Feeling unfocused, easily distracted, and mad at yourself for wasting time aimlessly scrolling? You’ve been on your phone getting sidetracked instead of focusing on getting things done—even things you would rather be doing. You fear you have lost control of your day, and spiral into anxiety because of your lack of focus. But you cannot stop scrolling, or opening more tabs on your laptop, or getting caught up on a gossipy thread on social media.

Aggravating your battle with distractions, there is breaking news—always breaking-- and always unsettling. These are testy, uncertain times as the US shifts into a new administration. It seems everyone is on edge and this edginess collectively affects us.

Like most people I know, I fall into unhealthy scrolling habits when I’m anxious or mentally exhausted, just trying to get a break from my own “bad head.” It’s ironic that the more I feel overwhelmed by my lack of focus, the more my attention turns to more distractions to escape my nagging thoughts. Social media takes hold as I start overthinking about how much I overthink, and like a cat chasing its tail, I’m dizzy and frazzled.

I know when I need to sit still and take a deep breath. A little two-minute breathing exercise comes in handy. Scatterbrained, short-fused, on too many tracks, most of us worry about our disappearing attention span. We might know ways to get our attention back on track, but we worry about the precious time we will never get back.

In his book Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay........

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