There’s no way to justify it.

Yet you indulge it in nearly every minute of every day.

Distraction.

Distraction is a thief and a killer.

It robs you of your focus, your attention, and your precious time.

It robs you of the capacity to read, write, and reflect.

It robs you of your ability to be truly present in the most important, yet so fleeting, moments of your life.

Distraction kills your productivity.

It kills your energy.

It kills your capacity to do deep work.

The perpetrators, villains?

All of those who covet, compete and pay vast sums of money for your most precious asset: your attention.

Yet you leave the keys in the car with the engine running; you leave the front door to your house wide open.

Stop it.

Interruption science say that you are interrupted or cause yourself to be interrupted every 3 minutes of the day; and that every interruption in your day has a “cost” in terms of lost focus and productivity. Researchers have measured the cost. It’s between 11 minutes and 25 minutes.

So, let’s do a conservative calculation: An interruption every 3 minutes would be 20 interruptions an hour x a 10 hour day x 11 minutes of cost = A lost 2,200 minutes of productivity each day! (Yes, friends, that more than 36 hours. No wonder it feels like you can never get caught up. You never really can.)

Annie Dillard wrote, “How you spend your days is, of course, how you spend your life. What you do with this hour, and that one, is what you are doing.”

Don’t do distraction.

This isn’t a polemic against smartphones or tech.

It’s a rallying cry: Take back what is yours.

Your time.

This moment.

This one and only precious moment.

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