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www.canadianlawyermag.com 69 we don't even bother to consider that only out of boredom comes the stimulation-seek- ing part of our mind, explains Sandi Mann, a psychologist and the author of The Upside of Downtime: Why Boredom Is Good. Neuroscientist Marcus Raichle also pointed out that when our minds wander, it activates the default mode network in our mind, allowing us to thinking back and forth. It allows us to access our subconscious minds and not focus on goal-oriented tasks. Different connections in our brain circuits then fall into place, creativity takes over, and self-awareness increases our chance to refo- cus ourselves. How to reclaim the attention Tristan Harris, the former design ethicist at Google, has created the Time Well Spent move- ment, which aims to educate people on how not to be abused by online products that profit from our endless attention. And neuroscientists Ramsay Brown and T. Dalton Combs co-found- ed Boundless Mind with a mission to disrupt America's addiction to technology. The American Psychological Association revealed in 2018 that 65% of us believe that periodically unplugging would improve our mental health. Another study conducted by University of Texas in 2017 found that the mere presence of our smartphones, face- down on the desk in front of us, undercuts our ability to perform basic cognitive tasks. There's no way of getting rid of technol- ogy once it's adopted, Brown notes. Instead, Boundless Mind is trying to use these persua- sive technologies to promote a healthy and democratic society. Essentially, the organiza- tion is tryin g to change the way our minds are controlled by campaigning for upfront transparency for the companies it's repre- senting. It's helping people's engineered minds be what they want to be and not just robots with more eyeball time. The conversation needs to start – the ability to control our own minds must belong to us. Despite all of these compa- nies advocating for us, we can always start with ourselves. As Derek Powazek, the author of Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places, puts it: "We are not the product if we educate ourselves enough." "The more choices technology gives us in nearly every domain of our lives, the more we assume that our phone is always the most empowering and useful menu to pick from" mented hours we clock in to finish what could've been done in an hour or two, if we consciously choose to silence all the unneces- sary noises. Detaching ourselves from the over- whelming noise around us requires some determination, though. Detaching means taking active steps toward a space where absolutely nothing can get in the way of our full attention. That means putting away the smartphone or even not having internet access for a day – or a week, if you dare. What multi-tasking does to our brains Not switching between tasks is the realistic thing to add on the effort to refocus. Single- tasking, as Manoush Zomorodi, the author of Bored & Brilliant, calls it, is a way out that we've come to believe is less efficient than its sophisticated, overrated cousin: multi-tasking. "Humans' neural resources are not infinite, and switching between tasks, espe- cially for those who work online, can hap- pen upward of 400 times a day," Zomorodi says. No wonder we're all zombies with missed deadlines. This reinforces another issue introduced by Daniel Levitin, professor of behavioural neuroscience at McGill University, which is that the mind should be allowed to wan- der between finishing one task at a time. Only then is attention for single-tasking is not fragmented, and, as a result, we become more productive and successful in complet- ing challenging tasks. The idea that spacing out is necessary might be contradictory to what we're wired to believe, which is to never let one's mind wander aimlessly. Being bored is heavily associated with negative connotation that Aytekin Tank is the founder and CEO of JotForm, an online form creation software with four million users worldwide and more than 100 employees. A developer by trade but writer by heart, Tank shares stories about how he exponentially grew his company without receiving any outside funding. For more information, visit jotform.com.

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