The Art of Focus: Boosting Attention Span

The human mind can conquer planets, build monuments, heal diseases yet it cannot go five minutes without checking that app, perhaps Facebook?

In a study conducted under lab conditions where students were asked to focus on something important, it was found:

"Regardless of age, students were able to stay focused and attend to that important work only for a short period of time — three to five minutes — before most students self-interrupted their studying to switch to another task." (The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World)

art of focus lens-1209823_1280.jpg

So focus, is a lost art. How do we master it? Quick pointers:

1. Stop multi-tasking: we can never truly multi-task, what we do is time-slicing; juggling between tasks really fast (think of talking on phone while playing a game). But this makes what you are doing error-prone and taxing on the mind.

2. Exercise: You know it's good for the body. Guess what? Your brain's part of the body. (Shocking, I know.)

3. Meditate: Prayers and meditation help train your mind to focus and control your thoughts.

4. Be in touch with nature: focusing on the beauty around you like trees and fields (or their pictures) helps steady your thoughts and boost attention span.

5. Reduce interference: Make your environment as boring as possible when trying to focus, keep your phone and laptop away. Extend the time between breaks to build your attention muscles.

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This just motivates me. The way you express the arts behind focusing on study is truly incredible. BUT I can not finish my syllabus of O level before 27 April 2020. So what do I do?
I have to give the following Papers
  • Islamiyat
  • Pakistan Studies Geography
  • Pakistan Studies History
  • Urdu
I need the tips to cover Syllabus ASAP and if not can anyone tell me what are important topics which will mostly cover the syllabus.
Here the problem is that nowadays we badly need phones/laptop to consult past papers and notes, how can we manage to focus only on studies while using a gadget?
Yeah I know it's hard to focus on studies while using a do a few questions and then pop up another youtube and boom there goes your study time xD

The thing is that you must learn self-control and have a solid mindset regarding the goals that you have set for the day. Once you are aware of the fact that procrastinating on youtube won't help you get things done, you'll get back to work automatically. You must supress all these mindgames yourself, no one is going to do that for you. And lastly, staying consistent with your schedule is the key.