sicherlich kann das internet auch ein raum des kommerzes seien aber in seiner 00:37:23 grundstruktur sollte ist das nicht sein

The cognitive act of categorizing is an important link between digital information-management tools and attention, the way breath connects brain, body, and intention. I use my dashboard as an aid to orga-nizing my attention. The most goal-relevant tabs are on the left, and the least goal-relevant ones are on the right. Some days, I only click on the leftmost one or two tabs to quickly scan the latest feed headlines, and from there, make a microdecision about whether to investigate further at that instant.

The tools that are evolving in response to the most recent and biggest info crisis begin at the cognitive level. Trained human attention and judg-ment is required, or the technical leverage is useless. Before learning how to build radars, filters, and dashboards, it helps to begin by reviewing the basics of mindfulness. Formulate goals and turn them into intentions by paying attention every once in a while to what you are doing at the moment, and then reflecting briefly on how what you are doing relates to your larger goal. That’s all you need to get started; when you sit down in front of a screen, write out by hand your goals for each day on a piece of paper, and put it on your desk at the periphery of your vision. A few times each day you will notice the paper. At those moments, ask yourself how your current activity online fits your own goals for the day (and take a deep breath). Practice mindfulness in your use of media in small ways, find places to fit practice into your day, repeat until you’ve established a new habit of paying some attention to what you are doing with media—texting, gaming, reading, writing, Web surfing, or any one of the 1,001 ways to use your mind online.

In the Huffington Post, Stone offers valuable advice on “how to switch from managing time to managing attention”:1. Each evening or morning before you start your day, make a short list of your intentions (the result and feeling of something you want) for the day and by each, write the related to do’s for that day. Try to keep your list to 5 intentions. Conscious-ly choose what you will do and what you will not do. Keep a different list of what you will review for inclusion on other days.2. List only what you really expect to do that day. As other things come to mind, write them on a separate list. By putting these items on a separate list, you are creat-ing the space to be in the moment with each of your day’s priorities. Review that list as you plan for the next day and determine how they fit in to your plans. Give yourself some down time, enjoy your successes at the end of the day.3. Give yourself meaningful blocks of uninterrupted time to focus on each intention. Turn OFF technology each day during those blocks and focus on your intentions.4. At home, be clear about what technology you’ll use and where. Computer in the kitchen? Maybe not.100

Recent research reported in the journal Cognition offers evidence that brief distractions from a focal task may improve concentration over the longer run: “We propose that deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused,” the study’s authors said. “From a practical standpoint, our research suggests that, when faced with long tasks (such as studying before a final exam or doing your taxes), it is best to impose brief breaks on your-self. Brief mental breaks will actually help you stay focused on your task!”28

Paying attention to your breath—the core technique of mindfulness meditation methods—is where Stone sug-gests starting to moderate our online reactions. I’ll get back to that later. For now, I’m convinced that Stone is right to think that attention to breathing could be a tool to help moderate our unthinking, ultimately unhealthy reactions to many online stimuli.

Gaining control of your attention while you are online requires, first of all, intention. When you formulate a goal, you need to intend to achieve it.

I’m not sure I would have done so before starting this book because we tend to think of attention passively, as if it is out of our control or only controlled outside of ourselves, by the world around us. That is not true. We can track our own attentional pathways and learn from them.

turning attention to the area of inattention