Attention Span: Finding Focus for a Fulfilling Life - Softcover

Mark, Gloria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0008525978 ISBN 13: 9780008525972

Publisher: William Collins, 2023

Synopsis

AS SEEN ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD AND IN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES AND THE TIMES

**A COSMOPOLITAN BEST NEW NON-FICTION BOOK TO ADD TO YOUR TBR IN 2023**
**A "NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB" MUST-READ**

Rediscover your ability to pay attention with this groundbreaking new approach from ‘the definitive expert on distraction and multitasking’ (Cal Newport).

We spend an average of just 47 seconds on any screen before shifting our attention. It takes 25 minutes to bring our attention back to a task after an interruption. And we interrupt ourselves more than we're interrupted by others.

In Attention Span, psychologist Gloria Mark reveals these and more surprising results from her decades of research into how technology affects our attention. She shows how much of what we think we know is wrong, including insights such as:
• Why multitasking hurts rather than helps productivity
• How social media and modern entertainment amplify our short attention spans
• What drains our mental resources and how to refuel them
• The four types of attention that we experience every day and how to recognise them

While the concept of ‘flow’ has previously been considered the ideal state of focus, Dr Mark offers a new framework to help explain how our brains function in the digital world: kinetic attention. This book reveals how we can take control, not only to find more success in our careers, but also to find creativity, joy and wellness in our everyday lives.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Mark is Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. She has been a visiting senior researcher at Microsoft Research since 2012. She is a two-time recipient of the Google Research Award and has received a prestigious NSF CAREER award. She received her PhD from Columbia University in psychology.

From the Back Cover

A groundbreaking new look at how we pay attention that can help us perform better - and be happier - in the digital world.

Psychologist Gloria Mark began researching how technology affects human attention when offices were first getting computers. Over the last 30 years, she has tracked changes in our attention spans and stress levels, and in the fundamental way our brains process information.

Now in Attention Span, Dr Mark shows how much of what we think we know about attention is wrong. She explores the current crisis of focus and productivity that is so deeply entwined with rising rates of anxiety and depression, and investigates what we might be able to do about it. Delving into the newly celebrated concept of ‘kinetic attention’, she introduces a more balanced understanding of the rhythm between deep focus and less focused states, which may actually serve to make us happier and more productive in the long term.

Edition details

• Publisher: William Collins
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0008525978
• ISBN 13: 9780008525972
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400