I recently learned about the concept of “busy waiting” in my operating systems class. Busy waiting is when a process (a running program on a computer) repeatedly checks a condition, waiting for it to turn true. This sounds problematic, until you realize that this form of waiting actively wastes CPU time (essentially compute/processing time), which is a limited resource.

I realized the other day as I was sitting idle for a few minutes that we’re training our brains to busy wait. If we have a meeting at 1, and it’s 12:45, we’re running our brains on shallow tasks, like checking social media or whatever other unproductive phone task. We hardly ever just wait in lines anymore without filling that time with something distracting. All these little moments where we’re waiting for the next activity/action item to start, we’re wasting our compute time on useless little things.

Busy waiting isn’t inherently bad. It does have its uses. However, one of my favorite authors Cal Newport has made the case that it’s (pretty much) always useless. Busy waiting is training our brain to be distracted. We crave distraction now.

The necessity of purging unproductive distraction is the one thing I remember from Newport’s book Deep Work because of how truly effective it is. "Efforts to deepen your focus will struggle if you don't simultaneously wean your mind from a dependence on distraction" (157). After reading that book years ago, I naturally tried implementing some of the techniques he suggested, and learning to be intentional about my distraction was definitely one of the most impactful. I’ve been severely slipping on this lately and I can feel the difference. My ability to focus and the depth of my output are diminishing.

I intend to stop defaulting to distraction - so if you’re reading this I’d love some external accountability. :)