How Nature & Other Physical Environments Impact Your Focus, Cognition & Health | Dr. Marc Berman

Daniel Goleman argues that attention is a complex and underappreciated cognitive resource in our modern society overrun with distractions. In Focus, he explores how you can understand, strengthen, and effectively use your attention to lead a more fulfilling and productive life, as well as to connect better with others and have a positive impact on the world.

A renowned psychologist and New York Times science writer, Goleman is the author of international bestsellers on emotional intelligence and leadership. In this guide, we’ll explore his theories on how harnessing the power of inner, other, and outer focus can help you excel in everything you do. We’ll look at actionables he recommends to help, including mindfulness meditation and digital attention training games as tools to improve habits, skills, and overall success. We’ll also provide additional context to help you better understand the book’s concepts, and we’ll compare the author's insights to those of other psychology and neuroscience experts.

We often feel pressured to be as productive as possible, striving for intense, uninterrupted concentration—but what if being laser-focused isn’t just unrealistic, but detrimental? In Attention Span, Gloria Mark suggests that attention isn’t limited to binary states of focus or distraction, but that there are multiple types of attention, all of which have value—even time spent doing mindless work or letting your mind wander.

Mark draws from decades of research on how the human brain spends its mental energy, the many ways we become distracted, and how our capacity to focus fluctuates. In this guide, we’ll explore Mark’s different modes of attention, how digital media acts to break our concentration, and how Mark says we can reclaim our attention from the distractions of the modern world. We’ll also look at what other experts say affects attention, how to direct it, and whether distractions are something you can control.

Your ability to pay attention impacts every aspect of your life—from how well you perform at work to how deeply you connect with others. Yet it’s often difficult to focus on what matters.

In Peak Mind, neuroscientist Amishi Jha suggests that this struggle to pay attention prevents your mind from functioning at its peak, resulting in poorer decisions, forgotten information, and emotional instability. She argues that practicing mindfulness can help you overcome these challenges and improve your ability to pay attention.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through Jha's key ideas, covering how attention works and impacts you, the three causes of scattered attention, and why practicing mindfulness is the most effective strategy for strengthening attention. Additionally, we'll expand upon Jha's ideas with research and advice on improving attention from psychologists and self-improvement practitioners.

Feeling stressed, depressed, or just generally unhealthy? Consider the last time you went outside. In The Nature Fix, Florence Williams contends that humans have an innate affinity for nature, and thus the antidote to many of our physical and mental ailments is a good dose of the outdoors. From the practice of forest bathing in Japan to horticulture therapy in Sweden and river rafting in Idaho, Williams explores how researchers are tapping into the healing power of nature—and what those of us living in the urban jungle can do to reap its benefits.

Our guide begins by discussing how our lives and health have changed as we’ve increasingly become a city-dwelling species. Then, we’ll explore the research-backed benefits of being outdoors and take a look at how different countries are supporting their citizens’ health by giving them better access to nature. We’ll conclude with Williams’s prescription for using nature to improve our well-being. We’ll also include other experts’ and authors’ insights into the relationship between nature and health.

How do cities grow? Why do some organisms thrive while others struggle? In Scale, physicist Geoffrey West reveals the mathematical patterns that govern everything from urban development to metabolism. Drawing on his groundbreaking research at the Santa Fe Institute, West shows how all complex systems—from organisms to organizations—follow predictable scaling laws that determine their success and survival.

This guide explores West’s insights about how networks shape our world while adding perspectives from Indigenous knowledge, historical examples, and modern urban experiments. You’ll learn why understanding slime mold networks can help us design more efficient subway systems, why we can’t engineer animals larger than blue whales, and what medieval cities reveal about sustainable growth. Whether you’re interested in making your community more resilient, understanding how organizations really work, or discovering the hidden mathematics of life itself, our guide offers tools for seeing the world in a new way.

Do you ever wonder why you feel so serene sitting at the beach, watching the waves? You’re likely experiencing Blue Mind. In Blue Mind, Wallace J. Nichols argues that water has a profound impact on our well-being and health because it induces a calming, meditative state, which he calls the Blue Mind state. He explains that we’re naturally attracted to water because of how it aided our survival in the past and that we still derive benefits from water today. Nichols is a research associate and co-director of multiple environmental organizations.

In our guide, we’ll explore why humans are so attracted to water and describe the ways it reduces stress and allows the mind to heal. We’ll also discuss why it appeals to our senses, such as sight and hearing, and look at different ways of being in or around water. We’ll conclude by exploring society’s relationship with water and how it might be improved. We’ll add scientific and social context for Nichols’s ideas and discuss alternatives to the tips he offers.

Feeling stressed, depressed, or just generally unhealthy? Consider the last time you went outside. In The Nature Fix, Florence Williams contends that humans have an innate affinity for nature, and thus the antidote to many of our physical and mental ailments is a good dose of the outdoors. From the practice of forest bathing in Japan to horticulture therapy in Sweden and river rafting in Idaho, Williams explores how researchers are tapping into the healing power of nature—and what those of us living in the urban jungle can do to reap its benefits.

Our guide begins by discussing how our lives and health have changed as we’ve increasingly become a city-dwelling species. Then, we’ll explore the research-backed benefits of being outdoors and take a look at how different countries are supporting their citizens’ health by giving them better access to nature. We’ll conclude with Williams’s prescription for using nature to improve our well-being. We’ll also include other experts’ and authors’ insights into the relationship between nature and health.

Do you feel overwhelmed by assignments, meetings, and obligations? Are you constantly interrupted by email, social media, and the urge to follow every headline? Does it feel like there’s never enough time in the day, and none for what you really want to do?

In Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky argue that we live in an information landscape designed to steal our time and attention. In order to escape from all of our modern distractions, you must be proactive to take back your time. The authors offer tips, tricks, and hacks to reclaim control of your day-to-day life and make time for the things that matter most.

This guide provides an overview of the lifestyle adjustments Knapp and Zeratsky recommend while examining their benefits and practicality. We also explore research on the effects of the modern world on the mind and body and how other experts on motivation and time management suggest you refocus your energy and your life.