Fix Your Attention Span
I’ve found myself in countless situations where I know my time should be spent on focused work, but as I soon as I check my phone for one little thing, I end up on TikTok for 30 minutes. Why is it so difficult to commit to a task? What can we do to fix it? Are there things we should be aware of to reduce the likelihood of this happening?
Attention vs. Focus
Attention is broad in scope, identifying any and everything that your senses encounter. In contrast, focus is concentrated and targeted. There’s one specific thing you want to get done, and that’s what your energy will be directed towards until it’s complete. It’s important to know which one you’re referring to – your attention span is meant to be exactly that, the full extent of your awareness. Your goal shouldn’t be to narrow the scope of your attention, but to increase the intensity of your focus.
Focus Has a Battery Life
You have the ability to focus on one thing at a time, but you cannot do it indefinitely. Your focus is a limited resource that diminishes as you use it, along with typical fatigue that accumulates throughout the day. This is helpful to know when trying to prioritize tasks, as you’ll likely have a harder time staying on task during the evening hours compared to the morning.
Distractions Diffuse
Focus is a concentrated source of energy, meant to target a specific task or priority, so why is it so hard to stick to one thing? Distractions like your phone, emails, stress, and noise all pull at your focus, stretching it in various directions until you find yourself trying to be aware of everything around you, a.k.a Attention.
So…What’s the Fix?
Here are some helpful tips on how to fix your focus and realign your intentions with your actions:
Minimize Distractions – if you think of your focus as a rubberband, applying enough tension in different directions will eventually cause it to snap
Avoid Multitasking – focus is about depth, not breadth. do one thing really well instead of several things not as well
Meditate – mindfulness is helpful in keeping you grounded and self-aware, and sometimes it’s better to give yourself space instead of maximizing productivity
If you want to see an experiment regarding attention span through tracking brain waves, check out the video below: