Play with your attention span

As a child of the Internet age, I recognize one of my biggest flaws: a weak attention span. This is the most important thing I can work on right now — making my attention span better, not being so easily distracted.

Why do I regard it as the most important thing to work on right now? Simply because no matter what happens from here on forward, an attention span will be beneficial. A low attention span makes it difficult to outline mental gestalts —connecting more dots. Some things require attention over periods of time before they reveal themselves. A scattered mind is simply less likely to discover interesting gestalts, it is unable to follow a red line taking all the dots into account — thus not revealing the gestalt they represent.

There are two main ways to better an attention span as I see it:

1. Minimizing distractions (mostly phone)
   This means not using potential distractions (read: social media) unless necessary, minimizing notifications and mindless scrolling.
2. Maximizing exciting stuff
   Try to do things you find really interesting. That means if something excites me or is interesting I do it — thus using that natural feeling to focus, staying on the same topic for longer. You know it when you find it.

I’m a strong believer in brain plasticity. That means the ability of the brain to adapt to the environment. What you have done and where you have been over the past couple of months is in fact who you become. We are constantly changing, in a sense. With that in mind, we are distracted if we are used to having distractions 24/7 — and on the flipside we are more focused if we are used to being in a focused environment.

Importantly, I believe most people are able to change — not locked into either mode of focus or distraction. It is is simply a case of habits and changing them. In a nutshell, here is what makes this problem of attention spans such an interesting/important one:

1. It is something within the power of any individual to change (in contrast to other important problems such as climate change)
2. It spills over to almost any other area of life you deem important by your own standards

So if you are trying or have tried some sort of dopamine fasting, avoiding of telephone or Internet — all the power to you! Bring it home! Guard your attention span like something important to you — because it is. Lets be more attentive together cause it makes the world a more fun place to be in.

Thank you for reading.