Psychology: 3 strategies to help when you can't concentrate

psychology
3 strategies to help you when you can't focus

Do you sometimes find yourself thinking that a movie is too long for you and therefore you prefer to watch series with shorter episodes? Or are you constantly picking up your phone and scrolling through Instagram or TikTok while watching TV? You're not alone, many of us find our attention spans getting shorter and shorter. Where has our ability to concentrate gone?

It's no secret that modern technologies – especially social media – have a negative impact on our attention span and ability to concentrate. Various studies have been able to do this, such as one American of 2019, show. The term “TikTok Brain” was created for this phenomenon, which means exactly that: TikTok and rapidly changing short videos can harm our brain’s performance.

Are you doing three tasks at the same time and only need a third of the time? Unfortunately, this does not work in practice. For example, one could do this He studies With over 200 multi-tasking students in the USA. According to the results, they were distracted much more quickly, were less able to distinguish between what was important and what was not important and showed slower reaction times. last Research work I was able to prove that constantly switching between tasks and activities can reduce the quality and efficiency of our work.

So, not only are we not gaining any time by multitasking, it can actually worsen our cognitive performance. If you feel like you're having trouble concentrating, consciously focusing on one thing at a time may help.

2. Practice mindfulness

It may sound corny, but regular mindfulness practice, especially meditation, has a positive impact on brain and cognitive performance. one A study published in the journal “Frontiers in Human Neuroscience” in 2019For example, he was able to show that just ten minutes of guided meditation can increase our attention span. Therefore those who meditate regularly can focus better.

3. Read a book again

Reading has many benefits for our health. For example, book lovers live up to two years longer on average than those who don't read. In addition, reading is also good for our brains, and one can do that Studying at Emory University in the US state of Georgia The show: Researchers found that the deeper we immersed ourselves in a novel, the more areas of our brain were activated. This activity remained high even for several days after readers finished the book. The more we read, the stronger these complex networks in our brain become and can enhance the deep focus we practice while reading in other areas as well.

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Bridget