Where did my focus go? How can I get it back?
Why have I lost my focus? I just keep jumping around from one thing to another. Sound familiar? Today we are distracted by so many things that can lead us down rabbit holes.
Sometimes we plan to do something, whether it’s work or relaxing and find ourselves doing other things completely unrelated to our original intent. Social media, stress and craving for dopamine causes us to lose our ability to have sustained attention or focus.
Most office workers find it hard to get an hour of uninterrupted work a day. Once you loose your focus us takes a little over 20 minutes to recover and get back to where you were. Last year the average time on social media daily was about 2:20 hours with time exceeding over 3 hours for under 25s. Social media in the 2024 study that defined this includes: Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Was much gained with all this time or would you consider it basically wasted time?
Not being able to focus when needed and getting caught up in a life of distractions, makes us less able to accomplish things we otherwise want to do in life. Scrolling on your phone, looking at too many open tabs on your browser, cleaning up emails causes us to bounce around and feel empty and frustrated. The ability to focus is important for success and an attribute we need to strengthen.
Here are some forces that we struggle against in today’s world:
- Speed – everything seems fast and sometimes overwhelming. Ever try to take a drink from a firehose? What do you really get from skimming through all that entertainment or information? We need to be able to see, with depth, to gain understand but it takes energy and commitment. Many think multitasking is the answer, but it has costs: switching costs (time to move from one thing to another) screw up effect – lack of attention will bring mistakes and creativity drain or loss of ability to find new ways or think out of the box.
- Technology – social media is DESIGNED to capture your attention. We are captured by negative things, and they focus on distractions which makes it harder to stop. The switching from one thing/topic to another for that dopamine hit or immediate reward (yes, someone like my post!) wears us out.
- Stress and Vigilance – About half of us are subject to stress. This affects our sleep and eating habits. Not feeling safe for whatever reason puts us on the defensive and vigilant for problems, real or imagined, that are out there. Examples include, health, personal relationships or financial issues all of which can weigh on use. Financial crises today are real as people struggle to maintain lifestyles or in some cases, survive with dignity. This problem takes a toll on children too who receive the stress from their caretakers.
- Physical and mental exhaustion – today most people sleep less than they need and end up being sleep deprived and only get 6 hours or less of quality sleep a night. This can cause our attention to shrink where only part of our brain is awake and part is asleep. We lose alertness and mental capability. Focus goes down the drain.
- Modern diet and pollution – our bodies and brain need nutritious food and a clean environment. Sugary foods brings on a spike in energy and then the crash which drags us down. A lack of proper nutrients in wholesome foods and poor quality food is not easily overcome with vitamin pills and supplements. Kids who consume artificially colored foods are more likely to be hyperactive. More studies support findings that pollution is damaging to our brains and overall health and even our future offspring. One Canadian study found that people who live near a major road are 15% more likely to develop dementia .
So, don’t blame yourself completely. It is more of a problem of modern society, but you don’t have to get dragged down by it. Start by understanding the impact of your inability to focus. You could write down what you did/accomplish in a day and time viewing social media. How long did it take to get back into focus or “in the groove”. Then reflect on what you would have done if you used that time to read a book, work on an important project, reach out to or visit a friend in need. Distraction causes us not not fully participate in conversations with friends or family and feeling drained but not sure why. Gaining back that lost time is valuable.
Tackle the big issues that affect you personally: stress (where does it come from and why? Can you reduce or eliminate it?); avoid poor diets and snacking on junk food, can you sleep more in a quiet, dark bedroom always turning in at the same time and avoiding digital devices before bed. Understand your triggers and block them even using technology. Watch our for certain contexts and external impulses and your mental state at the end of the day when we are more easily distracted and tired.
Some tips:
- Decide on how long to spend on a project/task and set a timer. Don’t go too long at first… probably only 30 minutes or so. Try the Pomodoro Technique (work 25 minutes, timer goes off, then relax for 5 minutes, then do it all again).
- Set your devices to Do Not Disturb or no notifications for a period of time while you are focusing. You can use apps to keep you on track (Freedom lets your pick apps to block certain websites for a period of time).
- Put your phone or tablet in a different room so you won’t be tempted.
- Try “slow” activity like reading a book, yoga or meditation to slow down your racing mind to concentrate on one thing.
- Sometimes just relax and let you mind wander. Just let your thoughts flow and run freely and be creative. Maybe some relaxing music or a solo walk in nature can help bring some calm.
There is no quick shortcut to recover your focus. It will take some time and effort, but it is certainly worth it so you can accomplish what is really important in your life.
From an article in Medium by Silvia Ersetti, December 22, 2024