W

April   21st

DON’T   LET YOUR    ATTENTION   SLIDE

“When   you let your    attention   slide   for a   bit,    don’t   think   you will    get back    a   grip    on  it  whenever

you wish—instead,   bear    in  mind    that    because of  today’s mistake everything  that    follows will    be

necessarily worse.  .   .   .   Is  it  possible    to  be  free    from    error?  Not by  any means,  but it  is  possible

to  be  a   person  always  stretching  to  avoid   error.  For we  must    be  content to  at  least   escape  a   few

mistakes    by  never   letting our attention   slide.”

—EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.12.1;  19

inifred Gallagher, in her book Rapt, quotes David Meyer, a cognitive scientist at the University of
Michigan: “Einstein didn’t invent the theory of relativity while he was multitasking at the Swiss
patent office.” It came after, when he really had time to focus and study. Attention matters—and in an era
in which our attention is being fought for by every new app, website, article, book, tweet, and post, its
value has only gone up.
Part of what Epictetus is saying here is that attention is a habit, and that letting your attention slip and
wander builds bad habits and enables mistakes.
You’ll never complete all your tasks if you allow yourself to be distracted with every tiny interruption.
Your attention is one of your most critical resources. Don’t squander it!