--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Efforts to deepen your focus will…" description: "\"“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction. Much in the same way that athl..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg" --- # Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t… ![“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction. Much in the same way that athletes must take care of their bodies outside of their training sessions, you’ll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend…” quote by Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg) > ““Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction. Much in the same way that athletes must take care of their bodies outside of their training sessions, you’ll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend the rest of your time fleeing the slightest hint of boredom. We can find evidence for this claim in the research of Clifford Nass, the late Stanford communications professor who was well known for his study of behavior in the digital age. Among other insights, Nass’s research revealed that constant attention switching online has a lasting negative effect on your brain. Here’s Nass summarizing these findings in a 2010 interview with NPR’s Ira Flatow: So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people who rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand … they’re pretty much mental wrecks. At this point Flatow asks Nass whether the chronically distracted recognize this rewiring of their brain: The people we talk with continually said, “look, when I really have to concentrate, I turn off everything and I am laser-focused.” And unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task. \[emphasis mine\] Once your brain has become accustomed to on-demand distraction, Nass discovered, it’s hard to shake the addiction even when you want to concentrate. To put this more concretely: If every moment of potential boredom in your life—say, having to wait five minutes in line or sit alone in a restaurant until a friend arrives—is relieved with a quick glance at your smartphone, then your brain has likely been rewired to a point where, like the “mental wrecks” in Nass’s research, it’s not ready for deep work—even if you regularly schedule time to practice this concentration.”” [Cal Newport](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Constant digital distraction rewires the brain, reducing focus and working memory; breaking the habit requires deliberate periods of boredom and sustained attention. **In simple terms:** Distractions harm concentration; intentional focus restores it. Key Takeaway Practice sustained, distraction‑free work. Themes focus productivity attention digital health Mood determined reflective Type self‑help educational When to use this quote - studying - writing - creative projects - mindfulness practice - digital detox Key Concepts neuroplasticity habit formation cognitive load Questions to Reflect On - What small boredom you can tolerate daily? - How can you redesign environments to reduce interruptions? 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Much in the same way that athletes must take care of their bodies outside of their training sessions, you’ll struggle to achieve the deepest levels of concentration if you spend the rest of your time fleeing the slightest hint of boredom. We can find evidence for this claim in the research of Clifford Nass, the late Stanford communications professor who was well known for his study of behavior in the digital age. Among other insights, Nass’s research revealed that constant attention switching online has a lasting negative effect on your brain. Here’s Nass summarizing these findings in a 2010 interview with NPR’s Ira Flatow: So we have scales that allow us to divide up people into people who multitask all the time and people who rarely do, and the differences are remarkable. People who multitask all the time can’t filter out irrelevancy. They can’t manage a working memory. They’re chronically distracted. They initiate much larger parts of their brain that are irrelevant to the task at hand … they’re pretty much mental wrecks. At this point Flatow asks Nass whether the chronically distracted recognize this rewiring of their brain: The people we talk with continually said, “look, when I really have to concentrate, I turn off everything and I am laser-focused.” And unfortunately, they’ve developed habits of mind that make it impossible for them to be laser-focused. They’re suckers for irrelevancy. They just can’t keep on task. [emphasis mine] Once your brain has become accustomed to on-demand distraction, Nass discovered, it’s hard to shake the addiction even when you want to concentrate. To put this more concretely: If every moment of potential boredom in your life—say, having to wait five minutes in line or sit alone in a restaurant until a friend arrives—is relieved with a quick glance at your smartphone, then your brain has likely been rewired to a point where, like the “mental wrecks” in Nass’s research, it’s not ready for deep work—even if you regularly schedule time to practice this concentration.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Cal Newport" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-struggle-if-you-don-t/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Digital age" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-struggle-if-you-don-t/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/040/cal-newport-1302_digital-age_efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-strugg_2522481.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don’t simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on…” — Cal Newport", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Cal Newport", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cal-newport/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Efforts to deepen your focus will...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-struggle-if-you-don-t/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cal-newport/efforts-to-deepen-your-focus-will-struggle-if-you-don-t/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```