Does your attention waver from one subject to another very easily? Do you have a hard time focussing on conversations or tasks? Do you need breaks in between work very often? If the answer to all those questions is yes, then perhaps you have a short attention span. But what is an attention span? Read on and find out all about it.
All About Attention Span
Attention span is simply the time one can focus on an object, task, or conversation. This also refers to the time you spend doing something before you get distracted or are in need of a break. As per studies, it was found that humans recorded an attention span of 12 seconds which later decreased and became 8 sec, 1 second less than that of a goldfish.
However, a situation where your mind keeps wandering across subjects could really be very troublesome for the people bearing it. Others may get a bad impression of the person while the person himself might be having a hard time focusing on things himself.
If you happen to resonate with the following signs then perhaps you should try improving your attention span:
- Make careless mistakes
- Avoiding reading longer texts
- Leaving tasks partially done
- Struggling to manage or keeping things organised
- Forgetting things easily
What Causes Short Attention Spans?
The basic reason behind shorter attention spans in people is the availability of too much information to focus on. From digital media to google, to e-books and more all the easily accessible things on the Internet have largely been responsible for the massive decrease in people’s attention span. And it may further lead to attention disorders, depression, anxiety, and stress. Therefore, you must understand having a shorter attention span is not a good sign for your mental health too. Take a look at some ways to help increase it.
How To Increase Your Attention Span
Once you have recognised the problem it becomes easier for you to tackle it. All you have to do is make conscious efforts everyday to pave your way to a healthy and focus, strong mind.
First take a note of how long you can actually focus on one point, hang a paper with a big red dot on the wall and focus on it, the more your mind tries to get distracted the more you should fight the urge and keep looking at the dot, while you simultaneously time yourself.
Keep repeating this activity the more you can and you should see a variation in the time between the first and the second month.
Next, you should not entertain yourself with shorter content formats, go for long videos even if you have to make a conscious effort.
The longer you will be able to watch a video the more your attention span will become.
Take breaks but within the bounds of discipline. If your eyes ache or you need to take a break, then take one without hesitating. The best way is to walk around, drink water and come back to the task you have committed yourself to.
Further, you can pick articles/books that interest you the most and give yourself small rewards on completing one entire article or two pages of a certain book.
So, work on your attention span and don’t give in to distractions.
Poornima Pandey, Her Zindagi
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