Focus, Distraction and the Three Spheres

An interesting post from Edward Hallowell on the Harvard Business Review blog  which concerns our modern inability to focus or concentrate, as discussed by Nicholas Carr (in The Shallows) and others.  What attracted me in this was, firstly, the offer of a biological explanation and secondly the following proposed solution:

“Second, try to spend as much time as you can at the intersection of three spheres: what you’re good at, what you like to do, and what adds value to the world, i.e., what someone is willing to pay you to do. At the intersection of those spheres lies a land of joy and productivity that can successfully compete with force of entropy, of disorder, that tilts us all toward lassitude. When you infuse work with pleasure, then you want to work, even though it hurts at times.”

The intersection of three spheres.