🥱 Be Bored

Attention, it turns out, is stupendously important.

We fixate on time management because it sounds good: if we could manage our time, everything would fall into place!

But time management without attention management is meaningless. If you can't focus, it doesn't matter how much time you sink into something. One hour of work with zero focus means no work has gotten done.

So while we continue our quest to effectively harness time, let's also pursue a modicum of control over attention. And one of the best ways to do so is simultaneously simple and difficult: be bored.

Here's the quick demonstration of what I mean. When is the last time that you stood in line for something without pulling out your phone? If you're like most of us, it's been a hot minute since that occurred. The temptation to microdose entertainment, to inject some fresh stimuli (of questionable quality and utility), is just too great.

I feel this urge essentially every moment that I'm "bored," finding myself reaching for that alluring rectangle without even realizing that I'm doing so. And yes, often I give in. But I'm trying, okay?

That describes the bad side of attention management, in that it is all too easy in today's day and age to give in and sacrifice attention.

But therein also lies the good news: it's wonderfully easy to find opportunities to slowly train attention, for they are legion.

Like it or not, you will be in a line waiting for something again soon. There's your opportunity! Just try to actually exist in that moment without creating some other type or form of engagement. Look at the things around you. Perhaps try and see things that you otherwise would have ignored. Observe what rises in your thoughts as you endure the torturous two minutes before it's your turn at the checkout.

Be bored, and try and replicate that boredom as frequently as you naturally can.

In the periods of life when I have been the best at practicing boredom, I've found more richness in my observations of the world around me, and frequently find my mind sifting through deeper layer thoughts that I would have otherwise covered up with a sugar rush of entertainment had I been scrolling.

That, in turn, gives me better insights to process myself and share with others. To be bored, perhaps, makes you less boring.

Impatiently Yours,

-Rye