Chapter 5 · Overwhelm
How many tabs do you have open right now?
Look at your browser. Count them. This page cannot see your tabs, you type the number yourself.
Thomas, while writing chapter 5: 87.
Every tab closes. One comes back.
87 open
Articles you meant to read. Videos you meant to watch. Meant to. Meant to. Meant to.
One tab stays · Your first tool
Attention Fortress
When your curiosity keeps getting squeezed out by urgency
87 tabs.
0 open.
Your 87 tabs? That was the graveyard of your curiosity.
Open the tool: Attention FortressFor the rest of the week: the one-tab rule.
- One article, one video, one piece of content. Only one is open.
- Finish it or close it.
- Only then open the next.
Your bankruptcy as an image
On your phone: long-press the image, save it to Photos, then post it to your story or LinkedIn.
Why this hurts
24jams
3% bought.
The jam experiment, Iyengar and Lepper
6jams
Nearly 30% bought.
More choices. Less action.
18minutes
of deciding among 15,000 titles. Then often a rewatch.
The Netflix problem
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.