How to Break the Trance of Busyness

Enjoy the joyful moments in your life

Photo by Courtney Clayton on Unsplash

The most important commodity in the current knowledge economy is no longer money or other physical resources. Rather, it is an individual’s time and attention.¹ Due to limited time, attention has become a limited resource. Those who are able to manage and deploy this limited resource stand a better chance at succeeding in the knowledge economy.

Whereas technology allows us to access an unprecedented amount of information at lightning speed, the same technology is the reason we’re often overwhelmed² by the deluge of this information. In fact, for many of us, unrestricted access to round-the-clock technology has exacerbated the problem of depleted attention — with negative aftereffects on both our work and leisure.³

We have learned to adopt mobile technologies primarily to gain autonomy⁴ over when and how long we work, yet, isn’t it ironic that we end up working all the time — that too with average focus. With time and experience, somehow, we have also learned to tolerate our depleted attention — both at work as well as home.

At work, there is a common tendency to compensate the loss in quality of attention with more quantum of working hours — of course at the cost of family hours. The constant barrage of interruptions in the form of smartphone…