A compilation of original research on attention, reading, and how a writing practice can help.
47 sec
average attention on one screen, down from 2½ minutes in 2003
28 → 16%
of Americans reading for pleasure on a given day, 2004 to 2023
32%
of high-school seniors below basic reading, the most since 1992
15 min
how much daily writing everyone should be doing. Try it ↓
The Chronicle of Higher Ed · 2026
A literature instructor assigns a 20-page article; not one student finishes. He learns why.
The Atlantic · 2024
Professors at elite colleges describe students who arrive never having been asked to read a whole book.
NAEP · 2024
32 percent of seniors fall below a basic level.
iScience · 2025
A survey of 236,000 Americans over twenty years found that daily reading for pleasure fell from 28 to 16 percent.
UC Irvine
Average attention on one screen fell from 2½ minutes to 47 seconds, and has been replicated by other labs.
J. Assoc. Consumer Research · 2017
Having a phone in the room, even off and face down, measurably taxes working memory.
MIT Media Lab · 2025
Essay writers using ChatGPT showed the weakest brain connectivity; most couldn't quote their own essay.
J. Abnormal Psychology · 1986
Fifteen minutes a day, four days running saw health center visits drop.
Psychological Bulletin · 2006
A meta-analysis of 146 experiments. The benefit grows with more sessions.
Adv. Psychiatric Treatment · 2005
The open-access review of the first two decades.
JMIR Mental Health · 2018
Fifteen minutes, three days a week, for twelve weeks saw anxiety drop in medical patients.
Fifteen minutes of sustained attention on paper, done regularly, can have powerful effects on well-being and creativity.
Try this free five-day sequence to get you started. Each day, you get a short prompt and fifteen minutes of your own undivided attention.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime.