Between high school and university, something shifted in the way I consumed information. Whenever I sat at my laptop to get work done, I inadvertently ended up with dozens of tabs open, down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, or watching a completely unrelated YouTube video. Why was it so hard to sit through a class without checking my phone? Why couldn’t I focus during prayer? Was it because I was busy? Was it a natural change in adulthood? Was there some other reason for all of this? Ultimately, how could I rebuild my focus? For some, this could be a health-related issue, but in my case, I knew acutely it was a matter of distractions. Building focus means building resilience to distractions and subduing the harmful habits we’ve developed over time. Once we understand the mechanics of these habits, we can start to pull at the harmful roots.
The External
A friend of mine recommended Cal Newport’s Deep Work, which ended up being quite literally an exercise in focus. Almost immediately, I felt the need to put down the 300+ page book, as it felt like a personal attack on the productivity hacks I duped myself into. It points out the difference between shallow work and deep work. Newport draws a distinction between non-cognitively demanding tasks, like completing a laundry list of people to email, and cognitively demanding tasks, like the consistent disciplined practice at a skill that enables us to work smarter, not harder. We fall into a false sense of satisfaction of having accomplished yet another task. However, our list of minute logistical responsibilities never ends. Checking items off a list may feel productive, but handling them immediately as they come up ends up consuming more time and energy than they would have taken if they had been given their own dedicated time. This inevitably makes it more difficult to make discernible progress towards our larger goals. How often do work or project-related texts pop up on our phones and give us an itch to reply instantly even though they could have waited? Social pressure makes us feel like they need to be attended to immediately. Newport argues this can actually be harmful to us in the long run:
Even if these work dashes consume only a small amount of time, they prevent you from reaching the levels of deeper relaxation in which attention restoration can occur. Put another way, trying to squeeze a little more work out of your evenings might reduce your effectiveness the next day enough that you end up getting less done than if you had instead respected a shutdown1.
Being able to allocate a time and place for cognitively demanding tasks is a valued but underdeveloped skill with both worldly and spiritual benefits. The intentionality in allotting time and being in control of what needs to be done is an ability that can permeate all facets of our lives. We often look to our smartphones to help us with this, but without the appropriate understanding and discipline, they will actually hinder us more than they’ll aid us.
The smartphone is a major culprit in transforming the way we communicate, socialize, work, and learn, but the habits we build around it can hinder our ability to focus, to put it mildly. It’s easy to blame Millennials and Gen Z for lacking the willpower to cap their phone usage or for falling prey to marketing tactics that exchange their attention for profit. But this is a unique time where we are accosted by unforeseen ways of intrusion and manipulation. An article by Tristan Harris titled How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind — from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist discusses the ways in which modern technology manipulates natural human tendencies to serve its own goals2. It amplifies our worst impulses. Tech companies, whether unwittingly or not, turn human psychology into a tool to keep users addicted to their apps in a sort of “slot machine” effect: fortifying your desire to stay online with the tantalizing prospect of reward (in this case, notifications, follower engagement with social media posts, etc.), almost like gambling. The fear of missing something important, instant gratification, social obligations, and the bottomless pit of satisfaction, all work in tandem to keep the user hooked. Whether these tactics are ethical or intentional are a separate discussion. What this means in practical terms is that we’re not only fighting against bad habits; we’re fighting against the mechanisms that have cemented them.
A helpful suggestion that was shared with me was to declutter tools by task. The multifunctionality of laptops and phones can be venomous because of their constant stream of notifications and the endless opportunities for distraction. Consider how much simpler it would be to focus on reading if you were using a printed book or an e-reader, or how much time could be saved by using a notebook in class instead of a laptop. In fact, a 2014 study found that writing longhand is advantageous in retention compared to using a laptop when taking notes3. The iPhone offers settings like Screen Time to regulate notifications at certain times of days, and other apps like Moment and Social Fever can be used to turn off notifications at certain times of the day or set a limit to endless scrolling. Additionally, planners and calendars for busy weeks can help by clearly blocking off time for work time and downtime. Some people might not like scheduling everything, and that’s okay, but the idea, as Newport mentions, is to separate menial tasks from deep work in order to maximize energy and attention towards cognitively demanding tasks.
The Internal
Outside of this, much of the work in building focus is internal. There are multiple reasons we can become vulnerable to distractions, many of which require a deep exploration of our emotional and spiritual states, but it would be valuable to reflect on how present we feel in our day-to-day lives. Presence is the ability to focus on what is most important in a given moment. We can contrast this with ghaflah (heedlessness), being so immersed in distractions that we forget our purpose in life. Heedlessness can render us ignorant to our limited time in this world and cause us to miss out on the vast blessings promised for presence in our worship. When it comes to ibadah (worship), minimizing distractions is essential. The crux of salah is khushu’ (the presence of heart in remembrance of Allah), and building focus can only help our relationship with Him (ﷻ). There are many examples from the Prophet’s (ﷺ) life emphasizing the care with which we should conduct our spiritual and religious affairs. In one hadith, Uqbah bin Amir (radi Allahu `anhu, may Allah be pleased with him) said:
We served ourselves in the company of the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ). We tended our camels by turn. One day I had my turn to tend the camels, and I drove them in the afternoon. I found the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) addressing the people. I heard him say: Anyone amongst you who performs ablution, and does it well, then he stands and offers two rak’ahs of prayer, concentrating on it with his heart and body, Paradise will be his lot by all means4.
Imam Muhammad Mawlud (rahimahu Allah, may Allah have mercy on him) mentions the cure for heedlessness in his poem, Purification of the Heart:
Its cure is to be found in four deeds, all of which possess rectifying qualities: seek forgiveness from God; visit the righteous; invoke benedictions upon the Prophet and recite [God’s] Book5.
Building presence begins with asking Allah (ﷻ) for forgiveness for our shortcomings and asking Him to help us attain our goal. We should seek out good company who can advise us, limit idle talk, and encourage our growth directly and indirectly. Visiting the righteous also includes visiting their graves and reflecting on death, since it reminds us of life’s finite nature and our ultimate purpose. Abu Hurairah (radi Allahu ‘anhu, may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (ﷺ) said:
أكثروا ذكر هاذم اللذات (يعنى الموت)
“Remember more often the destroyer of pleasures – death6.”
Imam Mawlud’s (RA) final advice is to send salawaat (salutations, or benedictions as translated in the poem) upon the Prophet (ﷺ) and recite Quran, both acts of worship that require immense focus. Reciting with deep reflection and increasing the amount of dhikr (remembrance) we do each day can help grow our capacity for presence. It won’t be an overnight change; few things in life come to fruition without small steps and consistency. The goal is to acknowledge when we are being heedless with our time, eliminate the distracting culprits, and work sincerely to build focus, whatever the results may be. Presence is a quality that will stay with us long-term and will reorient us to our priorities in life. Time is the most precious commodity—it’s what companies spend millions of dollars obtaining—and because our time is so limited, it makes it all the more valuable.
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1. Newport, Cal. Deep Work. Piatkus, 2016.
2. Harris, Triston. How Technology is Hijacking Your Mind – from a Magician and Google Design Ethicist. Thrive Global, 2018. https://medium.com/thrive-global/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3
3. Mueller, Pam A. and Oppenheimer, Daniel M. The Pen is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Association for Psychological Science, 2014. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797614524581
4. Chapter: What should one say after finishing wudu’ (66). Sahih: Al-Albani. https://sunnah.com/abudawud/1/169
5. Yusuf, Hamza. Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart, Sandala, 2012. p. 75.
6. Sunan al-Tirmidhī 2307, Sahih (authentic) according to Al-Albani https://abuaminaelias.com/dailyhadithonline/2012/09/13/mawt-destroyer-of-pleasures/
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