In class everyone is itching to be doing anything else, at home you can be doing three different things at once and still be bored, and by the end of the day you can’t remember even half of what you did.
“If I’m in a very loud or just visually busy environment, then it’ll tend to take my concentration off of what I should be working on,” freshman Mae Lara said. “‘I’m sure what plays a huge part in it is stuff like short short video content, like TikTok and Instagram. All of those videos are so short, just having you focus on something for a shorter amount of time, just shortening your attention span in total.”
The second largest culprit for stealing our attention is our social relationships.
“It’s really bad. I can’t focus on anything, no matter where I am or what I do. I think my biggest problem is my teacher is constantly talking and likes moving around. I’m more focused on what they’re doing than what I should be working on,” freshman Avery McDermott said. “Recently my grades have been a lot lower because I’m more focused on my friends and talking and like just socializing rather than doing homework or focusing in class and during tests and stuff.”
We see tips online all the time that in theory would help improve our attention spans, but a lot of them just can’t be realistically applied in today’s time.
“Putting your phone away if you have a bad attention span, already you know that you’re just gonna get up and get back off track and you’re just gonna continue to stay distracted no matter how hard you try, it’s just like constant distractions,” McDermott said. “I think if I was in my own space alone, someone takes my phone, takes my stuff and just puts me in a room and makes me do my work. I think that’d probably be the most effective way.”
But we can’t all just put ourselves on full, solitary confinement style lockdown everytime we need to get things done, so how can we fix this? There’s the usual suggestions like plan out your time and stick to that schedule or take regular breaks so you don’t get overwhelmed, set timers, remove distractions, but chances are you’ve tried these already and found that these tips don’t fit today, so here are some ways you can tweak these tips and apply them realistically.
Firstly, studies all across have deduced that phones are the biggest distraction today, notifications, messages, short form media. Naturally the best thing to do is remove the distraction. The problem with that is that phones have become something that everyone relies on, so you tweak it. Turn your notifications off, put your phone across the room, and find something else to do. The place that this goes wonky is that whatever task you find doesn’t seem nearly as engaging to your minds as scrolling.
If you don’t have anything particularly practical that you need to get done, then one of the easiest tasks you can choose to extend your attention span is watching a movie. It’s something that’s accessible with endless options, it has a set time, and the only rule is that you can’t get distracted. Dont scroll, dont do homework, dont cook, just watch the movie with an end goal of being able to summarize it.
Another option that is along the same idea is to read. The best way to make this work is to treat it like an assignment. Find a book that looks interesting and pick a day that you want to finish it by, only read one or two chapters at a time with your phone away. This would work well as a partner project, having someone help make sure you finish the book “on time” and stay off your phone.
Another commonly recommended tip is to take breaks in order to combat mental fatigue. Again, the big problem with that is that it’s too easy to get distracted and off track during those breaks. During these breaks do not get on your phone, your best option is to get up and move around a bit. Stretch, walk around, maybe get a snack. The important part of taking breaks is that it’s not an endless, undefined ‘I’ll go back in a little bit’ excuse. Try to limit these breaks to half an hour at most, set timers or tell a family member to nag you if you’re bad at time management.
This next one is going to hurt a little. d. Being active increases blood flow to the brain, it releases endorphins that help reduce stress and neurotransmitters that can improve focus and memory. A lot of people ignore this, thinking that exercise means doing a whole workout which a lot of people don’t have the time, energy, or desire to do. So don’t do an entire workout, there are plenty of videos on youtube offering simple 10 minute exercises, and if you don’t want to do that, then five minute exercises. These videos range in cardio, pilates, mobility, and yoga for you to choose from.
