In this mad world, we often struggle to maintain our attention. Everything is trying to get a piece of our attention. Phone calls from friends or colleagues, emails, push notifications, and notifications from social media sites are screaming loudly when we try to do something else. The good news is there are Ways to Reclaim Your Attention. Just follow them.
Focused attention is the capacity to concentrate on one object at a time. Our brains are always looking for informational stimuli. They are operating at total capacity.
Our brains can’t process all the information in front of us because there is simply too much of it. Since we may choose what to focus on from the facts at hand, it is up to our “attention” to do so.
Reclaiming Your Attention: A Step-by-Step Guide
1. Restrict Your Friends
Not friends in real life, but online buddies via social networks, blogs, & forums. These relationships can be healthy, but having too many renders them pointless.
As you read their updates, click on their links, react to their messages, view their images, & so forth, each friend will also demand a small portion of your attention. They’ll need more care the more of them you have. Just provide the absolute necessities.
2. Minimize The Distractions
One of the best Ways to Reclaim Your Attention is to minimize distractions. Find out what is distracting you most.
Is it email notifications on your phone or the music of cartoons on TV being watched by your kids if you are working from home? Take care of them. Turn off your phone’s data & tell your kids you are working, so keep the volume low.
Create an environment where you can work without any disturbances. Let your friends & family know you are working and don’t want to be disturbed for some hours unless it’s an emergency. Try to make the atmosphere noise-free & comfortable so you can provide your best at work at hand.
3. Avoid Multi-tasking
Multi-tasking is seen as a virtue in the modern world, but it does more harm than good. Only a handful of people are capable of multi-tasking with perfection. Assuming you are not one of them (there’s no shame in it), avoiding multi-tasking can be your answer to How to Reclaim Your Attention.
While trying it, you are just paying attention to numerous tasks at once, resulting in limited efficiency, lack of focus & leaving room for errors.
If you are talking over the phone & composing an email, you may make some mistakes. You might make grammatical or spelling errors in the mail; forget to mention some vital points or put some CC or BCC.
Similarly, you might miss some vital points in the telephone conversation or convey something vital as your attention is divided. In such scenarios, stop composing the mail & focus on the phone call. Or ask the person if you can call them back later.
4. Ensure Good Sleep Hygiene
Good sleep hygiene is crucial for our health & many other aspects of our lives. Our brain cells renew & rejuvenate when we sleep. We go through this procedure to feel rested & energized the next day.
Make your bedroom relaxing & sleep-inducing, avoid stimuli an hour before bed, and practice good sleep hygiene by avoiding caffeine, alcohol, & sugar.
5. Take Frequent Breaks
Working is vital, and so is taking breaks. Our mind & body is like a machine. With proper breaks, it will start malfunctioning.
If you are working or studying for long hours without breaks, you are likely experiencing reduced attention. Your mind starts wandering as you get tired & you are unable to focus.
Take a short break of 15 minutes after working/studying for 2 hours. Get up, have a short walk, get some hot beverages, chat with a friend, browse social media notifications, listen to music, and do anything that relaxes you.
Set alarms that remind you to take breaks. When you return after breaks, you will find your capacity to focus has been restored. Taking breaks is one of the best Ways to Reclaim Your Attention.
6. Practice Mindfulness & Meditation
Mind wandering is one of the main distractions from attention. This can happen while we’re concentrating on a task & then suddenly remember a discussion we had the day before or what we want to eat. All of us engage in it.
Mind wandering may be controlled by engaging in mindfulness exercises. Researchers emphasize that mindfulness is paying attention to the current moment with awareness. And without reacting emotionally to what is happening in any way.
The advantages will increase as you practice mindfulness more frequently. According to studies, even only 10–12 minutes of meditation five days a week can significantly increase one’s capacity for sustained concentration.
7. Try Attentive Listening
Being able to listen is an undervalued skill, even if it is more of a soft skill than the other practices on our list. Instead of listening to what the other person is saying, people frequently think about what they will say next.
A short attention span is demonstrated by not listening. Practice paying close attention to every word stated the next time you are conversing. Keeping you focused on the here & now will promote healthy conversation and aid in increasing your attention span.
Due to your increased attention to what is being said & your more extended preparation of a response, this approach also results in much pausing. Active listening can be your answer to How to Reclaim Your Attention.
8. Try Time Boxing
Many business professionals employ the time management technique known as time boxing. It entails setting aside a period of time for a particular task. All of your attention is focused on your schedule when the block begins. You proceed to the following time block when the current one expires.
If it helps, you can even set a timer. You can retain your focus using this technique. If you use it properly, you’ll be able to manage your attention span & increase your output.
Similarly, consider the Pomodoro Technique, which calls for 30 minutes of intense concentration on a certain work & a subsequent 10–15-minute break.
Why We Struggle To Be Attentive
It can be challenging to keep focused for a variety of reasons. Staying focused can be difficult while dealing with family issues, a noisy environment, work stress, & health issues. We are constantly inundated with information & ideas that urge us to let our attention wander.
We may not always be incapable of paying attention, then. Simply put, we have many options for what to focus on. There are also many Ways to Reclaim Your Attention:
Personal Issues: Lack of proper rest, nutrition & hydration can cause reduced attention.
Environmental Issues: Noisy environment, or a story, the unfavorable environment can deduce our attention significantly.
Factors affecting the stimulus: You may lose interest in the stimulus if it is uninteresting or lasts for a long time.
Attention disorders: There is a high prevalence of disorders like ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) & ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).
Brain Injury: If you’ve ever had a stroke or another type of brain injury, it could be difficult for you to concentrate.
FAQs
Q: Though we work in the same field, my colleague has a longer attention span than me. Why does it happen?
A: Attention span varies from person to person. In this article, we have discussed some simple Ways to Reclaim Your Attention.
Q: Are there any books that can help me to strengthen my attention?
A: Several books can be found on this topic. Here are some of them:
- First Things First by Stephen Covey.
- Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy.
- Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey.
- Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal.
- Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.
- Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport.
Q: Is it possible to focus while living in a noisy city?
A: Living in a quiet place like the top of a mountain or a jungle is impossible. You must explore ways to be more attentive among all these distractions.
