11 Best Attention Books

Check out our curated list of the best books on attention. These will help you learn where your focus goes and how to return it to where you really want it. Through developing concentration, you gradually build calmness and the ability to respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively. This approach is the key to a mature psyche.

Your life is full of distractions, isn't it? When you try to read a book, your smartphone and social media constantly pull you away, forcing you to reread the same paragraph over and over. Studying becomes almost unbearable because you can't focus on the topic, and your work efficiency drops as new emails keep popping up on your screen.

Worst of all, poor attention damages our relationships with family and friends. It creates the impression of indifference when you forget what a loved one is telling you.

Books on attention for a distracted mind

Our list of well-known books on attention includes the following:

• In 'Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention,' Johann Hari explains why our brains and psyches become exhausted and lose the ability to focus on something for more than a few seconds, and how to fix it. It also tells you how modern technologies, particularly gadgets with instant messengers and social networks, capture our attention and earn huge profits from it.

• 'Focus' by Daniel Goleman presents the idea that attention isn't just the ability to concentrate. It's the basis of thinking, emotional stability, and empathy. The world is overflowing with information, and the ability to manage attention determines whether we can be productive, creative, and happy. This book is about regaining control of your mind in a world that is constantly trying to steal it.

• 'ADHD 2.0' by Edward M. Hallowell, MD, and John J. Ratey, MD, explains that ADHD isn't just an attention problem — it's a different way of thinking with both challenges and great advantages: creativity, energy, intuition, and the ability to think outside the box. Dr. Ratey is one of the world's leading experts on the impacts of physical activity on the brain, including ADHD, autism, aging, and cognitive function.

The authors show how people with ADHD can thrive if they understand how their brain works and build their lives to support their strengths. It's worth reading because it helps you know yourself without judgment and learn to manage attention, emotions, and the environment. It explains scientifically, yet very humanly, that ADHD is not a verdict but a way of seeing the world differently.

Books about attention in the age of notifications

Books about attention can be a real revelation, not only for those who have trouble concentrating, but also for anyone living in the modern world of constant distractions.

Today, one of the biggest distractions we all have is our smartphones.

'How to Break Up with Your Phone' by Catherine Price is a practical guide to freeing your mind and time from smartphone addiction. As an author, journalist, and science popularizer, she explains how phones affect our attention, memory, sleep, emotions, and relationships. Price offers a step-by-step 30-day plan to change these relationships to healthier ones.

When you refresh your feed, you allow advertising, other people's thoughts, and impressions to capture your attention. This cycle has a toxic effect on your flow of thoughts. In addition to the plans and ideas accumulated over the previous day, information from your smartphone also floods in.

You would never let a hundred people into your house who interfere and constantly demand something. So why let them creep into your brain every day?

Study the psychology of focus and read books about attention to understand how our brain works and to be productive in both your professional and personal life.