It's difficult to maintain your attention in this day and age. In this post you’ll learn 32 tips on how to increase your attention span.

How to Increase Your Attention Span: 32 Science-Backed Tips

The average person now focuses on a single screen for about 47 seconds before switching to something else. In 2004, that number was 2.5 minutes. The internet has connected the entire globe, given everyone a voice, and provided access to limitless information—but it has also trained our brains to seek dopamine at the expense of focus.

As Gloria Mark, Professor of Informatics at UC Irvine and author of Attention Span, explains: “When we first started measuring this, back in 2004, we found that people averaged two and a half minutes on a screen before switching. In the last, I would say, five or six years, since around 2016, we found that attention spans average 47 seconds on a screen before switching.”

If the video of a gymnast executing a quadruple backflip isn’t stoking enough dopamine, we immediately click on the next TikTok video, then the next one, and the next one.

Can attention span be increased? Absolutely. Below you’ll find 32 tips to deepen your focus, improve your concentration, and increase your attention span.

What is Attention Span?

Attention span is how long you can stay focused on one thing. It measures the time you can keep your concentration fixed on a task before your mind wanders or you switch activities.

Are Attention Spans Getting Shorter?

Yes. Research shows attention spans have dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to about 8 seconds in 2013, and they’ve remained low since. Gen Z averages about 8 seconds of attention before switching—shorter than millennials.

This decline coincides with the rise of smartphones and social media. The constant stream of notifications, hyperlinks, and suggested videos trains our brains to expect instant novelty.

Causes of Poor Attention Span

Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus, puts it bluntly: “If you are struggling to focus, it’s not your fault. Your attention didn’t collapse. It was stolen.”

Several factors drive declining attention spans:

Social Media and Digital Design

Apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are engineered by teams of specialists to maximize engagement. Infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic recommendations exploit your brain’s reward system. A recent study found that 68% of young people report that social media harms their ability to focus.

Notification Overload

Every buzz, ping, and banner notification fragments your attention. It takes workers about 25 minutes on average to refocus after a digital interruption. When your phone buzzes 50 times a day, you’re losing hours to recovery time alone.

Constant Context Switching

Adults spend about 10.5 minutes on a work project before switching due to interruptions. Each switch taxes your prefrontal cortex, leaving less cognitive resources for deep work.

Screen Time Habits

The average adult internet user’s attention span hovers around 8.25 seconds—barely enough time to read a headline. Short-form video content conditions the brain to expect constant novelty.

What Affects Attention Span?

Several factors influence your ability to concentrate:

• Sleep quality and duration: Sleep deprivation impairs attention within a single night
• Hydration and nutrition: Dehydration directly affects cognitive performance
• Physical activity: Exercise boosts focus-enhancing neurotransmitters
• Stress and anxiety: High stress hijacks attention toward worry
• Environment: Clutter, noise, and visible devices all fragment focus
• Digital habits: How often you check your phone shapes your baseline attention
• Health conditions: ADHD, depression, and sleep disorders affect concentration

Health Conditions Related to Attention Span

Sometimes difficulty focusing stems from an underlying condition rather than digital habits alone.

ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder)

ADHD affects the brain’s executive functions, making sustained attention genuinely harder—not a matter of willpower. Adults with undiagnosed ADHD often struggle with time blindness, task initiation, and maintaining focus on unstimulating activities. If you’ve always had attention difficulties across multiple areas of life, consider evaluation by a specialist.

Sleep Disorders

Conditions like sleep apnea fragment sleep architecture, leaving people chronically under-rested even when they spend enough hours in bed. Poor sleep quality directly impairs attention, memory, and decision-making.

Anxiety and Depression

Both conditions compete for cognitive resources. Anxiety keeps the brain scanning for threats, while depression reduces motivation and mental energy. Treating the underlying condition often improves focus.

Other Factors

Thyroid dysfunction, vitamin deficiencies (especially B12 and iron), and certain medications can all affect concentration. If focus problems persist despite good sleep, exercise, and digital habits, consult a healthcare provider.

If you are struggling, please note that this content is not professional medical advice. Consult a doctor or licensed therapist for questions about your physical or mental health.

The 3 Pillars of a Powerful Attention Span

Three core abilities determine your attention span:

1. Your ability to cope with boredom. Many people can’t tolerate boredom—only a quadruple backflip? *Yawn.* Next video, please! Building attention span means deepening your ability to sit with boredom, restlessness, and other uncomfortable emotions that make you want to switch tasks immediately.

2. Your patience. If you are patient, boredom doesn’t arise in the first place. With patience, you’re content with slowness and subtlety—you stop craving the next sparkly exciting thing.

3. Your ability to take interest in anything. Since attention span measures how long you remain interested in a task, improving your ability to get interested in anything lengthens your attention span.

The tips below address all three pillars.

Life-Changing Wins from Mastering Your Focus

Improving your attention span benefits every area of life.

Better work performance. A longer attention span makes you more effective and productive. You accomplish more in less time with less burnout.

Deeper relationships. A better attention span makes you a better friend who can listen with engaged empathy and stay present with another person’s story and feelings.

Stronger skills. Stretching your attention span makes you more proficient at hobbies, where you can dedicate yourself to learning and improving more effectively.

Improved cognition. Better focus supports your memory and problem-solving skills—abilities that touch all areas of life.

Less anxiety. Research correlates the struggle to control attention with the presence of anxiety; more attentional control means you have more agency over which thoughts run the show.

Ready to train your brain? Here are concrete ways to increase your attention span.

Build Endurance: Dive into Distraction-Free Activities

Since attention span measures how long you can stay on a task, one strategy is to find activities you can do for extended periods. When boredom arises, you can practice sitting with the feeling instead of jumping ship.

Play Concentration Games

A randomized trial found that regular crossword puzzle practice over several weeks improved cognitive function in older adults compared to some computer brain games.

To increase your attention span, spend 15 minutes daily doing a crossword puzzle, Sudoku, jigsaw puzzle, or another brain game that tests your working memory and focus.

• Try one of our 30 Best Brain Games

Read a Fascinating Book (All the Way)

Surveyors at Pew reported that “roughly a quarter of American adults (23%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form.”

Finishing a book start-to-finish requires sustained attention—exactly the muscle you want to build.

Here’s how Bill Gates approaches starting a new book:

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Pick a book and commit to finishing the entire thing. No starting a new book until you complete this one. Start with engaging books and work toward more informational but dry subjects. Vanessa Van Edwards wrote two bestsellers that blend research with readability:

• Cues: Master the Secret Language of Charismatic Communication
• Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People

Take Notes on a Podcast

Put on a lecture, TED Talk, or podcast and listen from start to finish. To stay engaged, actively take notes.

Social scientists at Princeton and UCLA found that taking notes with pen and paper increases conceptual retention more than notetaking on a laptop.

Meditate for 10 Minutes (or 2!)

Researchers at the University of Washington found that mindfulness meditation helps improve focus and attention span and decreases the need to multitask.

Richard J. Davidson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, confirms: “We and others have shown that even very short amounts of meditation practice can produce measurable changes in the brain and in behavior associated with attention…”

Go for 10 minutes. If that’s too much, start with 2 minutes and add a minute every day.

There are many ways to meditate. Here are several to try:

Count Breaths

Set a ten-minute timer. Sit or lie down, eyes closed. Put your attention on your breath—either at your nostrils or in your stomach. Count each exhale. When you reach 10, reset to 1. If you realize you’ve been daydreaming, no worries—just return to 1.

Body Scan

Set a ten-minute timer. Sit or lie down, eyes closed. Focus on your feet. Notice what sensations are happening there. Slowly move your attention up to your ankles, then your calves, knees, and so on. When you reach the top of your head, start over. If your mind wanders, return to the last body part you remember.

Tune Into Your Auditory Surroundings

Set a ten-minute timer. Sit or lie down, eyes closed. Focus your attention on the sounds around you—traffic, birds, the hum of appliances. Just listen without labeling.

Noting

In this technique, you internally note whatever you notice in your awareness.

Set a ten-minute timer. Sit or lie down, eyes closed. Whatever you notice, internally voice it. Your dialogue might be: “left foot tingling… planning… ache in lower back… memories…”

You’re training yourself to sharpen awareness. If you catch yourself zoning out, return to the practice without judgment.

For more detail, check out mindfulness teacher Cory Allen’s “Methodical Mindfulness Training.”

Try a Mantra

A mantra is a phrase you line up with your breath and repeat internally. It anchors attention. Some schools, like Transcendental Meditation, use mantras that aren’t even in English.

Try “I feel patient and focused.” Set a ten-minute timer. Sit or lie down, eyes closed. On each exhale, silently repeat: “I feel patient and focused.”

Take a Cold Bath

Building attention span means improving your ability to tolerate discomfort. What’s more uncomfortable than cold?

Studies suggest that brief cold stimulation to the face or neck can activate the vagus nerve via the diving reflex, which can improve attention and help combat depression.

Try running a cold bath and staying in it for two minutes while taking deep breaths. The more you practice, the easier it gets—and it might actually become pleasant.

Note: Research shows taking a cold plunge after a workout may hinder muscle growth. Time accordingly.

Try a Hot Bath

Hot water may not have cold water’s cultural hype, but it’s a time-tested relaxation practice. Hot springs were part of Ancient Greek culture thousands of years ago.

A study from the University of Fukui reported brain wave changes, including theta activity, during hot water immersion, associated with reduced stress and increased relaxation.

Try putting on a timer for 25 minutes and submerging in a hot bath without distraction. Light a candle and add essential oils to engage multiple senses.

Listen to Music with Your Eyes Closed

We usually play music in the background, creating more stimuli competing for attention.

Instead, try this: Lie down, eyes closed, and listen to a song, album, or playlist without interruption. Let it take you on a journey.

Some research indicates that certain background music, like classical, can aid performance on simple tasks compared to silence, with positive-valence music sometimes outperforming negative.

Pro Tip: Focus on just one song a day. Over a week or two, your ability to stay with a song without distraction increases.

Seek Out Flow State Activities

Steven Kotler, a flow state expert, defines a flow state as “those moments of rapt attention and total absorption when you get so focused on the task at hand that everything else disappears. Action and awareness merge. Your sense of self vanishes. Your sense of time distorts.”

Kotler’s research points to four triggers that induce flow:

1. High Consequences (physical, mental, social, or emotional risk)
2. Deep Embodiment (engaging multiple sensory streams, learning by doing)
3. Rich Environment (novelty, complexity, unpredictability)
4. Creativity (pattern recognition, linking new ideas)

Use flow states to practice holding your attention on one activity for a long time.

High consequences activities:

• Extreme sports: mountain biking, snowboarding, surfing
• Conversations about vulnerable or sensational topics
• Performance courses: improv, stand-up comedy, public speaking, karaoke

Deep embodiment activities:

• Team sports: basketball, ultimate frisbee, soccer
• Partner dance classes
• Spin-cycle classes

Rich environment activities:

• Concerts
• Escape rooms
• Laser tag

Creativity activities:

• Brainstorming sessions with a friend about compelling topics
• Mind mapping your life commitments and values with sticky notes
• Playing the pattern-recognition game Set

Fuel Your Focus: Everyday Habits for Natural Concentration

If you were going to run a marathon, you’d make sure to sleep enough and eat the right foods. How you treat your body impacts your physical abilities. The same applies to mental abilities, brain health, and attention span.

Take a Walk for 20 Minutes

Plenty of data suggests that exercise helps your attention. In one study, students who took a 20-minute treadmill walk improved their scores on an attention-based test.

Wendy Suzuki, Professor of Neural Science and Psychology at NYU, explains: “A single workout will immediately increase levels of neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline. That is going to increase your ability to shift and focus attention for at least two hours following that workout.”

For many people, physical activity feels daunting. But most people can do a 20-minute walk.

If you have a big task requiring focus, try a brisk walk right before starting. Even better, introduce a 20-minute walk into your day for the next week. If habit-forming is difficult, invite a friend for weekly accountability walks.

Sleep the Right Amount

According to CDC data, about 35% of U.S. adults get less than 7 hours of sleep per night, which laboratory studies associate with impaired physiological and cognitive functioning.

Additional studies found that too little sleep makes it easier to get distracted. Even a single night of poor sleep impairs attention and cognitive performance the next day. Ongoing sleep deprivation only worsens it.

Action step: Be honest with yourself. Are you skimping on sleep? Try giving yourself an extra thirty minutes of sleep a night for the next week.

Here’s Kobe Bryant on the importance of sleep:

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On the flip side, observational studies show a U-shaped relationship where both very short and very long sleep durations are associated with poorer cognitive performance. If you tend to oversleep, try sleeping 30 minutes less.

Drink Water

This meta-analysis showed that dehydration hurts your ability to pay attention, as well as planning ability, memory, and motor control.

Your body is about 57% water, and your brain is about 73% water. Don’t let your watery self shrivel into a human raisin.

How much water you need depends on your size and activity level. Aim for about 11 cups (women) or 16 cups (men) a day.

Tomorrow, track how much water you drink—either by carrying around a gallon jug or by tracking cups with an app like Drink Water Reminder.

Chew Gum

Several studies link chewing gum to increased attention. Theories include facial muscle engagement or central nervous system activation, but none are certain.

Take advantage by incorporating gum into your workday. Just spit it out before meetings.

Get Into Nature

Nature isn’t in a rush. It’s slow-paced.

This study shows that a 60-minute nature walk increases working memory and decreases anxiety. Interestingly, researchers did not find the same results with a 60-minute urban walk.

Plan a hike this weekend.

Watch Your Caffeine

Caffeine can sharpen focus in the short term, but timing and dosage matter. Consuming caffeine too late in the day disrupts sleep, creating a cycle where you need more caffeine to compensate for poor rest. Most research suggests cutting off caffeine 8-10 hours before bed.

Workspace Wins: Habits That Supercharge Your Daily Focus

If you work or study, consider each day at your desk a massive opportunity to practice lengthening your attention span.

Work 100% and Break 100%

Think of your ability to concentrate as a muscle. To strengthen it, engage it fully and rest it fully. If you over-work it, you’ll burn out. If you never let it rest, it’ll never fully recharge.

The folks at Desktime analyzed an extensive dataset on worker productivity. They found that the most productive people worked in a cycle of 52 minutes of focused work, then 17 minutes of concentrated rest.

Maybe 52 and 17 aren’t right for you. The Pomodoro Technique uses 25 focused minutes, then a 5-minute break.

Whatever numbers you choose, the key is that while working, you make it a practice of concentration. You don’t open Facebook or email or randomly Google your name. And when resting, you rest fully—stretch, gaze out the window, talk to coworkers—but don’t work.

Action step: During your next workday, try either the 52/17 or 25/5 technique. View each work block as a period to increase your attention span.

Use thisvisual timer to track increments, recommended by the authors of Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day.

If you struggle to focus productively, you might be aiming at the wrong goals. Check out this series on creating better goals:

How To Set Better Goals Using Science

Do you set the same goals over and over again? If you’re not achieving your goals – it’s not your fault!

Let me show you the science-based goal-setting framework to help you achieve your biggest goals.

Turn Off Notifications

According to McKinsey Global Institute research, the average employee spends nearly 28% of the workweek reading and answering email.

If your phone buzzes whenever you receive an email, text, or tweet, you’ll be constantly distracted. Each notification requires willpower to resist.

But if you don’t receive the alert, you don’t need willpower to avoid it.

Nip this in the bud: disable all notifications except truly urgent ones.

Respond in Batches

Instead of responding to emails as they arrive, try batch responding.

Pick one to three times throughout the day to spend 10-25 minutes total responding to messages. You cultivate attention span by staying true to the task at hand—emails—and you save yourself from getting distracted from other tasks.

Keep a Notebook for Distracting Thoughts

You’ve committed to working for 25 uninterrupted minutes. But 4 minutes in, you get a BRILLIANT idea: invite your mom over for dinner to show her your creative project!

This feels huge. You must act NOW.

Not so fast.

Keep a notebook by your side. Write: “invite mom over to show her my amazing model train set I’ve built!” Then get back to work.

Writing the idea down offloads it from your awareness so you can focus on your task, trusting you’ve logged the idea for later.

Stop Multitasking

If you want to improve your attention span, practice doing one task at a time. That means no multitasking.

RescueTime reports show that people frequently multitask with communication apps during work. While working on a task, they also actively use Slack, Discord, text, etc.

The thing about multitasking: your brain just switches back and forth between tasks rapidly.

Remember: attention span is how long you can stay concentrated on a task. By multitasking, you’re training your attention span to be shorter.

As the authors of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World explain:

“…if the two goals both require cognitive control to enact them… then they will certainly compete for limited prefrontal cortex resources… The process of neural network switching is associated with a decrease in accuracy, often for both tasks, and a time delay compared to doing one task at a time.”

Practice single-tasking: Next time you eat a meal, make that your sole activity—just you and the food. No TV, no podcast.

Take it further: do only one task at a time for an entire day. No walking while texting, cooking while listening to a podcast, or bringing your phone to the toilet.

You might be surprised how frequently your attention toggles between tasks.

Make Your Task List Ahead of Time

The version of you who writes your task list is the boss. The version who executes those tasks is the employee. Each requires a different state of mind.

For your next workday, write out a task list—an itinerary of how you’ll spend your day: what you’ll work on, when, for how long, and when you’ll take breaks.

This way, when doing tasks, you drop into focused routine and surrender into employee-brain mode without needing to go meta to adjust plans.

Ride the Coattails of a Flow State

One way to bring more focus to your day is to start with a flow state activity or pair one with a subsequent work block.

When you’re in flow, you enter extreme focus. If you engage in a work block right afterward, you can carry that focus into your task.

Action step: Pick a flow state activity and spend 30 minutes on it right before starting your workday tomorrow.

How to Increase Attention Span While Studying

Students face unique focus challenges. Here are specific strategies:

Single-task studying: Close all tabs except what you’re working on. Use website blockers like Freedom or Cold Turkey during study sessions.

Active recall: Instead of passive reading, quiz yourself. This requires more attention and improves retention.

Spaced practice: Short, focused sessions spread over days beat marathon cramming. Your attention stays fresher.

Environment design: Study in the same distraction-free location. Your brain learns that this space means focus.

The 5-more rule: When you feel like stopping, commit to just 5 more minutes (or 5 more problems, or 5 more pages). Often you’ll continue past that.

How to Increase Attention Span in Adults

Adults face specific attention challenges that differ from children or students. Work responsibilities, family obligations, and years of ingrained digital habits create unique obstacles.

Recognize Adult-Specific Challenges

Unlike students who have structured schedules, adults often juggle multiple roles simultaneously. You might shift from parent to employee to caregiver within hours. Each context switch drains cognitive resources.

Adults also carry more mental load—bills, appointments, relationships, career planning. This background processing competes with whatever task demands your immediate attention.

Audit Your Digital Environment

After years of accumulating apps, subscriptions, and accounts, most adults have cluttered digital lives. Spend one hour auditing:

• Delete apps you haven’t used in 3 months
• Unsubscribe from newsletters you don’t read
• Remove yourself from group chats that don’t add value
• Consolidate work communication to fewer platforms

Each reduction eliminates a potential attention grab.

Schedule Focus Blocks Like Meetings

Adults respect calendar appointments. Use this tendency by scheduling “focus blocks” as non-negotiable meetings with yourself. Block 90-minute windows for deep work and protect them as you would a meeting with your boss.

Leverage Your Peak Hours

Unlike younger people who often have consistent energy, adults experience more variation. Track your energy for a week. When do you feel sharpest? Schedule demanding cognitive work for those windows. Save routine tasks for energy dips.

Address the Stress-Attention Connection

Adult life brings stressors that directly impair attention: financial pressure, relationship conflicts, health concerns. While you can’t eliminate stress, you can contain it. Try “worry windows”—designated 15-minute periods to think about concerns, freeing the rest of your day for focus.

Build Recovery Into Your Week

Adults often run deficits—sleep debt, exercise debt, social connection debt. These compound into attention problems. Instead of viewing recovery as optional, schedule it: one full rest day weekly, one social connection, one physical activity session minimum.

Amp Up Motivation: Accountability and Stakes for Deeper Focus

If you have a long task to focus on, incorporate different motivations to help you resist distractions.

Use the Power of Accountability

Imagine going through your entire workday with your boss sitting right next to you, assessing how effectively you used your time.

Aside from being invasive and anxiety-inducing, you would undoubtedly spend far less time on YouTube or searching for baby animal photos.

This demonstrates the power of accountability. You have more control over your actions when they’re visible to someone else.

To use this principle: Pick a personal project you want to spend three hours on. Call a friend and invite them to a co-working session. Share what you want to accomplish and when you intend to take breaks. Check in at the end to review what you got done.

This will likely stretch your attention span into greater focus and productivity periods.

Make Stakes

Imagine you and your friend each put $500 in an envelope and agreed: if either of you got off task today, you’d burn the $1,000.

Think of how much easier it would be to stay focused when your money is on the line. You’d feel even more motivated when there’s the chance of letting your friend down.

To put this into practice: Choose a project and set aside time to work on it. Tell a trusted friend that if you don’t complete X amount in your allotted time, you’ll spend $100 on the ugliest painting you can find at a farmer’s market.

Make your goal a stretch but definitely achievable.

If you can’t find an accountability buddy, try the app stickK, where you make a commitment contract and put money on the line.

Spark Interest: Turn Boring Tasks into Engaging Challenges

If the opposite of feeling bored is feeling fascinated, learn to approach your tasks in ways that make them fascinating.

Turn Your Task into a Game

If you have a boring homework assignment or repetitive work task, you might know it’ll feel dull. You’ll be tempted to bounce between your task and Instagram. See if you can reframe your approach to make it more interesting.

If you’re a customer support specialist, challenge yourself to add extra sparkle to email responses. Or extend more empathy to each support request.

If you work in retail, tell a joke in every customer interaction.

If you have a lengthy draft to write, challenge yourself to finish in ⅔ your usual time.

Action step: Look at a work task you have to do this week that you fear will be boring. Create new rules to turn it into a game.

Try the app Habitica, which gamifies tasks by turning your life into an RPG where real-life goals help you level up.

You can also try a Stop, Start, Continue exercise with your to-do list:

Turn Your Task into a Growth Opportunity

Similar to turning a task into a game, see if you can turn it into an opportunity for personal growth.

If you dread your morning meeting because you always zone out, think about an aspect of yourself you’d like to cultivate. Do you want to become more kind? More empowered? Use that meeting as practice ground for that quality.

What would it be like to show up with the goal of acting with as much empowerment as possible? You might speak up more or provide thoughtful alternatives to your boss’s ideas.

Action step: Pick a task you have to do tomorrow that you’re not looking forward to. Choose a virtuous quality to cultivate. Challenge yourself to use that task as practice ground.

Some virtues to consider:

• Patience
• Honesty
• Courage
• Personal responsibility
• Compassion
• Perseverance
• Optimism
• Humility
• Generosity

Explore which virtues to focus on in this article on core values.

Listen to Lengthen: Focus Practices for Better Conversations

We spend significant time engaging with others. Why not use conversation as an opportunity to practice lengthening your attention span?

Practice Your Empathy

In your next conversation, keep attention on your empathy. Constantly imagine putting yourself in the other person’s position.

Based on what they shared, how might they be feeling? What does the world look like from their eyes?

A straightforward way to practice: introduce this active-listening phrase into your vocabulary: “If I were you, I imagine I’d feel ______.”

Try using this line a few times in your next long talk. Focusing on empathy lengthens your attention span, keeps you present, and helps your friend feel heard.

Go deeper into building empathy muscles in this article.

Reflective Listening

Reflective listening is a technique where you reflect back what your friend shared.

If you reflect verbatim, it may feel mechanical. Instead, internalize what they said and put it in your own words: “Oh, so it’s like you’re putting in a ton of effort at work, but your boss doesn’t seem to notice?”

Done right, they’ll likely say “Exactly!” and elaborate further. Even if you miss something, they’ll correct you and continue.

This technique helps people open up to you. And it’s a way to use listening to increase your attention span.

Action step: Try reflective listening once in your next conversation.

Distraction Detox: Simple Steps to Clear Your Mental Space

Much of our short attention spans trace back to the infinite list of distractions that is the internet. Instead of building more willpower, eliminate distractions from the start.

Put Your Phone in a Drawer

What would you point to as the one thing most distracting in your life?

Definitely the phone.

This study found that when test subjects worked on complex tasks requiring full attention, their performance worsened when the experimenter had their phone visible—not even the participant’s phone.

Just having a phone nearby distracts us.

Pick an amount of time—whether one day a week or just an hour—and put your phone in a drawer. Let yourself have time untethered to the worldwide web.

Try a Light Phone

Another option: The Light Phone.

This sleek, functional phone has no internet access. It uses an electronic paper screen, like a Kindle, and can access maps but nothing else.

You might keep your current phone and use the Light phone on certain days.

Hide Recommended Videos on YouTube

If YouTube steals your attention, try the Chrome extension Unhook.

You can still search for videos, but YouTube won’t bombard you with recommended videos on your home screen or sidebars.

If the draw to check your feed feels too strong, try News Feed Eradicator. It replaces your Facebook newsfeed with an inspirational quote.

A Week with No Media at All

Want to go further? Try an entire week with no media.

No social media, YouTube, podcasts, movies, TV shows, or books. As extreme as it sounds, such a hiatus could drastically change your relationship with devices.

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, calls this tool “Media Deprivation.”

She writes: “When we are constantly interrupted, we lose our train of thought. When my students experiment with turning their devices off, they find that they are often flooded with ideas, even inspiration. Media Deprivation casts us back onto ourselves, puts us in touch with our thoughts and ideas, and often frees up a lot of time.”

A Weekend Unplugged in Nature

If unplugging for a week feels too long, try a weekend.

The easiest way: vacation in nature. Whether renting a cabin or pitching a tent, simply leave your phone in your car.

If sleeping on an air mattress makes you queasy, try Hipcamp, an online service where people with large properties rent out cabins, yurts, or plots of land.

For more inspiration, check out this digital detox article.

Tips for Children and ADHD

Children’s attention spans are naturally shorter than adults’. Research shows children’s average sustained attention is about 29.6 seconds, declining 27% over longer tests.

For children—whether neurotypical or with ADHD—these strategies help:

Break tasks into smaller chunks. Instead of “do your homework,” try “do five math problems, then take a 2-minute break.”

Use visual timers. Children respond well to seeing time pass. The Time Timer mentioned earlier works well.

Incorporate movement. Allow fidgeting, standing, or short movement breaks between tasks.

Reduce environmental distractions. Clear the workspace of everything except what’s needed for the current task.

Match tasks to energy levels. Do demanding work when the child is most alert, usually morning for most children.

Gamify with rewards. Use sticker charts or point systems for completing focused work periods.

Consider professional support. If attention difficulties significantly impact daily life, evaluation for ADHD can lead to helpful interventions.

Your Focus Questions Answered

Why is my attention span so short?

Your attention span might be shorter than you’d prefer because of today’s inundation with social media and notifications. Right when you open your internet browser, hyperlinks, ads, and suggested videos all tug at your attention. Each time you break focus to click elsewhere, you’re training your attention span to shorten. But there are many ways to increase your attention span.

How can I increase my attention span fast?

While lasting change requires sustained effort, you can increase your attention span quickly by disabling phone notifications, engaging in long activities without interruption, and practicing meditation.

How to increase my attention span while studying or working?

Work for an uninterrupted block, then rest for an uninterrupted block. Respond to emails in batches instead of when they arrive. Turn off notifications. Use website blockers during focused work periods.

How can I increase my focus and attention?

Start by taking care of your body with enough sleep and hydration. Set up work habits that diminish distraction. Then engage in prolonged activities where you practice focus.

Can attention span be improved?

Absolutely. Since attention span is how long you can keep interest or concentration on a task, you can practice extending that time through the strategies in this article.

How do I force myself to focus?

Forcing focus requires significant willpower. It’s often easier to eliminate distractions first. Meditation can make you more comfortable with boredom and less inclined to lose focus.

How do I get instant focus?

Try engaging in an activity that induces flow state. This puts you in immediate focus, which you can carry into subsequent tasks.

What are some good ways to increase attention span?

The most effective approaches combine eliminating distractions (turning off notifications, putting your phone away), building healthy habits (exercise, sleep, hydration), and practicing sustained attention through meditation, reading, and single-tasking.

Which tip will you try first? Share in the comments—we read every one!

Your Focus Action Plan: 7 Principles to Live By

We live in a world full of endless distractions. Entire AI systems are optimized to hook your attention and get you to click.

But all hope is not lost. You can take proactive steps to push back against the technological current and fortify your attention span:

1. Intentionally engage in extended activities to actively stretch your attention span.
   • Try Sudoku, reading a book, or meditating.
2. Incorporate healthy habits that naturally give you access to more attention.
   • Start by sleeping 30 minutes more a night, drinking enough water daily, or hiking in nature this weekend.
3. Orient your workday around cultivating focus.
   • Turn off notifications, respond to emails in batches, and work 52 minutes of pure focus followed by 17 minutes of pure rest.
4. Bring in additional motivations to your work or creativity sessions.
   • Find an accountability buddy to cowork alongside.
5. Make your tasks more interesting by bringing a different mindset.
   • Turn everything into either a game or a growth challenge to stay engaged and focused.
6. Recognize that social interactions are a place to practice extending attention span.
   • Make it a practice to see how present you can be with others. Start with active empathy and reflective listening.
7. Get rid of distractions altogether.
   • Try a day a week without your phone, a week with no media, or a weekend unplugged in nature.

If you’d like to learn more about focus, this article is a great place to go deeper.