© The Author(s), under exclusive license to APress Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024
S. RileyMindful DesignDesign Thinkinghttps://doi.org/10.1007/979-8-8688-0143-3_1

1. Attention and Distraction

Scott Riley1  
(1)
Liverpool, UK
 

Attention is a precious mental resource. Every day we are bombarded with information, decisions, distractions, and things we need to remember. What should I wear today? What should I make for breakfast? Did I lock the door? Can I just hide under the duvet and play Pokémon until June? Even though we can often instinctively—and seemingly instantly—answer these questions, there’s a real cost incurred when doing so.

Examining attention lets us see just how much heavy lifting our brain does for us. Through a process of selective ...

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