how to fix your attention span

Summary

The video highlights the growing struggle to maintain focus in a world filled with distractions, such as smartphones and short-form content. The speaker discusses personal challenges in staying attentive during activities like watching long movies or working, offering practical tips to improve focus. These include setting clear intentions, managing distractions, breaking down tasks, and consuming media intentionally. The video also emphasizes the importance of practicing mindfulness, reducing screen time, and gradually regaining control over attention spans to achieve deeper concentration and productivity.

Takeaways

• 🍿 Setting intentions can help you stay focused on your tasks and avoid distractions like scrolling through social media.
• 📱 Acknowledge and resist impulses to check your phone or other distractions, asking yourself why you're reaching for it.
• 🧘‍♂️ Let random, intrusive thoughts come and go without engaging, a skill that can be improved through meditation.
• 🚫 Reduce distractions by eliminating alternatives like setting screen time limits or enabling grayscale mode on your phone.
• 💡 Get emotionally invested in your work by playing relevant soundtracks to make focusing feel more natural and enjoyable.
• 📝 Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable parts to make the work less overwhelming and easier to focus on.
• ⛔ Avoid multitasking to give each task your full attention and produce higher-quality results.
• 🎧 Consume media intentionally, opting for longer-form content that requires thinking and engagement instead of short, quick dopamine hits.
• 🍃 Try being present during walks or downtime without consuming any media to regain control of your focus and mind.
• 📉 Gradually reduce screen time limits instead of aggressive reductions, making the transition easier and more sustainable.

Q & A

What is the main issue the speaker highlights regarding focus in modern times?

The speaker highlights that focus is becoming scarcer due to constant distractions like smartphones and social media, making it difficult to stay attentive for prolonged periods.

Why does the speaker believe setting clear intentions is important for maintaining focus?

The speaker believes that without clear intentions, it's easy to get distracted, such as checking a phone for work purposes and ending up scrolling through social media. Setting intentions helps align actions with goals and reduce distractions.

How does the speaker recommend handling intrusive thoughts while working?

The speaker recommends letting intrusive thoughts come and go without engaging with them. Observing these thoughts, possibly writing them down, and practicing meditation can help in managing distractions.

What role does meditation play in improving focus, according to the speaker?

Meditation helps by training the mind to observe thoughts without reacting to them, reducing stress, and improving focus. The speaker shares personal experience from meditating during college, which improved academic performance.

What practical tip does the speaker offer to minimize distractions from smartphones?

The speaker suggests enabling grayscale mode on smartphones to reduce the appeal of colorful, dopamine-inducing videos and also recommends gradually reducing screen time by setting time limits.

How does the speaker suggest getting emotionally invested in work to improve focus?

The speaker recommends using relevant soundtracks to get emotionally invested in tasks. For example, playing the Oppenheimer soundtrack while studying physics to feel like a scientist can make focusing easier and more enjoyable.

What advice does the speaker give for breaking down large tasks?

The speaker advises breaking large tasks into smaller, manageable chunks to reduce overwhelm and improve focus. This also prevents multitasking, allowing full attention on one task at a time.

How does consuming media intentionally contribute to better focus, according to the speaker?

The speaker explains that consuming longer, more thoughtful media—such as educational videos or podcasts—encourages deeper engagement and reduces the craving for instant gratification from short-form content, improving focus.

What is the significance of managing 'alternatives' while trying to focus, as explained by the speaker?

The speaker emphasizes that being aware of easier, more entertaining alternatives (like opening a YouTube tab) can weaken focus. By reducing these alternatives, such as through time limits on apps, it's easier to stay focused.

Why does the speaker recommend gradually reducing screen time limits instead of making drastic changes?

The speaker suggests that sudden, drastic reductions in screen time limits are likely to fail because they are too aggressive. Gradually reducing usage helps users adjust more realistically to new limits.

Outlines

00:00

🎥 The Challenge of Modern Attention Spans

The paragraph opens by setting a familiar scene: going to the movies with friends, but quickly transitions to the struggle of staying focused during long films. The protagonist is tempted to check their phone after just 30 minutes, craving a dopamine hit. This example is used to highlight a larger issue: the modern-day difficulty in maintaining focus, even during leisurely activities. The paragraph introduces the central theme that our attention spans are shrinking in an age of constant digital distractions.

05:01

🧠 Set Clear Intentions to Combat Distractions

This section delves into the importance of setting clear intentions to avoid distractions. It explains how we often unconsciously drift into distractions like social media, snacks, or chatting with others, justified by our impulses. The author advises observing these urges and questioning them with a simple 'why?' to bring awareness to the real reason behind the distraction. Setting clear, articulated intentions before using your phone or stepping away from work can help maintain focus. Personal anecdotes emphasize how these strategies have helped the author overcome habitual distractions.

10:02

🧘 Let Intrusive Thoughts Come and Go

This paragraph focuses on handling intrusive thoughts that distract from work. The author suggests acknowledging these thoughts but not engaging with them, comparing this practice to meditation, where the goal is to become an observer of the mind. The paragraph also reflects on the author’s personal experience with meditation, which helped them manage stress and focus, especially during challenging times like the COVID-19 lockdown. Meditation is promoted as a valuable tool to build mental discipline and manage distractions.

📚 Sponsor Highlight: Course Hero

Here, the author shifts to a sponsorship plug, introducing Course Hero, an AI-powered study tool. They demonstrate how Course Hero can assist with understanding difficult academic material by uploading study documents and receiving step-by-step explanations. The service also offers textbook solutions, practice questions, and course-specific resources. The sponsor’s features are illustrated with examples, emphasizing how Course Hero helps students with homework and comprehension.

🔒 Remove Alternatives to Stay Focused

The next tip addresses how distractions stem from knowing you have alternatives like social media or entertainment. The author recommends setting screen time limits on phones, but advises against drastic reductions. Instead, they suggest gradually lowering time limits to ease the adjustment. Another strategy includes making distractions less tempting, such as enabling grayscale mode on your phone to make colorful content less appealing. This gradual, methodical approach helps reduce distractions and improve focus over time.

🎶 Get Emotionally Invested in Your Work

This paragraph encourages readers to immerse themselves emotionally in their tasks to naturally enhance focus. The author suggests playing soundtracks that match the subject matter to help boost engagement, providing examples like 'The Social Network' for coding or 'Oppenheimer' for science studies. By framing your work as an exciting challenge, focus becomes easier and more enjoyable. The author emphasizes that emotional investment makes focus feel effortless, and they provide links to their own work playlists for further inspiration.

🔍 Break Down Big Tasks Into Manageable Pieces

The author advises breaking down large, daunting tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks to avoid feeling overwhelmed. This approach helps with both starting and maintaining focus on each part of a project. They stress that multitasking should be avoided, as it can dilute focus and reduce the quality of work. By focusing on one task at a time and breaking it into smaller parts, students can better grasp fundamentals and improve their productivity and memory.

📺 Consume Media Intentionally

In the final tip, the author encourages intentional media consumption, particularly avoiding excessive short-form content that leads to instant gratification and weakens attention spans. Instead, they recommend watching longer videos or listening to podcasts that require more engagement, naming channels like 'Veritasium' and 'Tom Scott' as examples of quality content. The author also highlights the benefits of taking breaks from media altogether, such as going for walks without distractions, which can help restore focus and mental clarity.

Keywords

💡Focus

Focus refers to the ability to concentrate on a task or activity for a prolonged period of time without being easily distracted. In the video, it is described as a precious resource that is becoming scarcer in the modern world due to distractions like social media. The video emphasizes the importance of maintaining focus in order to be productive and suggests strategies to improve focus, such as setting intentions and removing distractions.

💡Distractions

Distractions are anything that pulls attention away from the task at hand, such as checking a phone or scrolling through social media. The video highlights how modern-day distractions, especially digital ones, are a major obstacle to maintaining focus. It suggests becoming aware of these distractions and taking steps to manage them, such as setting phone time limits or using grayscale mode to make apps less appealing.

💡Intention

Setting an intention means having a clear goal or purpose for what you are doing. In the video, the speaker suggests that one of the main reasons people get distracted is because they do not set clear intentions for their work. By explicitly stating your goal (e.g., 'I’m going to look up this word and then return to work'), you reduce the likelihood of being sidetracked by distractions.

💡Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward. In the video, the speaker explains that people often reach for their phones or other distractions because they crave a quick hit of dopamine, which comes from activities like scrolling through social media. This pursuit of instant gratification is presented as a major hindrance to focus.

💡Multitasking

Multitasking is the act of doing multiple tasks simultaneously, often perceived as a way to increase productivity. However, the video argues that multitasking actually divides attention and leads to lower quality work. Instead, it encourages focusing on one task at a time to improve both focus and output.

💡Time limits

Time limits are a tool to help control how long you spend on distractions, such as social media apps. The speaker suggests using time limits to gradually reduce phone usage, making it harder to access distractions while working. Instead of setting drastic limits, users are advised to reduce screen time incrementally for more sustainable results.

💡Meditation

Meditation is a practice that involves focusing the mind and becoming aware of thoughts without engaging with them. In the video, meditation is recommended as a way to manage intrusive thoughts and improve focus. The speaker shares personal experiences of meditating daily during a stressful time and notes how it helped manage stress and enhance concentration.

💡Breaking down tasks

Breaking down tasks refers to dividing large, overwhelming tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. The video suggests this strategy to improve focus by making the workload feel less daunting and allowing individuals to tackle one small part at a time. This helps prevent feelings of being overwhelmed and improves concentration on each individual task.

💡Grayscale mode

Grayscale mode is a feature on smartphones that makes the screen display in black and white instead of color. The video recommends this as a way to reduce the visual appeal of distracting apps, such as social media. By removing the bright, engaging colors, apps like TikTok and Instagram become less enticing, helping users stay focused on their work.

💡Intentional media consumption

Intentional media consumption refers to deliberately choosing what type of media to engage with, rather than passively consuming short-form, distracting content. In the video, the speaker encourages viewers to seek out longer, thought-provoking content, such as educational YouTube videos or podcasts, to counterbalance the negative effects of consuming too much short-form content on attention span.

Highlights

Your focus is one of the most precious resources, and in today's world, it's scarcer than ever.

Many people struggle to watch movies or read books because of declining attention spans.

It's impossible to be 100% laser-focused all the time, but there are steps you can take to improve your focus.

Tip 1: Set your intentions clearly before starting work to reduce the likelihood of distractions.

When distracted by impulses like reaching for your phone, ask yourself why to confront the real reasons.

Tip 2: Let intrusive thoughts come and go without engaging, a skill that can be improved with practice.

Meditation helps manage stress and thoughts, especially in academic settings.

Tip 3: Remove tempting alternatives by setting up time limits or reducing the appeal, such as enabling grayscale mode on your phone.

Gradually reduce screen time limits to avoid overwhelming yourself and increase success.

Tip 4: Get emotionally invested in tasks by using soundtracks or imagining yourself as a genius working on a breakthrough.

Tip 5: Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable chunks to improve focus and reduce scatterbrained feelings.

Avoid multitasking and instead tackle tasks one at a time for higher-quality output.

Breaking tasks down also helps with understanding the fundamentals and improving memory.

Tip 6: Consume media intentionally by focusing on longer content that encourages thinking and engagement rather than constant dopamine hits.

Regaining control of your focus involves balancing short-form content with longer, thoughtful media or moments of stillness.

Transcripts

imagine this you go to the movies with

your friends you buy some snacks you

find your seats and you sit down and

wait for the show to start your friend

is bubbling with excitement he's telling

you all about the movie he's telling you

who stars in it but then he tells you

something that you're not too happy

about it's 3 hours long you're not sure

if you have the attention span for that

the movie begins and 30 minutes in you

feel this weird sensation you feel this

strong urge to go on your phone you try

to resist you know your friend wouldn't

like that you know that would make him

upset but the movie is just moving so

incredibly slowly so you cave in you

grab your phone and you start scrolling

through social media and finally your

brain has that Rush of dopamine it's

been craving all night long look I

genuinely believe your focus is one of

the most precious resources that you

have and unfortunately we're living in

an era where that resource is scarcer

than ever I often have people telling me

that they not only struggle to work but

that they struggle to watch movies that

they struggle to read books that they

struggle to do anything that requires

their attention for a prolonged period

of time now listen I have some good news

and I have some bad news the bad news is

is that it's impossible to be 100% laser

focused all the time I don't have that

ability nobody has that ability but

there are steps you can take to get

pretty close so here are a few of my

tips tip number one set your intentions

while we're working many of us don't

even even realize when we get distracted

we might be doing our work for 1 minute

and then end up scrolling through Tik

Tok for the next 10 and then when we

look up from our phones we're kind of

like what just happened this usually

happens because our intentions don't

line up with what we actually do for

example we'll go on our phone to look up

a word but we'll somehow end up

scrolling through Tik Tok we'll go to

grab a snack because we're hungry but

we'll end up chatting with our siblings

for 30 minutes usually while we're

working we'll have these impulses to go

on our phone to grab a snack to even go

to the bathroom and we'll be very fast

to justify these feelings we'll convince

ourselves that we have a very valid

reason for stepping away from our work

but you need to observe these impulses

and not be too quick to act on them for

example if you catch yourself reaching

for your phone ask yourself one question

why this sounds silly but actually ask

yourself why am I reaching for my phone

because when you have to confront and

acknowledge the reason nine times out of

10 you'll realize you might be looking

for an out that you're trying to find a

way to escape your work and just having

this awareness can help you stay on

track for example over the past few

months I've realized I have a bad habit

of grabbing a snack or getting water

even though I'm not hungry or thirsty

most of the time I just want a reason to

stop my work so I can go outside and

bother mahad okay but let's say your

intention is legitimate let's say you

have to look up a word or respond to an

email in this case I recommend you

clearly articulate your intention either

in your head out loud or even on a piece

of paper to lower are the chances of you

getting distracted for example if you

have to go on your phone to do something

work related tell yourself I'm going to

do X Y and Z and then put my phone down

setting these intentions explicitly will

help you cut any distractions that come

your way tip number two let them come

and go while you're working you might

have random thoughts pop up out of

nowhere and these thoughts are going to

do all they can to take you away from

your work but you cannot let them win

most of the time these thoughts won't

even be related to your work for example

out of nowhere you might start thinking

about your favorite TV show or about

your weekend plans the key here is to

let these intrusive thoughts come and go

observe and acknowledge them maybe even

write them down if you want to come back

to them later but ultimately do not

engage with them of course this is

easier said than done this is a skill

you're going to have to practice but

there are a few ways you can make it

easier first practice meditation a huge

part of meditation is literally just

becoming an observer of your mind and

letting these intrusive thoughts and

ideas come and go and more broadly

meditating is also a great way to

relieve the stress of being a student

and Escape all the chaos I'll be honest

I don't meditate that often anymore I

feel like I've gotten relatively good at

managing my thoughts and stress but

during my senior year of college when I

was locked home during covid there was

this one month period when I would

meditate every single day and doing so

helped a ton with my academics and you

know what else will help with your

academics the sponsor of this video

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tip number three remove Alternatives

sometimes it's hard to focus because

you're aware of what you could be doing

instead for example while you're doing

your homework you're very aware that you

can simply open up a new tab and watch

some YouTube videos you're very aware

that you can grab your phone and scroll

through a couple Tik toks or many Tik

toks knowing that these Alternatives

exist and knowing that they're easily

accessible makes it hard to focus so my

first tip here is to immediately set up

time limits because that takes away your

phone as an alternative but you might be

saying gohart I've tried setting time

limits but they don't work for me well

you might be too aggressive with your

limits for example if you spend an

average of 4 hours per day on social

media and suddenly limit your usage to

30 minutes you are going to have a very

tough time you'll probably just dismiss

the time limit notification whenever it

pops up and go about your day so instead

I recommend you gradually reduce your

limit take a look at your average screen

time for your most used apps take 90% of

those numbers and set those as your

screen time limits a few days later set

your limits to 80% of those numbers and

keep working your way down until you're

happy with your average phone usage you

can also try to make your Alternatives

less enticing for example a huge appeal

of going on your phone is that dopamine

rush you get from watching colorful and

entertaining videos so what if those

videos were black and white it probably

wouldn't be as fun anymore so as I've

suggested before if you're struggling to

stay off your phone try enabling

grayscale mode on your iPhone you can do

this by going to settings accessibility

display and text size and color filters

and enable grayscale on Android the

steps might vary depending on the exact

model of your phone so just search up

your phone model's name followed by

grayscale tip number four get

emotionally invested okay so removing

Alternatives is an effective way to

enhance your focus but it feels like a

forceful way it almost feels like you're

punishing yourself a much more effective

and fulfilling way of staying focused is

by getting emotionally invested and I

mean like really getting into it because

once you find that genuine passion or

spark for whatever you're working on you

won't even have to try to focus it'll

just happen naturally okay so this might

sound a little cringe but here's what I

recommend you do take whatever subject

you're working on and find a relevant

soundtrack play that soundtrack while

you're working and just imagine you're

some mad scientist or genius on the

brink of a breakthrough if you're

studying physics or chemistry throw on

the Oppenheimer soundtrack if you're

studying computer science throw on The

Social Network soundtrack or even if

you're just coding this is such a great

soundtrack if you're studying history

I've heard Lord of the Rings is pretty

good though I haven't tried that one let

me know if you like it I have a handful

of other soundtracks and playlists I

listen to while working which I'll link

in the description of this video tip

number five break down tasks if your

to-do list only contains tasks that are

big and daunting you're going to run

into two issues first you're going to

have a hard time getting started because

the tasks feel too overwhelming second

when you start these tasks you're going

to feel a little scatterbrained because

you won't know which part to tackle

first so to really reain in that Focus I

recommend you take these bulky tasks and

break them down into smaller chunks not

only will the work feel more manageable

but you'll be able to better concentrate

on each individual piece and here's the

most important part do not tackle

multiple Parts at once multitasking

might feel like an effective way to put

out more work and less time but

ultimately it's just a way to divert

your focus and put out lower quality

stuff instead go from task to task in

succession so you can give each one your

full Focus also the benefits of this

approach go beyond just focus breaking

things down in general is a great way to

understand the fundamentals and even

improve your memory all right and then

tip number six consume media

intentionally look I think short form

content isn't the best for our attention

spans we all now crave that instant

gratification that comes from watching

video after video after video and

because the algorithms are so good at

giving us these quick hits of dopamine

we have no tolerance for Stillness

that's why lately I've been trying to

consume media more intentionally more

specifically I've been trying to consume

longer media media that requires me to

think to listen and to engage media that

doesn't just bombard me with an

incessant stream of stimuli don't get me

wrong I still watch short form content

but maybe during dinner I'll throw on a

long firm video about history or science

some of my favorite channels have been

answer in progress when over production

veritasium Mark robber also Tom Scott

but it's so sad that he retired maybe on

a walk I'll listen to a podcast I've

actually been listening to Founders

lately which is a super interesting

podcast if you're interested in business

or entrepreneurship or even history and

sometimes and most importantly I won't

consume any media at all on many of my

walks I'll just try to be super present

and enjoy the silence or the subtle

Sounds of Nature and doing this on a

consistent basis has helped me feel like

I've regained control of my mind and my

focus all right guys that wraps up

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