Juggling focus

www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/attention-span-focus-screens-apps-smartphones-social-media

I remember when we taught computers to multi-task, and this idea that a computer could do two things at once was great, but I remember at the time people pointing out but you, the user, you can only do one thing at a time.

Which, yes, that is true, but we rarely just do one thing at a time. I'm sitting here writing this, but I'm also listening to the cacophony coming in from the other room where the kids are watching TV and playing video games at the same time. I'm drinking coffee. I'm ruminating about Saturday mornings of my childhood, my sacred time, worshiping the cartoons.

I haven't been diagnosed with ADHD, but I've adopted a lot of the strategies that people have used to accommodate this disability. Having my iPad play some dark noise softly helps me focus on my work. I'm not sure why it works, but it does. When I go to a bar or a restaurant, I try to sit so that I can't see a TV. Why are there so many public TVs? Just the presence of a screen in my field of vision is just enough to distract me, not matter how hard I try.