We all have the attention span of a puppy at the park. Maybe even worse. No joke the average person has about an 8 second attention span. There’s good news here, which is that it’s an average.

It is possible to extend your ability to focus.

You can learn to build up your attention span. Increase your ability to sit with one task for longer. Ignore, avoid, and manage distractions even better. The skill that can help with this is not just determination, will, or persistence.

The skill you need to practice is actually refocus.

As you sit down to do your work, be mindful of when (not if) your brain wanders. Then, stop yourself and refocus. Come back to the task.

This practice helps you get better at monotasking by improving your inner attention manager.

Think of your attention like a puppy and your attention manager, or consciousness, as the trainer.

You put the puppy in its pen and tell it to stay. But the puppy wants to escape. When the trainer is not looking, it finds a gap and squirms out. And every time it escapes, you have to put it back in the pen. No, no no, Rex. Now stay. Staaaaaay… Stay!

By getting better at refocusing, we’re creating an alarm system for your attention puppies.

At first, there’s nothing when your puppy drifts.

Then, as you practice refocusing, internal sirens and bells indicate “YOUR ATTENTION PUPPY HAS ESCAPED!”

Studies back this up. If you practice refocusing or mindfulness for just 13 minutes a day– basically being aware of your own thoughts and how they wander– (you can do this at work, but also anything else–during a meal, a long walk, even sitting watching TV) you can significantly improve your focus.

Now sit and work.

Staaaay….

Good boy.

Reference: https://hubermanlab.com/focus-toolkit-tools-to-improve-your-focus-and-concentration/

Caveday is a company aimed at improving your relationship to work. We write regular posts on Medium and send out monthly newsletters with productivity tips, life hacks, and recommendations. Sign up for the mailing list here.

Jake Kahana is a cofounder of Caveday. Sign up for his personal emails, called “The Email Refrigerator” here.