The document discusses the importance of focus and attention for well-being. It argues that people should control what they focus on and suppress distractions to shape their experiences. When people lose focus, their mind tends to dwell on negatives rather than positives, harming their mental state. The document recommends finding activities that demand full attention and engagement to experience "flow". It also discusses the importance of savoring positive experiences and practicing meditation to develop a calmer mind.

1. Attention and the Focused Life
@MCNisbet
Matthew C. Nisbet
Associate Professor
Northeastern University

2. Key Takeaways
@MCNisbet
o Ability to focus on this and to suppress that is the key to controlling your
experience and your well-being.
o Your life is the creation of what you focus on and what you don't. Focus
on experiences that are meaningful, productive, and energizing.
o We must resist the temptation to drift along, reacting to whatever
happens to us next, and deliberately select targets, from activities to
relationships, that are worthy of our finite supplies of time and attention.
o When you lose your focus, your mind tends to fix on what could be wrong
with your life instead of what's right, putting you in a bad frame of mind.
o This leads to distraction, bad choices about health, diet, careers,
relationships. In contrast, controlling your focus promotes well-being,
success, and health.

3. Bottom Up vs. Top Down Attention
@MCNisbet

5. Finding Flow
@MCNisbet
o Being completely engrossed, absorbed, fascinated, carried away is the experience that
underlies life's deepest pleasures.
o You are in flow if you are so engrossed in your work that time flies, your ego drops
away, and you act intuitively.
o Find activities that demand your attention, challenge your abilities, have a clear
objective, and elicit timely feedback -- conditions that favor optimal experience.
o People who do experience Flow, report doing so more often at work than at home.
People score lowest on feelings of flow at home around Sunday at noon.
o Most people go into a mode of low level processing where they worry about things or
watch TV etc.
o Rather than watching TV or surfing Internet, better to find something challenging like a
do-it-yourself project or learning to play an instrument. But need to focus on planning
activities rather than being reactive. Have to take your free time as seriously as you
take your job.

6. @MCNisbet
o Well being is a function of what you choose to experience and what you choose to
think about. There is a difference between being happy with your life and being
happy in your life.
o Experiencing self: focuses on being in the here and now without much
analysis about how you are feeling about it.
o Remembering self: looks back on experience, focuses on its emotional high
points, whether accurate or not.
o Better to organize your life around experiences you think about when you are
having them such as work-related flow, daily bike ride, walking outside in nature,
great glass of wine, chocolate

7. Positive affect, blue affect, stress, and life evaluation in relation to household income.
Positive affect, blue affect, stress, and life evaluation in relation to household income. Positive affect is the average of the fractions of the population reporting
happiness, smiling, and enjoyment. “Not blue” is 1 minus the average of the fractions of the population reporting worry and sadness. “Stress free” is the
fraction of the population who did not report stress for the previous day. These three hedonic measures are marked on the left-hand scale. The ladder is the
average reported number on a scale of 0–10, marked on the right-hand scale which 0 is “the worst possible life for you” and 10 is “the best possible life for
you.”

8. @MCNisbet

9. Why Are Lower Paid Lawyers Happier?
@MCNisbet
o “The problem with the more prestigious jobs, said Mr.
Krieger, is that they do not provide feelings of
competence, autonomy or connection to others —
three pillars of self-determination theory, the
psychological model of human happiness on which the
study was based. Public-service jobs do – NY Times

10. Savoring
@MCNisbet
o Life satisfaction depends on your top down focus whether you are focusing on the
first day of spring or an argument you just had, rather than on your circumstances,
whether rich or poor, healthy or well.
o You can focus on positive feelings or day-to-day pleasures life tasting chocolate or
wine, or witnessing the sunset or sunrise.
o Typically the experiences that are easiest to savor are the new or the novel, such
as walking through a European city, or the first sips of a really good cup of coffee
on a bright, cold morning.
o Learn to pay “rapt” attention to carefully chosen top down targets. Practice by
taking a “daily vacation,” spending 20 minutes in top down focus on something you
really enjoy but rarely allow yourself to do.

11. Savoring
@MCNisbet
o Life satisfaction depends on your top down focus whether you are focusing on the
first day of spring or an argument you just had, rather than on your circumstances,
whether rich or poor, healthy or well.
o You can focus on positive feelings or day-to-day pleasures life tasting chocolate or
wine, or witnessing the sunset or sunrise.
o Typically the experiences that are easiest to savor are the new or the novel, such
as walking through a European city, or the first sips of a really good cup of coffee
on a bright, cold morning.
o Learn to pay “rapt” attention to carefully chosen top down targets. Practice by
taking a “daily vacation,” spending 20 minutes in top down focus on something you
really enjoy but rarely allow yourself to do.

12. Is Google Making Us Stupid?
@MCNisbet
o Over the past few years I’ve had an
uncomfortable sense that someone, or
something, has been tinkering with my
brain…I can feel it most strongly when I’m
reading. Immersing myself in a book or a
lengthy article used to be easy…I’d spend
hours strolling through long stretches of
prose.
o That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my
concentration often starts to drift after two or
three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread,
begin looking for something else to do…The
deep reading that used to come naturally
has become a struggle.
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic

13. Is Google Making Us Stupid?
@MCNisbet
Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist
at Tufts University.. worries that the style of
reading promoted by the Net,
a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy ”
above all else, may be weakening our capacity
for the kind of deep reading…when the printing
press, made long and complex works of prose
commonplace.
When we read online, she says, we tend to
become “mere decoders of information.” Our
ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental
connections that form when we read deeply
and without distraction, remains largely
disengaged….
Carr, N. (2008). Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic

14. Are People Comfortable with their Own Thoughts?
@MCNisbet
Wilson, T. D. et al. (2014). Just think: the challenges of the disengaged mind. Science, 345(6192), 75-77.

15. Conclusion
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16. Technology, Distraction and Learning:
@MCNisbet
o Americans consume on average 12 hours a
day of media, with 1 hour spent both on the
computer and watching TV counting as two
hours. This compares to five hours in 1960.
o Internet and smart phone technology
habituates our brains to constantly switching
tasks —making us less able to maintain
attention.
o When we switch tasks online, we disrupt our
ability to learn and complete tasks
successfully and efficiently, even though we
think we are being highly productive.

17. Laptops in Courses:
Two-Thirds of Time Spent on Unrelated Tasks
@MCNisbet

18. Time Crunch, Technology, and Meditation
@MCNisbet
o We’re at the epicenter of being stimulated
with digital stuff. Five years ago, it was just e-
mail. Now if you’re not on Twitter, if you don’t
know how to use social, you’re a Luddite. And
then you add the Apple Watch that’s going to
be giving you notifications every five minutes”
– Silicon Valley venture capitalist

19. What is Meditation?
@MCNisbet
• We will refer to meditation as the cultivation of basic human
qualities, such as a more stable and clear mind, emotional
balance, a sense of caring mindfulness, even love and
compassion—qualities that remain latent as long as one does
not make an effort to develop them. It is also a process of
familiarization with a more serene and flexible way of being.

20. What is Meditation?
@MCNisbet