This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

For many people, this is what works sounds like nowadays.

It's a constant thromb of notifications, tweets and messages.

Every time we respond to an email or a text or Google a question that's just popped into our head,

we pay a small price.

In the moment, this price is imperceptible.

But over time, it adds up.

And we haven't quite come to terms with the cost of constant distraction.

We treat it, I think, in this more general sense of it, I probably should be less distracted.

And I think it's more urgent than people realize.

This week on Hidden Brain, we continue our annual summer series, U2.0.

Authenticity is contagious.

I have been dragged into this all the way kicking and screaming.

Ideas and advice about how you can respond to life's chaos.

Let me do it just check to my inbox.

Just check to my phone real quick.

With wisdom.

This episode, we explore ways to immerse ourselves in meaningful work.

Today, we look at the challenge of cultivating deep attention and what we gain by immersing ourselves in meaningful work.

I spoke to someone who might seem like an unlikely advocate for technological restraint, a computer scientist.

Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown University.

He's deliberately tried to break away from the distractions of modern technology.

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