Quotes About Distraction

One of my favorite programs that we didn't make is Rescue Time. It runs in the corner of my computer and tracks how much time I spend on different things. I realized that even though I was doing e-mail only a couple of minutes at a time, it was adding up to a couple of hours a day. So I'm trying to reduce that.

I don't think people really do listen. We plug into music, and we have short attention spans. We tend to download individual tracks from iTunes rather than a whole album. We buy music DVDs and watch them once, and then they disappear into a drawer, or we loan them to a friend, and we never watch it again.

That's the great thing about a tractor. You can't really hear the phone ring.

It's hard, when you are hearing things with the rumors that you are going to be traded, to be focused.

I had an extremely boring time doing 20 to 30 trades a day while everyone was talking about baseball or basketball. So I stood there fantasizing about a device that could do the same thing I was doing.

We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Cell phones, alas, have pretty much ruined train travel, which I used to love. I could read or even sketch notes for what I was working on.

Cars will soon have the Internet on the dashboard. I worry that this will distract me from my texting.

The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing.

I can't travel without Sudoku.

You can't see the forest for the trees.

Turn your head away from the screen, my friend. It will tell you nothing more.

Surprisingly, Gwendolyn, I have more important things to do with my time, like put bamboo shoots under my nails or drill holes in all my teeth.

Oh. That. I stopped listening and just stared at your lips instead, which are quite beautiful, by the way. But I could tell you weren't going to say anything I wanted to hear, so I just ignored you.

If she is clearly right, find fault with her that has nothing to do with the incident, and use that.

Her silence wasn't simply distracted; there was something unnerving about it. He felt as if he stood on the prow of a ship, watching the captain scan the horizon for signs of impending disaster only the latter could recognize.

Sweet things placed before her usually disappeared: Hunger wasn't necessary; cake tasted just as good accompanied by preoccupation, concern, or even boredom.

We fill our days with ongoing connection, denying ourselves time to think and dream.

Every time you check your phone in company, what you gain is a hit of stimulation, a neurochemical shot, and what you lose is what a friend, teacher, parent, lover, or co-worker just said, meant, felt.

Because you can text while doing something else, texting does not seem to take time but to give you time. This is more than welcome; it is magical.

We miss out on necessary conversations when we divide our attention between the people we're with and the world on our phones. Or when we go to our phones instead of claiming a quiet moment for ourselves

Swaddle in our favorites, we missed out on what was in our peripheral vision.

We may end up with a life deferred by the business of its own collection.