Mastering the Art of Focus
Strategies to Strengthen Your Attention in a Distracted World
I had to put my phone down to write this entry – seriously. Paying attention is difficult.
This has always been true. In my research on the history of learning and thinking, I am always surprised to find intellectuals from centuries past who struggle with procrastination and distraction. Our ability to apply our sustained attention to a chosen task or stimuli is part of what makes us human. On the flip side, it seems like our struggle to do this very thing is also a part of what makes us human.
In the pursuit of excellent thinking, honing the skill of attention is foundational. Without it, every other cognitive function becomes compromised. The good news? Attention is trainable, like a muscle. In this post, I expand on the importance of this first skill in our Cognitive Skill Stack and discuss some of the ways I have worked on improving in this area. Hopefully, you find them beneficial as well.
Why Attention Matters
Attention is the cognitive ability to concentrate on specific stimuli or tasks for a sustained amount of time while ignoring distractions. Like a flashlight in a dark room, attention illuminates what matters while keeping the peripheral noise in shadow.
I have the privilege of teaching, working with, and working around college students. With first hand experience, I can assure you that the skill of maintaining focus in a lecture, on homework, in the middle of a conversation over coffee – is rare. But it’s not just college students. Research shows that the average knowledge worker is interrupted every 11 minutes and requires somewhere around 23 minutes to return to deep focus.
It seems that there are two obvious problems that need to be addressed: (1) The frequency of interruptions - you have some control over this, but I’ve worked in enough different office environments to know that this is not always possible; (2) The amount of time it takes to return to focus - this is where the skill of attention comes into play. Distractions, boredom, and procrastination are inevitable. The real question is, how can we reduce the time it takes to go from distraction back to engaged focus?
Attention is the gateway to all cognitive processes. Without the ability to focus, our minds are scattered, our productivity suffers, decision-making loses precision, creativity diminishes, and learning efficiency decreases. Without a strong ability to focus, other skills like memory and logical reasoning cannot function effectively. Developing attention and focus is not just about avoiding distractions; it’s about training your mind to sustain effort on meaningful tasks.
In an age of seemingly endless distractions, the ability to focus has become one of our most valuable cognitive resources. As with all important skills, developing a strong ability to focus is challenging. But here’s the exciting part: attention is not a fixed trait—it’s a trainable skill that responds to consistent practice, much like building muscle in the gym. Everyone can improve their ability to pay attention. Here are four strategies that have worked in my life.
Four Strategies for Improving Attention
Just like other skills worth pursuing, the price for paying attention is costly – but worth it. The methods I list below are not quick and superficial fixes. Attentive thinking is slow, and that’s a good thing. Below are some of the daily habits I have sought to cultivate that over time have greatly improved my ability to lock in and focus my thinking.
(1) Create a Focus Routine and Environment
Being the creatures of habit that we are, one of the easier ways we can improve our attention is by developing a thinking routine that helps us signal to our brain when it is time to focus. An initial draft of this post was written in the early mornings after following this routine:
30 minute walk on the treadmill & listening to the Bible
Brewing a cup of coffee
Sharpening 2 Blackwing pencils
Opening my thinking notebook to begin a focus session
Specifically, the routines of prayer, coffee, and pencils (it’s weird – I know) seem to be the signals needed to help me get started. My study/school routine and pre-work routine in the office at the start and middle of the day follows a similar pattern.
It doesn’t matter what the specifics of your routine are as long as you have one. If you don’t know where to start, just start small with elements you know are helpful. Make notes, and adapt as you go. For example, walking has been a new development and improvement for me lately while prayer and coffee have been consistent staples.
Setting up your focus environment can also be a component of your routine. I think a lot of people overthink this one (or, at least I do). Your focus environment doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect, organized, and distraction free. It just has to be the place where you do your most important and attentive work. Your focus environment should not be multifunctional. Its singular task is providing you with a space to sit down and focus. It’s a refuge from distraction.
As you strengthen your attention muscle, you will become more adaptable and less dependent on your routine and environment. I am at a point now where I can turn on “focus mode” pretty much anywhere. Having a routine that is not context dependent will help with this down the road. Whenever I am having trouble focusing, I start with the basics. I clean my room first, and then get to work on the other areas.
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(2) Intentional Sets and Reps
For most of my life, I’ve been pretty strong. For a short period of my life, I was really strong. However, due to some injuries and negligence, until this past year I had never been able to perform more than a single pull up. What changed? I applied some attention to the exercise.
I begin with simply hanging from the bar. When that became easier I incorporated some assisted pull ups with a slow unassisted descent. To really focus on the exercise, I added a few sets of pull ups to every workout. As time progressed, the pull ups became easier, and I started performing multiple reps without any assistance. Intentional focus pays off.
If you want to strengthen your attention muscles, you need to apply some intentional sets and reps periodically throughout the day and week. For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology. A “rep” is short for repetition, the singular act of performing a movement in an exercise. A “set” is the number of times you repeat that grouping of repetitions. So, 2 sets of 5 pull ups would be five pull ups, performed three times with some rest in between the sets. Stay with me.
Implementing something like the Pomodoro Method into your day can be an effective way to apply this technique. The method is relatively simple:
Pick a task you want to focus on
Set a timer for 25 minutes (this is called a "Pomodoro")
Work on the task until the timer rings
Take a short break (about 5 minutes)
After four Pomodoros, take a longer break (15-30 minutes)
So after 1 set of 4 Pomodoros, you would have worked with distraction free focus for close to two hours. The first time you sit down to do this, you might struggle. That’s okay. I remember when I first applied this method. I could barely make it through 2 Pomodoros. As with strength building, the same concepts apply here. Intense focus, followed by intentional recovery, should result in improved ability.
Unless I am really struggling with distraction or working on a major project, I rarely set a timer anymore. But this is generally how my work rhythm is structured.
The early morning is where I try to do some of my most focused creative work. Here, I don’t set a timer, but instead use the John Steinbeck method of sharpening two Blackwing pencils (instead of 24), and writing until they are sufficiently dull.
(3) Focused Play
Because we are thinking about attention as a muscle, it is important to point out that some forms of focused play can be beneficial for strengthening our attention muscles. It doesn’t really seem to matter a whole lot what you focus on, as long as you are focused for extended periods of time.
That being said, since we tend to have an easier time paying attention to the things we enjoy the most, the attention gains we experience from an activity like playing video games are likely extremely minimal. If the activity is enjoyable, it won’t produce enough of a challenge to stimulate growth in your ability to focus. When it comes to focused play, the idea is to find an activity that is enjoyable yet demanding on your attention.
I enjoy lifting weights as a form of focused play. It provided the benefit to both my physical and intellectual health. Having a lot of muscle mass seems to be a strong indicator of long term general and cognitive health. An added benefit of picking up heavy objects throughout the week is improved attention. For a variety of safety concerns, it’s not recommended to let your mind wander while handling heavy weight. You have to have all your attention on the activity and mechanics of your movement.
In addition to physical exercise, other forms of focused play might include: puzzles, brain games, writing poetry, challenging board games, playing an instrument, building blocks like Legos (or, Magna-Tiles for toddler parents), arts and crafts, and reading a challenging book.
(4) Prayer and Meditation
The French philosopher Simone Weil, once summarized the whole enterprise of Christian education as an effort in cultivating the attention necessary for prayer directed with affection for God. Her entire essay (linked above) is absolute gold and well worth your time.
Even if you would not consider yourself religious, Weil’s point is worth consideration. There are some exercises, like reading or puzzles, which train lower forms of attention which will aid us in the pursuit of higher attentiveness through prayer and meditation. Interestingly, Plato lays out a similar argument in The Republic when he discusses the importance of mathematics. To summarize, mathematics is an exercise in preparing the soul for the contemplation of reality (the art of Philosophy).
Following the line of thinking from Weil and Plato, I want to propose that the attention muscles we build through the three strategies above find their greatest pay off in our engagement with exercises that require higher forms of attention such as prayer, meditation, the pursuit and contemplation of the truth,etc. At the same time, due to the level of attentiveness they demand, these higher forms of attention also help us sharpen and strengthen the lower forms of attention.
As I mentioned earlier, I like to spend my early mornings in focused prayer (usually with a Psalm) and meditation on Holy Scripture. When it comes to meditation, I typically use a combination of making observations, reflection, and committing the passage to memory. Most mornings I record my thoughts by pencil in a notebook.
Looking Forward
The skill of attention forms the foundation for the pursuit of excellent thinking. By strengthening our attention muscles, we can enhance our ability to learn, solve problems, and achieve our goals. The fact that attention is trainable offers hope and opportunity for anyone seeking to improve their cognitive fitness. In an age of constant distractions, the skill of focus is more valuable than ever. By investing time in practices that enhance attention, we can unlock your full cognitive potential and achieve greater excellence in our thinking as we progress through the Cognitive Skill Stack.
What strategies have you used to strengthen your attention skills? Which of the strategies covered in this post are you most likely to put into practice? Let me know in the comments.