It’s now been twelve years since a 2010 study stated that we were spending nearly 50% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re actually doing and ten years since another study determined that our attention spans had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds.
So how’s your attention span doing?
At eight seconds we’re already a second behind goldfish (9 seconds), leaving us with the ability to focus for the same amount of time that it takes to fold a shirt, tie a shoelace, or ride a bull till the horn blows.
So in the decade or so since we found that we’re down to 8 seconds, have we gotten better or worse?
In a post-TikTok world, it would seem almost inevitable our attention spans have come down further.
Remember when you were a kid and reading a book used to be exciting? When’s the last time you didn’t feel the need to double-dip by watching TV and using your phone at the same time?
Most of us would say we’d like to be better at focusing, but our brains are craving distraction like never before. So how can we change all that? Is there a way to improve our attention span so we can do more of the things we want to do and stop wasting time on things that drain our brain power?
First we need to talk about what’s driving our attention spans lower in the first place.
There are tons of little ways we can find our attention being drawn from a task towards something else. But our attention span (the length of time we’re able to focus on a single thing) is something we surrender over time the more we cave into distractions.
According to research, our brains are actually equipped with special circuits that help us block out distractions automatically, but scientists have proven that we can also shift our attention by purposely suppressing the things we don’t want messing with our focus (like background music or someone talking on the phone).
The problem is that today we have many times the number of distractions coming at us than we had just twenty years ago. And as a result, blocking them out is a lot tougher.
The other contributing factor to declining attention spans is that many of the distractions we face today aren’t simply annoying—on the contrary—they’re exciting.
The advent of social media coupled with our ability to watch whatever we want whenever we want via platforms like YouTube and Netflix has exponentially increased the amount of dopamine our brains have access to on a regular basis, causing us to crave distractions, rather than ignore them.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s naturally released every time we do something satisfying (like hitting a tennis serve, nailing a guitar riff, or consuming a bunch of sugar) and it’s a powerful mechanism that helps us learn new skills and find enjoyment in certain activities. The trouble is, dopamine releases can be addicting.
Of course, when we do something our brain enjoys, we naturally want to do more of that thing; that’s why drugs are addictive, and that’s why it’s easy to eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting.
Dopamine in and of itself is not actually the problem. Nowadays, activities like using social media (and most of the media we’re constantly exposed to on our phones and computers) do a similar thing for our brains that eating a pile of sugar or succeeding at an activity would; it drives our brain to release dopamine.
Every time we look down and see a text, like, or comment, we get a little rush of dopamine, which is a huge part of the reason that our phones are so addictive and distracting.
Similarly, films and TV shows present a much larger stimulus to our brains than the pages of a book, creating the illusion of greater reward and—you guessed it—releasing more dopamine.
Now, instead of getting jazzed about an awesome paragraph in a book or the sight of a rainbow in the clouds, we need something more stimulating to give us that satisfactory dopamine release we’ve become addicted to. This is the crux of the attention span problem; our appetite for dopamine is constantly growing, and it’s killing our ability to focus.
Like an addict, we’re constantly looking for our next fix. Try as we might, once we get to the point where we’re no longer blocking out distractions automatically, but instead seeking them out, we’ve already lost the battle. And whereas in the past we may have sought distraction after focusing for half an hour, one report states that office workers today focus for an average of just three minutes.
In short, increasing your attention span means decreasing your dopamine exposure. Some people even recommend a full dopamine detox just to reset your brain. That means putting your phone down for a while, maybe deleting the apps that give you the most notifications from your home screen, or taking a break from YouTube—there are plenty of ways you can get creative when it comes to limiting your exposure.
It’s not going to be easy at first. But when you’re struggling with caving into overstimulation, just imagine coming to a point where you can watch an entire film without looking at your phone, and can find yourself engrossed in a movie not because it’s exciting, but simply because it’s a movie (remember when we used to rent movies and watch them even if they sucked? It was still entertainment!).
One day, you might be able to read a book for thirty full minutes before looking up from the page, forgetting where you last put your phone. That’s what focus looks like, and it’s possible to get there in time!
A dopamine detox doesn’t need to be super long; in a little while, you’ll start to see the effects of taking a break. A dopamine detox also isn’t about swearing off cell phones and social media for good, it’s just about all good things in moderation!
Your detox could be a week long phone fast, or limiting your screen time to an hour a day for the next month. Whatever it is, the point is for it to challenge you—if it’s not challenging you, odds are it’s not working and you’re still going to wind up overfeeding your brain’s reward centre.
Don’t worry, your attention span isn’t lost forever, like anything, it’s a skill you can build. By training yourself to live with less stimuli, you’ll find your brain will eventually need less stimulus to release dopamine. Things like reading, painting, or simply stepping outside will all start to trigger the brain circuitry associated with satisfaction and reward.
If you want to get to that point, try some of three practices to get your attention back:
Next time you have some downtime (e.g. waiting in line or sitting at the dentist), don’t reach for your phone. Instead, just try sitting and thinking. Reflect on your day, what you’d like to do later, what you’d like to do tomorrow. Think big, get creative, practice gratitude, daydream. You’re training your brain to be engaged by spontaneous thought, instead of reacting to external stimuli.
Some people don’t enjoy reading, but it’s a powerful focus tool we can all harness if we simply work at it. Start by trying to read for just ten minutes a day. Try to focus by putting your phone on “Do not Disturb” or leaving it outside the room. Once you’ve got the rhythm of reading for ten, try upping your reading time to fifteen minutes a day. Build a habit and watch your focus grow.
Exercise is great for focus. People are often better able to block out distractions when exercising (probably because we’re so focused on making that lift!), and exercise can help remove us from a routine that’s usually full of distraction. Try going for a walk, doing a spin class, or a weight training session with your notifications off and without watching TV at the same time. Now you won’t only be training your muscles, but your attention span too!
These are just a few suggestions we’ve come up with to help you regain your attention span, feel free to try whatever works for you. The key is to try and fill the time you would normally spend distracted by minuscule dopamine releasing activities with something productive that will help you build focus!
Your attention span is yours—you own it. Protect it from distractions and watch your ability to focus increase exponentially. By taking control of what we allow ourselves to be stimulated by, we can become less addicted to our phones, be more productive at work, more present in society, and become better thinkers. Try out a dopamine detox and see how it goes! You may find yourself enjoying a newfound freedom that comes from focus.
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It’s now been twelve years since a 2010 study stated that we were spending nearly 50% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re actually doing and ten years since another study determined that our attention spans had dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds.
So how’s your attention span doing?
At eight seconds we’re already a second behind goldfish (9 seconds), leaving us with the ability to focus for the same amount of time that it takes to fold a shirt, tie a shoelace, or ride a bull till the horn blows.
So in the decade or so since we found that we’re down to 8 seconds, have we gotten better or worse?
In a post-TikTok world, it would seem almost inevitable our attention spans have come down further.
Remember when you were a kid and reading a book used to be exciting? When’s the last time you didn’t feel the need to double-dip by watching TV and using your phone at the same time?
Most of us would say we’d like to be better at focusing, but our brains are craving distraction like never before. So how can we change all that? Is there a way to improve our attention span so we can do more of the things we want to do and stop wasting time on things that drain our brain power?
First we need to talk about what’s driving our attention spans lower in the first place.
There are tons of little ways we can find our attention being drawn from a task towards something else. But our attention span (the length of time we’re able to focus on a single thing) is something we surrender over time the more we cave into distractions.
According to research, our brains are actually equipped with special circuits that help us block out distractions automatically, but scientists have proven that we can also shift our attention by purposely suppressing the things we don’t want messing with our focus (like background music or someone talking on the phone).
The problem is that today we have many times the number of distractions coming at us than we had just twenty years ago. And as a result, blocking them out is a lot tougher.
The other contributing factor to declining attention spans is that many of the distractions we face today aren’t simply annoying—on the contrary—they’re exciting.
The advent of social media coupled with our ability to watch whatever we want whenever we want via platforms like YouTube and Netflix has exponentially increased the amount of dopamine our brains have access to on a regular basis, causing us to crave distractions, rather than ignore them.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that’s naturally released every time we do something satisfying (like hitting a tennis serve, nailing a guitar riff, or consuming a bunch of sugar) and it’s a powerful mechanism that helps us learn new skills and find enjoyment in certain activities. The trouble is, dopamine releases can be addicting.
Of course, when we do something our brain enjoys, we naturally want to do more of that thing; that’s why drugs are addictive, and that’s why it’s easy to eat an entire bag of chips in one sitting.
Dopamine in and of itself is not actually the problem. Nowadays, activities like using social media (and most of the media we’re constantly exposed to on our phones and computers) do a similar thing for our brains that eating a pile of sugar or succeeding at an activity would; it drives our brain to release dopamine.
Every time we look down and see a text, like, or comment, we get a little rush of dopamine, which is a huge part of the reason that our phones are so addictive and distracting.
Similarly, films and TV shows present a much larger stimulus to our brains than the pages of a book, creating the illusion of greater reward and—you guessed it—releasing more dopamine.
Now, instead of getting jazzed about an awesome paragraph in a book or the sight of a rainbow in the clouds, we need something more stimulating to give us that satisfactory dopamine release we’ve become addicted to. This is the crux of the attention span problem; our appetite for dopamine is constantly growing, and it’s killing our ability to focus.
Like an addict, we’re constantly looking for our next fix. Try as we might, once we get to the point where we’re no longer blocking out distractions automatically, but instead seeking them out, we’ve already lost the battle. And whereas in the past we may have sought distraction after focusing for half an hour, one report states that office workers today focus for an average of just three minutes.
In short, increasing your attention span means decreasing your dopamine exposure. Some people even recommend a full dopamine detox just to reset your brain. That means putting your phone down for a while, maybe deleting the apps that give you the most notifications from your home screen, or taking a break from YouTube—there are plenty of ways you can get creative when it comes to limiting your exposure.
It’s not going to be easy at first. But when you’re struggling with caving into overstimulation, just imagine coming to a point where you can watch an entire film without looking at your phone, and can find yourself engrossed in a movie not because it’s exciting, but simply because it’s a movie (remember when we used to rent movies and watch them even if they sucked? It was still entertainment!).
One day, you might be able to read a book for thirty full minutes before looking up from the page, forgetting where you last put your phone. That’s what focus looks like, and it’s possible to get there in time!
A dopamine detox doesn’t need to be super long; in a little while, you’ll start to see the effects of taking a break. A dopamine detox also isn’t about swearing off cell phones and social media for good, it’s just about all good things in moderation!
Your detox could be a week long phone fast, or limiting your screen time to an hour a day for the next month. Whatever it is, the point is for it to challenge you—if it’s not challenging you, odds are it’s not working and you’re still going to wind up overfeeding your brain’s reward centre.
Don’t worry, your attention span isn’t lost forever, like anything, it’s a skill you can build. By training yourself to live with less stimuli, you’ll find your brain will eventually need less stimulus to release dopamine. Things like reading, painting, or simply stepping outside will all start to trigger the brain circuitry associated with satisfaction and reward.
If you want to get to that point, try some of three practices to get your attention back:
Next time you have some downtime (e.g. waiting in line or sitting at the dentist), don’t reach for your phone. Instead, just try sitting and thinking. Reflect on your day, what you’d like to do later, what you’d like to do tomorrow. Think big, get creative, practice gratitude, daydream. You’re training your brain to be engaged by spontaneous thought, instead of reacting to external stimuli.
Some people don’t enjoy reading, but it’s a powerful focus tool we can all harness if we simply work at it. Start by trying to read for just ten minutes a day. Try to focus by putting your phone on “Do not Disturb” or leaving it outside the room. Once you’ve got the rhythm of reading for ten, try upping your reading time to fifteen minutes a day. Build a habit and watch your focus grow.
Exercise is great for focus. People are often better able to block out distractions when exercising (probably because we’re so focused on making that lift!), and exercise can help remove us from a routine that’s usually full of distraction. Try going for a walk, doing a spin class, or a weight training session with your notifications off and without watching TV at the same time. Now you won’t only be training your muscles, but your attention span too!
These are just a few suggestions we’ve come up with to help you regain your attention span, feel free to try whatever works for you. The key is to try and fill the time you would normally spend distracted by minuscule dopamine releasing activities with something productive that will help you build focus!
Your attention span is yours—you own it. Protect it from distractions and watch your ability to focus increase exponentially. By taking control of what we allow ourselves to be stimulated by, we can become less addicted to our phones, be more productive at work, more present in society, and become better thinkers. Try out a dopamine detox and see how it goes! You may find yourself enjoying a newfound freedom that comes from focus.
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