there's a world of happiness out there to be discovered.

I wish this for each and every one of you.