I really enjoy writing, and like everything, the hardest part can be getting started. This week it’s gone like this: Day One. Have an idea and rattle off 50 words. Remember a quote and decide to fact-check it with my-friend-Google. Watch a cat video. Answer a week’s worth of Stuff daily quizzes. Give up and make lists, then think of all the things I’d rather be doing. Do none of them. Pick up a book started weeks ago that I kept putting down in favour of more interesting books. Roll eyes at self, book titled “Stolen Focus: why you can’t pay attention…”

So, author Johann Hari to the rescue. He says his best motivation for starting to write is to have a question he genuinely does not know the answer to. “Why can’t I concentrate?” seems a good one.

The most frequent remedy suggested for distraction is a digital detox – a complete break from technology. But what happens when we are not free to disconnect? Families need to reach us, and we have minimum response time contracts for police removals.

I look at the first twelve words of the fifty I wrote on Day One, and realise I’ve come full circle: “How do we digitally detox when we can’t switch off our phones?”

Is partially disconnecting an option? Do I just need more motivation, discipline, willpower? Better goals? A big lie down?

I recently finished a particularly demanding work contract and thought the latter was what I really needed. A bit of time to explore some new opportunities, and to find my lost mojo. Some months into my practice retirement I was still tired, couldn’t concentrate, and, despite my best efforts, prone to disappear down a rabbit hole instead of furthering my research interests. I was ending up further from my goals rather than closing in on them.

I was also, conversely, so busy each day I wondered how I’d ever had time to “work”. Time fell away, but my to do list got longer instead of shorter. “Curiouser and curiouser”, said Alice.

Our industry delivers a daily dose of reality – and an understandable need to zone out in our downtime. Oh, the appeal of harmless, mindless browsing. Especially when we emerge from it energised or rested. Increasingly though, we can emerge restless, or flat or sad - even angry.

Our ability to deeply understand anything has also been compromised as soundbites and tweets dominate. We skim-read, and it’s rare to reach the end of an article. If you’re still with me, I’m hopeful – just click “Like” at the end of the… oh. Right.

The problem is that our devices and the apps we use are designed to distract us. It is not a lack of willpower, or focus. The longer we engage, the more advertising we see. Which is tailored to our interests through the data we unwittingly provide. Advertising pays for content, and software developers are incentivised to create increasingly clever ways to keep you scrolling through their apps. Pop-up notifications, sound alerts and light effects are enabled by default. As we learn to push past them, the methods used to increase our engagement will get more and more sophisticated.

Are we fighting a losing battle then? No! Awareness is our best weapon, the key to staying focused on the task at hand. We each have our own paths we wander down and I have no idea how we all end up watching cats. Once you understand your distractors, you can design a solution that works for you, and connect on your own terms.

Identify the location of your rabbit hole and put a detour in place. Take note of where you wander off. Take your temperature. How are you feeling when you start scrolling? How are you feeling when you finish?

Turn off notifications for anything unrelated to what you’re doing. Check the general content of your email inbox and set up folders to filter it, with automatic rules. Unsubscribe. Use “Do Not Disturb” or airplane mode when you don’t need to be reached.

Indeed, Alice, adventures down the rabbit hole can be fun. We just need to know how to get home when we need to. A final word from the Mad Hatter: “If you knew time as well as I do, you wouldn’t be talking of wasting it”.