Improvement pill here do you feel like your attention span is getting worse are you struggling to focus on the tasks that you need to get done are you getting distracted more often than you like our lives are full of constant distractions the world around us has been designed to attract our attention enticing us with exciting colors and interesting facts seems like everything is pulling us from one thing to another research shows that nearly 50% of people feel that they attention span is shorter than it used to be with a similar amount of people reporting that
despite their best efforts their know as a constant distraction when they should be focusing on other more important things the good news is that we have power over our attention and through intentional training and self-discipline we can regain our attention span in this video we'll show you three crucial steps to take back control over your focus and fix your attention span but first to understand why our attention spans are so short we need a bit of background attention and Technology have you ever been interrupted by your phone you've just sat down to a focused session
of reading studying working you name it and suddenly your phone screen lights up with that familiar notification busz which might as well be saying look at me the next thing you know you've been sucked into scrolling on your phone tumbling down a rabbit hole of social media posts and short videos you won't even remember you'd seen by tomorrow it's a situation many of us have found ourselves in time and time again and there's a good reason for it phone apps and social media marketing technology are doing everything possible to compete for our attention they're specifically
designed to entice us and keep us using our phones in fact this actually has a name it's called persuasive technology if you think about it our phones have been engineered to grab our attention and Tech developers actively play into this red notification bubbles brightly colored apps flashy subtitles the algorithms used by social media apps are designed to keep track of what you watch and interact with and and they will then push more of the things you like to keep your attention longer so how can we escape this cycle and fix our attention span especially in
a world where attention is a valuable commodity well there are two things you can do to help fix this adapting your environment for optimal focus and conditioning your mind to be less susceptible to distractions in other words external and internal factors if you find it difficult to focus your attention going from one thing to another might be because of one reason and that is boredom you ever noticed yourself feeling uncomfortable or bored when you aren't doing anything the act of sitting still can be difficult and this can be a big factor in our distractability if
we're uncomfortable with sitting still or doing nothing then we're going to sink out distractions our minds are going to look for interesting things to watch or do and we're conditioned to feel this way the good news is that we can train ourselves to be more comfortable with doing nothing we're feeling bored and this will mean that we can focus on tasks for long longer periods of time in fact research shows that people who experience moderate levels of boredom are more likely to be more creative and can problem solve better now we understand the reasons we
have a short attention span let's get right into the steps you can take to fix it the first step is to stop multitasking now imagine this you're watching a video on your TV and playing on your phone your attention is divided between the two and you're not focused on either alternatively you focus watching only the video and you don't touch your phone at first you might feel bored or antsy but the more you focus on doing one thing at a time the better you'll get at focusing improving your attention span in the long run there
are other benefits to being more intentional with how many tasks you do at once too a study run by Stanford University found that people who multitask have reduced memory as multitaskers performed worse on simple memory tasks than those who opted to stick to one task at a Time author of the book hyperfocus and productivity Guru Chris Bailey is an advocate for being more intentional with your tasks time and focus he says specifically setting intentions can double or even triple your odds of success Bailey writes about the concept of hyperfocus where we're locked in and focused
on one task versus scatter Focus which we tend to have when trying to focus on multiple things this isn't a New Concept with cal newport's book deep work delving into similar theories around deep work versus shallow work opting to focus focus on one thing over multitasking will help you achieve this hyper Focus or deep work and your attention span will be better because of it another way you can train your attention is through meditation you might be thinking meditation here we go again but hear us out the benefits of meditation sitting still and training the
mind to observe rather than get swept up in the everyday thoughts feelings and impulses we have are hugely beneficial for training attention span imagine you're sitting on a riverbank the stream of water is fast and unrelenting the current unruly the river is your stream of Consciousness or your thoughts stopping the flow of the river isn't an option you can either sit and observe or you can get in the water and splash around splashing around in the water is disruptive and very distracting just like allowing yourself to run away with your thoughts is getting swept up
in those constant thoughts and feelings is terrible for your focus and attention span meditation teaches you to observe your thoughts and feelings without getting caught up in them you can simply acknowledge they exist and allow the water to pass without getting in you might be asking but where do I start there are thousands of guided meditations out there we've even got a playlist called meditation 101 that you can check out if you want to give it a try alternatively if prolonged and repetitive practices like meditation aren't for you there's good news one study asked subjects
to sit for 17 minutes and focus on their breathing and how their body felt if their mind wandered they were asked to know notice this and bring it back to focus on the exercise the people who did this exercise just once were found to have a better attention span sitting for just 17 minutes in this way also improved memory and slowed cognitive decline related to aging so it doesn't have to be a huge commitment it can be a single exercise and your attention can be better off the last way you can train your attention span
is to do nothing when was the last time you just sat for a long period of time and did absolutely nothing no videos no podcasts no games phones books absolutely nothing learning to sit and do nothing might seem counterintuitive but it can actually have a really beneficial effect on our attention at first your mind might start to race with all kinds of thoughts but you can't give in and get distracted by them just sitting and letting them occur is enough eventually these thoughts will slow down and you'll start to feel more relaxed settled and your
mind will have more space to be creative instead of your attention going from one thing to another you're training it to settle therefore increasing your attention span if sitting and doing nothing for a long period of time sounds difficults you can try taking a long walk with no distractions just make sure you don't use headphones or your phone to take away your attention living in a world where everything wants to grab our attention can seem like an uphill battle when we have ever growing to-do lists but we have more control over our Focus than we
might think mastering our attention span takes intention and discipline but with sustained work we can take back the reins and start choosing where we put our attention again reducing multitasking practicing meditation or even doing absolutely nothing are all ways you can train your attention it might seem difficult at first but with time it'll get easier your focus and productivity will get better do you have any tips on getting distracted comment down below and let us know and as ever stay tuned
