You’re all set and know exactly what to do… and then you lose your concentration. How do you deal with a short attention span?
Tension arc
Do you ever notice that your concentration slowly disappears and that you become distracted more easily when you need it most? It was long thought that students could maintain their undivided attention for about ten to fifteen minutes, after which they would drift off and stop paying attention. Later it turned out that this was not the case, but the degree of focus depends entirely on how well the teacher can hold attention. Our attention span, the extent to which we can maintain attention and focus easily, therefore also depends on the way we are entertained: the more interested we are, the greater the attention span.
Causes
Why do we have concentration problems? There are several causes for this, including multitasking. Our lives are filled with different tasks every day, often at the same time. And guess what? That we as humans cannot actually multitask at all. You don’t pay full attention to the task at hand, because you are still handling dozens of other tasks in your head. Of course we can do some things at the same time, but the efficiency decreases. We call this task switching. Task switching is switching between different tasks, making it seem like we are doing multiple things at the same time, but actually doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that at the same time. This makes us think less well, because the brain responds to an overload of information and produces cortisol and adrenaline, two stress hormones. This makes you stressed more quickly, and then it is difficult to maintain concentration on one task.
You can also experience concentration problems due to fatigue, vitamin deficiency, stress or a lack of interest, or mental problems such as depression or anxiety disorders can affect your attention span. Hormones also play a role: during menopause or pregnancy, for example, the ability to concentrate works less well.
Health
Health also plays an important role in the ability of your attention span: When lifestyle causes the brain to have less blood supply, you can feel absent more quickly. This is a known consequence of diabetes, smoking, alcohol and obesity. Blood flow to the brain also deteriorates in the elderly, which can lead to memory problems or loss.
Tips
- Slowing down: When you keep running around trying to do all the tasks of the day at once, your brain continues to produce stress hormones, causing you to lose focus and become constantly distracted.
- Make a list: To ensure that you start your day with a clear head, you can make a to-do list to keep things organized. So you can immediately calculate which tasks you can do at the same time. Are you not into lists? Writing down all the thoughts that come to mind also works, or drawing them out.
- Find a hobby: To release all the stress, you can look for an outlet. Do you like crafting? Let your creativity run wild! More into sports? Run or cycle to release all the stress from your body, or clear your head with yoga.
