What Would Marcus Do Week 1: Marcus Aurelius on Gaining Control of your Mind

 

“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius wrote these words nearly two millennia ago, yet they still resonate. Every ping, buzz, and notification represents an “outside event” attempting to commandeer our attention. Modern research confirms that external distractions significantly compromise our memory and cognitive performance more than internal mind-wandering, precisely the distinction the Stoics understood intuitively.

The emperor-philosopher practised what he called the “discipline of perception”—learning to see events as they truly are, stripped of our emotional projections and reactivity. Today’s attention economy operates by hijacking this very faculty. Social media platforms deliberately employ psychological mechanisms like infinite scrolling and personalised notifications to maintain user attention and create compulsive checking behaviours. They profit by making us reactive rather than reflective. And we let them succeed.

Epictetus taught that we suffer not from events themselves, but from our judgements about them. A notification is merely a signal—it has no inherent power to disrupt our peace unless we grant it that authority. The Stoic practice of examining our initial impressions (phantasia) becomes crucial here. When your phone buzzes, pause. Ask yourself: “Is this truly urgent, or am I being manipulated by design?” (Hint - it's the second one.)

Some Neuroscience

Research demonstrates that distraction affects both cognitive performance and our metacognitive ability to manage decision-making. This aligns perfectly with Stoic insights about the corruption of judgement. When we’re constantly reactive to external stimuli, we lose the capacity for what Marcus Aurelius called “ruling our minds.”

Studies show that multitasking creates “spottier and shallower” understanding, with reduced ability to transfer knowledge to new contexts. The Stoics would recognise this as a failure of prosoche—the sustained attention necessary for wisdom.

What would Marcus Do?

Try this for a week.

Morning Reflection Protocol: Begin each day by reviewing Marcus Aurelius’s practice from Meditations. Before checking any devices, spend five minutes considering: “What outside events might attempt to disturb my equilibrium today? How will I maintain my focus on what is truly ‘up to me’?”

The Notification Hierarchy: Following Epictetus’s teaching about focusing only on what we can control, create three categories: Essential (genuine emergencies), Important (can wait 2-4 hours), and Trivial (everything else). Configure your devices accordingly.

The Evening Review: Marcus Aurelius ended each day examining his responses to events. Ask: “When did I allow external circumstances to control my attention? What can I learn from these moments of lost focus?”

These aren’t mere productivity techniques—they’re training for the fundamental Stoic skill of distinguishing between what is and isn’t within our control. In an age of designed distraction, this ancient wisdom becomes revolutionary.