01 Jun How to increase your attention span
Practice Paying Attention: for many people, a wandering mind is really an undisciplined mind. With practice, you can teach your mind a little discipline. One thing you should try to determine is what is really distracting you. This exercise can help you determine why your mind wanders as you read, and what you can do to reduce your distractions.
First, make a list of all the things that you have to do. Get the easy things out of the way first.
Next, grab a stopwatch. Most phones are equipped with one.
Now select a magazine, difficult book, or a newspaper and pick a passage to read that you normally would not read (unless forced). Start the stopwatch and begin reading. Try to concentrate, but stop yourself as soon as you feel your mind beginning to wander. Write down what it was that distracted you. What did you start to think about? Was it something fun that you could be doing instead, or was it something you are worried about?
Write down the topic or thought that led you astray. Do this five times and analyze the results. Do you see a pattern?
The more you run through the exercise above, the more you train your brain to stay on track. You are actually being very intentional about giving your brain some good old fashioned discipline!
No Comments