The Still Mind: On Reclaiming Our Attention

A Sea of Endless Distractions

We live in an age of endless distractions. According to the Digital 2024: Global Overview Report, Malaysians average 4 hours and 37 minutes on their phones and 8 hours and 17 minutes on their screens daily [1]. That’s roughly a third of our waking hours. Outside of when we slumber, our work and idle moments are spent connected to screens – we swipe, tap, click, and type, to get work done and to entertain ourselves. That compact smartphone in your pocket and purse is far more powerful than most computers a mere decade ago. Our devices also, however, consume a disproportionate amount of our attention, and have become a primary distractor for many of us.

Distractions from our devices, from our smartphones, tablets, and laptops, are commonplace in classrooms. 65% of students from sampled OECD countries report being distracted by their devices. Another 59% become distracted when they see other students using their devices. Most teenagers receive a median of 273 notifications daily, negatively impacting their academic performance [2]. In the US, 41% of respondents say they felt pressured responding to emails and Slack messages, while 17% of them checked their phone multiple times an hour. Just 4% reported being able to go their entire day without checking their phones, and a third checked their devices every time they received a notification [3]. All that screen time adds up – it is estimated that a person born in 2025 will spend 21 years of their life looking at screens [4].

Numerous books have written about how our digital devices and apps are competing for our attention. As end users of these technological conveniences, we are part of what Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff calls The Attention Economy. Companies recognize that our attention is a scarce, precious commodity, and so engineer devices and apps to ensure that we remain consistently hooked to our devices. The attention directed toward online content discloses our interests, habits, and values to corporations that generate enormous profits from a better understanding of who we are as potential consumers. Apt descriptions of such business strategies appear in The Attention Merchants (Tim Wu), how technology is likened to The Siren’s Call (Chris Hayes), which, in the long-run, influences our well-being. We end up with a sense of Stolen Focus (Johann Hari) and realize that Our Brain Has Too Many Tabs Open (Tanya Goodin). The wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, quotes the economist Herbert Simon.

How Many Moments Passes You By Before You Realize Life Is Slipping Away?

Our moments make up our experiences. Our experiences make up our lives. We take this amount of time for granted, overestimating how much we have, and are then surprised by how quickly time slips away when we get caught up in our distractions over the years.

Being mindful of our experiences – paying attention to our attention – can improve the quality of our life [5]. Studies on ‘flow’ states suggest that if we regularly engage in acts that cognitively immerse and challenge us, when we fuse both thought and action to fully occupy our senses, we experience the pleasures of having more ‘well-spent’ days [6]. We can also create opportunities for us to savour experiences – focusing on the joys and pleasures that come our way [7]. Cultivating the practice of returning to the present, aligning thought and action in a challenging yet enjoyable task, and finding ways to celebrate the positive moments in your life can all help in crafting a collection of memories that you will not only find more enjoyable but fulfilling as well. Pulling away from screentime – or making an effort to reduce it – can help. Here are some additional pointers to regain control of your attention.

1. When your mind wanders (as it is likely to do), or if you find yourself being distracted, redirect your attention to your in-the-moment experience. Focusing on your breathing can help. With every inhale and exhale, stay curious and open to the experience of being here – present in the moment. You can also try anchoring your experience to what you can see, feel, and smell in your surroundings.

2. Immerse yourself in activities that demand your fullest attention. Consider activities that challenge yet also engage you. Pastimes that are cognitively and emotionally immersive – sport, crafting, a passion project – are preferable over passive scrolling or binge-watching. Think of a screen-free absorbing activity you can engage in, and try during your leisurely moments.

3. Savour positive moments – be it eating, resting, completing tasks, throughout your day. Amplify the positive emotions and experiences from the simple acts of the day. The quiet contentment of curling up to a good book while sipping some tea can invite moments of gentle positivity in your day.

A Year without Social Media and Message Notifications

Three years ago, I experimented with reducing my screen time and limiting the number of distractions from my smartphone. I got rid of all my social media apps and silenced notifications from the WhatsApp instant messaging app on my phone (Apologies to those of you who received delayed replies from me from 2022 to 2023). Prior, I typically spent 8 hours a day on my phone – my attention sapped away by hours spent doomscrolling “news,” rumours, and digital gossip during a period of political instability and misinformation following the pandemic. The endless stream of informational noise – most of them serving only to elevate my anxiety, eroding my ability to stay focused on my work. I also came to realize how the content I was consuming was also distorting my perceptions – I gradually became more cynical, unhappy, and distrustful of others. Looking back, I realized that, as much as we think that we are curating our online space with our reactions, comments, and likes, the reverse is possibly true. Online content shapes who we are and the people we become.

Since then, I’ve made a more intentional effort to swap out those many hours on my phone with more beneficial habits. For one, I spent the weekends reading a bit more – there’s something of a ‘tactile satisfaction’ and faint scent of a newly-unwrapped book that a screen does not offer. The author Oliver Burkeman, in Meditations for Mortals, writes about how books, whether you remember what you have read, leave a mark on your thoughts. I realized I would rather have uplifting and thought-provoking books leave a mark in my mind than subject it to an endless stream of angst and anxiety-provoking online clickbait. It has worked out well for me, particularly when writing The Science of Flourishing.

I left my phone at home when I went out for walks. I resolved to give my fullest attention to friends and family when in conversations with them. And I believe, for that year, I became happier for it. An unexpected, but positive side effect from this personal experiment was that time seemed to be in greater abundance; those hours spent engrossed in a good book and in deep conversation with cherished connections felt much like time well-spent nourishing them mind. Those hours spent on walks in a quieter part of my neighbourhood felt much like time well-spent nourishing the body. And despite a year of going half-offline and becoming less immediately accessible through my devices, I held on to my job, health, and carved out more time and space for myself and my friendships.

I think we give our attention, and the power of our connections, too readily to our devices. I think I am – and you would be happier too, if you took some of that attention back for yourself.

Where your attention goes, your time goes.

Idowu Koyenikan

References

[1] Free Malaysia Today (2024). Which countries spend the most time on screens? Available at: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/leisure/2024/04/28/which-countries-spend-the-most-time-on-screens

[2] Langreo, L. (2023). Digital distractions in class linked with lower academic performance. Available at: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/digital-distractions-in-class-linked-to-lower-academic-performance/2023/12

[3] Franklin, N. (2024). Nearly two thirds of people say they couldn’t make it through a work day without looking at their phone. Available at: https://workplaceinsight.net/nearly-two-thirds-of-people-say-they-couldnt-make-it-through-a-work-day-without-looking-at-their-phone/

[4] Eyesafe (2025). 21 years on screens. Available at: https://eyesafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/21-Years-on-Screens_Lifetime-Screen-Time-Report.pdf

[5] de Vibe, M., Bjørndal, A., Fattah, S., Dyrdal, G. M., Halland, E., & Tanner‐Smith, E. E. (2017). Mindfulness‐based stress reduction (MBSR) for improving health, quality of life and social functioning in adults: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Campbell systematic reviews, 13(1), 1-264. https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2017.11

[6] Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The concept of flow. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology: The collected works of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pp. 239-263). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

[7] Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2017). Savoring: A new model of positive experience. Psychology Press.

Suggested Reads