Joel Nigg

One study found that the average American worker remains focused on a single task for only about three minutes before becoming distracted.

We are now developing an attentional pathogenic culture, an environment in which sustained and deep focus is extremely hard for all of us, and you have to swim upstream to achieve it, wrote Joel Nigg.

The phenomena of nature evoke what psychologists call soft fascination, which counteracts the negative effects produced by constant distraction and overstimulation.

Clouds drifting across the sky, birdsong, flowing water, and leaves moving in the wind capture our attention without demanding intense concentration.