Reboot your brain: 3 steps to fix your attention span to get your focus back

It’s no wonder our attention spans are shrinking. When we’re engaged with the world in front of us, pings and dings interrupt. And in the lulls, we use screens to outrun moments of boredom, anxiety and loneliness.

These digital distractions have made it hard to sustain focus – while working, reading a book or spending time with friends and family. Some people find that they struggle to keep their minds trained on a single task even with phone and email notifications turned off.

But attention is a learned habit, said Daniel Smilek, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. And just as short-form content and endless scrolling can condition your brain to chase novelty, you can also build routines to reclaim your focus.

STEP 1: DO AN ATTENTION AUDIT

In general, people underestimate how much they use their phones and how often their minds wander, Dr Smilek said. But spotting these little detours can blunt their impact and make them easier to defend against, he added.

Next time you start a task, keep a tally of every time your attention slips, whether your mind is wandering or there’s an external distraction – including what exactly distracted you.

Also try mapping out your attentional rhythm – the natural peaks and valleys of focus – by checking in with yourself every hour and reflecting on how well you have been focusing, suggested Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine.

See if you can keep this audit going for a full day, added Jay Olson, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Toronto. And if that feels manageable, repeat it for a few more days, ideally a full week.

By the end, you’ll have a rough count of how often you tend to drift, a short list of usual culprits and a sense of when your focus is strongest.

STEP 2: REDUCE DISTRACTIONS

There’s no shortage of advice around protecting your focus. You can try using a flip phone, quitting social media or changing your screen to greyscale. But if you find these tactics unappealing or hard to sustain, making smaller changes – to your relationship with your phone and the way you approach tasks – may be more effective than any dramatic reset, Dr Olson said.

ADD FRICTION

Consider removing facial and fingerprint recognition from your phone and keeping it in your opposite pocket, Dr Olson said. A small study found that almost 90 per cent of phone use was initiated by the user rather than a notification. The small friction of typing in a password or reaching around your body can discourage idle use.

With social media, similarly consider logging out after each session and turning off auto-fill passwords; that way, coming back takes just enough effort to feel like a choice rather than a reflex.

TAKE AN ACTUAL BREAK

Sometimes the urge to check your phone is out of habit; other times, it means your brain could use a little break, Dr Olson said. Taking a break is different from indulging a distraction in that it’s intentional, bounded in time and easy to stop, like stretching, drinking water or squeezing a stress ball.

“It’s breaking that habit and replacing the typical behaviour with something more healthy,” Dr Olson said.

PLAN AHEAD

Use your attention audit to schedule the most demanding work for your peak-focus hours, when distractions are least likely. And instead of dipping into email, texts and Slack messages all day, batch those check-ins, said Kostadin Kushlev, a psychologist at Georgetown University, so that you’re not constantly interrupted by small pivots.

Some interruptions, like lunch breaks and meetings, are unavoidable, but you can still plan for them. Before you step away, write down a short “ready-to-resume plan,” said Sophie Leroy, the dean of the University of Washington Bothell School of Business, that includes what you’ve already accomplished and what you still need to do.

Think of it like closing a window in your brain, she added. If you leave the task open, your brain will keep circling back, even when talking to a friend or watching a movie, making it difficult to be present or fully focus.

STEP 3: TRAIN FOR LONGER BOUTS OF FOCUS

After a week or two of these changes, run the attention audit again to see what has changed. If you’re still distracted more than you’d like, you may need to take more deliberate action to extend your attention span.

GIVE YOUR BRAIN REAL DOWNTIME

Attention is a limited resource, and it tends to replenish when you give your brain a break from too much stimulation, Dr Mark said. Beyond getting enough sleep and reducing stress, here are some ideas. Start small – once a day – and then build from there.

Try a screen-free meal. Eat without scrolling, listening to podcasts or watching videos; let it be just the food and your thoughts.

Leave your headphones at home. When going on a run, grabbing groceries or doing other errands, make the quiet the point. Keep the voices out of your ear.

Add a nature reset. Spend time at your local park, greenway or quiet tree-lined street. In one study, a 50-minute nature walk helped students increase attention and memory scores by nearly 20 per cent. “But anything helps,” said Marc Berman, the chair of psychology at the University of Chicago.

STRENGTHEN YOUR ATTENTION MUSCLE

While resting your brain can help your focus rebound, attention training – or mindfulness practice – can strengthen your ability to sustain that focus.

Even if you don’t want to get on the meditation cushion, you can be more mindful with almost any task, Dr Smilek said. First, pick an anchor to focus on: your breath, a cup of coffee, perhaps the weight of fabric while you fold laundry.

Next, notice the moment when your mind wanders off. Then, gently bring your attention back to that anchor, again and again. The goal isn’t to force your concentration, said Yi-Yuan Tang, director of the Health Neuroscience Collaboratory at Arizona State University, but to notice what you see, hear and feel.

Using mindfulness apps or trying 10-minute art challenges can give your practise some scaffolding. But some people prefer to stay low-tech so the tool doesn’t become a distraction.

Even a few minutes of attention training can feel difficult at first, Dr Smilek said, so start small and slowly push yourself.

“We’re not asking for perfection right away,” Dr Leroy said. “What can you commit to today? What can you commit to tomorrow?”

By Simar Bajaj © The New York Times Company

The article originally appeared in The New York Times.