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The Japanese have this expression, which I love, it's called Yohaku Nopi, which means the beauty of empty space.

I started out as an artist, and what we learned in art is that the figure that you're painting,

it's really important, but what's also important is the space around the figure, because that

really helps frame it and really helps set it off. And so when we think about our days, we think

of packing as much as we can,

and we don't think of leaving empty space so that our minds can refresh.

We are living in an age of distraction.

Insta, TikTok, X, the news cycle, WhatsApp group messages, email, Slack.

It's a bloody wonder any of us get any work done.

Like just writing this intro, I paused a look at my Instagram twice,

weirdly LinkedIn, once, and a few news sites thrown in for good measure.

I don't just feel scatterbrained.

I am scatterbrained, and I'm not alone.

Yesterday I had a very tired brain,

and I just found myself going to my phone quite frequently,

so much so that I had to sort of check myself.

An hour task with distractions, it'd probably take me like two hours, two and a half hours. This incessant phone checking and task switching, it seems to be feeding a vicious cycle,

which goes something like this.

We're distracted, so we're not focusing as long on tasks.

We're not focusing, so our attention spans are decreasing.

Our attention spans are decreasing, so the world around us is changing to accommodate that.

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