Pay (More) Attention

This week's Science section in the New York Times has a good article on the new book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, written by Winifred Gallagher and referenced in this blog last week.

The Times article offers additional support for Ms. Gallagher's conclusions about the myth of multi-tasking by noting recently published research in the science journals Nature and Neuron about the process of paying attention.

Gallagher, a cancer survivor, takes a very personal view of the process of paying attention. She describes how during her cancer treatments, she realized she had a finite amount of attention to use and also describes her choice of whether to focus that attention on family or the possible prospect of her death.

“People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” she told the Times. “I’d ask myself: Do you want to lie here paying attention to the very good chance you’ll die and leave your children motherless, or do you want to get up and wash your face and pay attention to your work and your family and your friends? Hell or heaven — it’s your choice.”