How I Got My Attention Back

Technology is commanding our attention in infinite, insurmountable loops. A country trip off-grid helped me escape. There are a thousand beautiful ways to start the day that don’t begin with looking at your phone. And yet so few of us choose to do so.

Here is how I try to keep my attention. I have an office with two desks. One is for online work and the other is for the real world. I have a rolling chair and can stop any time to make a liminal move from one to the other.  Plus, because we are shepherds and farmers we are never far from the weather, the stars and the world of chores and keeping a fire set and breaking ice from water and all the happy quotidien field walks with the dogs.

Below is my analog space. I do charge my various tablets here, but I write here and go full-on Gutenberg here mostly.

 

I do digital here.

I drink coffee in both spaces.

I need balance. Today my wife and I will go walk together doing shinrin-yoku (森林浴). You get balance, too.

By the way, how do you get, keep, find your balance between digital distraction and real life?