Attention
The Quiet Discipline of Paying Attention
Attention is not a resource to be managed. It is a relationship we keep, and most of us have been neglecting it.
3 min readEssays on attention, craft, and the examined life.
Eleanor Whitfield
Essays on attention, craft, and the examined life. Author of The Attentive Life.
Essential essays
A small collection of enduring ideas—the best place to begin.
Reading
Why Slow Reading Is Not a Luxury
Reading slowly is not a way of getting less done. It is the only way some things get done at all.
1 min read
Better Work
Fewer, Better Things: A Practical Argument
A case for a shorter list, and what happens when you finally let the rest go.
2 min read
Writing
On Starting Again, Imperfectly
Every writer I know has abandoned a draft and returned to it months later. The return is the craft.
2 min read
From the author
The Attentive Life
A short book of twelve essays on attention, craft and living deliberately.
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The Quiet Discipline of Paying Attention
Attention is not a resource to be managed. It is a relationship we keep, and most of us have been neglecting it.
3 min read
Why Slow Reading Is Not a Luxury
Reading slowly is not a way of getting less done. It is the only way some things get done at all.
1 min read
Fewer, Better Things: A Practical Argument
A case for a shorter list, and what happens when you finally let the rest go.
2 min read
On Starting Again, Imperfectly
Every writer I know has abandoned a draft and returned to it months later. The return is the craft.
2 min read
A Short Defence of Boredom
A few minutes of nothing to do, and what the mind does when no one is entertaining it.
1 min read
Craft Is a Form of Care
The pleasure of doing a small thing well is not a distraction from serious work. It is where seriousness begins.
1 min read
Morning Pages, Ten Years On
Three pages, longhand, before anything else. What a decade of the practice has actually done.
1 min read
How to Read a Difficult Book
Difficulty is not a sign that you are doing it wrong. A few habits that make hard books yield.
1 min read
The Ethics of Enough
Enough is a quiet word, and perhaps the most important one in any serious conversation about how to live.
1 min read