The author
Mick McGurk is not a psychologist, a sociologist, or a man with a wellness brand. He is a person who lost roughly the right number of hours to a glowing rectangle and decided to take notes while doing it.
The notes became exercises. The exercises became this book. The book is not a memoir, though it contains one; it is not a manifesto, though it has opinions. It is a field guide, written for people who would like their attention back and are tired of being told the problem is their willpower.
He lives somewhere with bad phone reception, which he considers a feature. He reads on paper, writes in longhand first, and has never described himself as a thought leader. If you met him, he would offer you a cup of tea and then forget to check his phone for the duration, which is the entire point.
How this got written
Like everyone, McGurk downloaded the clean white square and felt personally betrayed by what it became. Unlike everyone, he kept the receipts.
Years of noticing — the 11.40pm arrivals, the shoulders at the ears, the sadness with no source. Written down because the phone could not be trusted to record what the phone was doing.
Sixteen exercises, tested on himself first, then on people who were kind enough to be honest. The book is what survived being tried.
“I am not the person to tell you this is easy. I am the person who tried it the hard way first, wrote down what actually worked, and is handing you the notes. Take the pen. The phone has been counting long enough.”
— Mick McGurk
Read it. Do one exercise. That's the whole deal — the author would rather you did that than read another page about him.
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