This is part three of a three-part series.
7. Writing Increases Your Attention Span In An – oh, look! A pigeon! Ahem. Seriously, that kind of thing hardly ever happens when writing, even though it seems to happen constantly when speaking or thinking. Don’t feel ashamed: a) it happens to every one of us, and b) inattention is a highly-reinforced behavior in our culture. Just think about how many images we are confronted with during one four-minute segment of television advertising. We get six to ten product advertisements, each one featuring several distinct shots juxtaposed to create a coherent, compelling narrative in thirty seconds. Those ads stimulate our desire for consumer products, but even more powerful are the cultural messages that accompany the sales pitches. One of those messages is the implication that faster is better.
As a result, activities like driving or grocery shopping, once thought to be absorbing in their own right, are now considered prime opportunities for multitasking (talking on the phone, reading, applying makeup, texting). We’re obsessed with “doing” rather than “being,” but we’re actually getting less done (see this great New York Times article: Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don’t Read This in Traffic). I believe that we need to slow down and simplify in order to enrich our lives. (For more, see David B. Bohl’s Slow Down Fast Today! and Tina Su’s Think Simple Now.)
The act of writing takes time (especially using the low-tech, pen-and-paper method), and while you’re writing, you are focusing. Your mind may wander, but if you continue to sit there with the pen in your hand your mind will refocus. Writing ties you to the present, even for a few moments, just as meditation does. And in a chronically inattentive culture such as ours, that is no small feat.
