How to fix your attention span (without quitting the internet).

It’s no longer a surprise to anyone that our attention span is the shortest it has ever been in human history.

According to a research study from 2015, famously known as the Goldfish Theory, our attention span has reached the level of a goldfish, which is 8 seconds.

And that was 2015, when there was no Instagram Reels, no TikTok, and no other sources of short form content, which are absolutely the main culprits behind this downfall of human attention span.

So you can only imagine where we might be standing right now.

Though many experts have a slightly different point of view on all this, and I find myself agreeing with them too.

They believe our brains are adapting to information overload. Rather than losing the ability to focus, we have become highly efficient at skimming content and rapidly switching between tasks. Though when people are genuinely interested in a topic, like reading a book or engaging in a hobby, sustained focus remains entirely intact.

And I’m sure you’ve noticed this with yourself. Every once in a while, there is some work where your entire focus is just on doing it and you forget to check the clock. And when you finally notice, hours have passed.

It shows that we all somewhere have the power to focus on one thing for a sustained period of time. But because of the overload of short form content and the constant habit of switching between tasks before finishing any of them, we’re slowly losing this power.

And I believe it’s one of the most magical things a human can possess, to get entirely lost in their craft.

So today, I’ll share how to actually fix your attention span. Not just for one good day or one specific task, but consistently, in your everyday life.

1. Break up with your phone

As I’ve already said, so much of the shrinking attention span has to do with that little device that’s always in your hand or somewhere around you.

That’s why the simplest solution I’ve come up with is to just put it outside of my reach when it’s not in use. I mean, it really can’t get any simpler than this.

When I’m writing my newsletter, my phone sits in another room. When I’m spending time with my family, I put it on silent and leave it in some corner of the house (which I won’t lie, more often than not I forget where I put it and have a hard time finding it).

A few additional settings I’ve turned on that help:

• Turn off all non-essential notifications. I don’t want any app reminding me why I need to open it. When I feel the need, I’ll do it myself. At other times, just stay silent. Shhh.

• Set time limits on distracting apps. I have Instagram on my phone but its main use is work related, so I keep a time limit that’s only enough to get that done.

• Grayscale mode. I tried this once and turned it off within a single day, it’s that bad. But if you have a really hard time controlling your phone urges, 100% turn it on.

• Charge it outside your bedroom. It’s never a good idea to use your phone before sleep, and most of us do exactly that. So before bed, I plug my phone in another room. There’s no work for a phone at night anyway. Your sleep matters more.

2. Train your attention span like a muscle

Now your phone is out of the game. It’s time to actually rebuild what’s been lost.

Think of your attention span exactly like a muscle. If you haven’t been to the gym in years, you don’t walk in on day one and try to lift the heaviest weight in the room. You start light and increase gradually over time.

Your focus works the same way.

Here’s a simple strategy I’d suggest to anyone starting from scratch:

1. Set a timer for 15 minutes

2. Focus on one single task

3. When you get distracted, notice it and come back to the task

4. If you derailed completely, reset the timer and start over

5. Each time you have a successful session, increase the time by 5 minutes

3. Start consuming boring media

By boring, I don’t mean boring in the conventional sense. Just what most people consider boring these days.

Like reading books. Or watching documentaries and other long form videos.

Your attention span has primarily been wrecked by short form content. So the fix is simple: start consuming the complete opposite.

If you want to start reading more books, I wrote a full article on how to do that here:

And if you want to get into long form video, start with this one:

Friendly warning though: don’t get confused by the title. It will genuinely leave you trapped in an existential crisis.

4. Embrace boredom on purpose

One thing I do every single day is absolutely nothing.

Just sitting with whatever is around me and letting my mind breathe without forcing it to be productive.

And I won’t lie, these are honestly some of the best moments of my day. I’d highly recommend it to anyone trying to fix their wrecked attention span.

Just be present and focus on whatever is in front of you.

A few ways to practice this:

• Go on long walks without headphones

• Eat your meals without a screen in front of you

• Sit with your morning coffee without doing anything else

• Just stare out the window for a few minutes

• Lie down and do nothing before you sleep instead of reaching for your phone

• And yeah, don’t pull out your phone while waiting in line

The best way to fix your attention span is to stop redirecting it to ten different places and just let it rest on the one thing that’s already in front of you.

5. Close your open loops

This one takes the previous point a step further.

Aside from smartphones, one of the biggest reasons our attention span is so wrecked is because we keep switching between tasks, either physically or mentally, without ever finishing any of them.

And every unfinished task sits in the background of your brain, pulling at your attention even when you’re trying to focus on something else entirely.

So once a week, sit down and write out everything that’s running in your background. Unfinished tasks, unanswered messages, random to-dos. All of it.

Then put each one into one of these three categories:

a. Do it now

b. Schedule it for later

c. Let it go

Everything that doesn’t make it into category ‘A’ gets removed from your mental background for now. And everything that does, you need to finish them one by one, starting with the ones that will make the biggest impact on your life right now or in the near future.

Your brain can only truly focus on one thing when it’s not secretly juggling ten others in the background.

I’ve gone into a lot more detail on this whole process in the following article:

I’ll say it again, the ability to focus deeply and get lost in your craft is one of the most valuable things you can have right now. And the world knows that. That’s exactly why it’s working so hard to take it from you every single day.

Don’t give it away for free.

See you in the next issue. Until then, take care and keep moving forward.