I‘m sure we can all agree that our attention spans have gone a little astray over the past few years.

With the influx of technology, phones, social media, and of course the beloved TikTok, most of us are facing the same issue- a lack of focus.

How could we not? Our days are spent looking down, scrolling, tapping, and waiting for the next notification to roll in. It’s gotten to the point where we don’t know life without the constant distractions plaguing our minds. It’s bad enough in a day-to-day setting, but I found that when I started college, it only got worse. Now on top of the normal distractions, we were thrown into a new environment on our own, surrounded by people and constant activity.

In college, there’s never a dull moment. From my first day on campus, it was a complete whirlwind. New classes, harder assignments, social obligations, event after event. Every waking moment (for me at least) was spent doing something. There was no way to focus on one thing at a time. So then came multitasking.

My freshman year was at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak. We were “on campus” but still took the majority of classes online. I had daily Zoom calls with the all-too-tempting “mute” and “video off” buttons.

Next thing you know I was cooking and meal-prepping during Brit Lit. Then blow-drying my hair during History. Soon I was painting my nails during Astronomy all the while sneaking in TikToks between slides and somehow still scribbling down notes all at the same time.

Did I still pass my classes? Somehow. But did I learn much? Absolutely not. And now I’m paying the price with my very short attention span.

I used to have great focus before college. Always an avid reader, I would be able to sit down and read a 300-page book in a day or write an essay in one sitting. Now I can barely even get myself to sit long enough to open a book, let alone make it past page 10.

Thus I am on the search to find my focus again.

I have tried many things, but so far the best I’ve done was follow my friend’s suggestion to start dedicating certain time to specific things. Whether that’s just sending emails, writing, or even having free time, I’ll carve out a few hours where I concentrate and refuse to let myself do anything other than what I’m aiming to do.

Oftentimes I’ll fail a bit and end up finding myself scrolling through the depths of Amazon instead of finalizing that important email. But, as with most things, it’s a work in progress.

After a Summer off of school and a lot of personal effort, I have started to make good progress. So below I’ve shared some of the things that have helped me regain my focus that might help you too.

Write it out

Putting pen to paper can be one of the best ways to stimulate your mind and find your groove. Once you put something in writing, you are thinking about that idea, physically writing it, and seeing it all at the same time.

When you see something that you want to accomplish staring back at you from the paper, it is all that much harder to avoid it.

Try making lists where you write your tasks to complete. Most of all, keep it organized. A good way to keep your lists organized is to use a header and bulleted points.

It also helps to keep all of your ideas in one place. I notice there are times when I have lists strewn all over the place- on my computer, in my planner, in three separate journals, grocery lists on the fridge, etc. Ultimately, this mix just creates mental chaos that ends in confusion.

The stress you place on yourself by trying to keep track of each of these lists is far more than the energy you would have exerted by taking the step to stay organized from the start. Start keeping the separate lists together and it’ll make life so much easier.

Journaling

In addition to just writing out your ideas, journaling is another way to keep track of your thoughts and regain focus.

Personally, journaling has done wonders for my life. I have a journal that I use every day for centering and filtering my thoughts. This journal is mostly a modge-podge of scribbles, bullets, and lists but it has helped me outline the things I want to do most. The big, life-altering goals too, not just the small ones.

What I love to start with is writing out exactly what I want to accomplish. It’s best to not leave anything out. This is your journal and your life, so write out every little detail even if it sounds far-fetched. Usually, I start with something such as “write my first book” or “get a promotion at work” and then fill in the specifics underneath.

Now is the other important part-

Along with what you want to achieve, you have to go ahead and write how you can achieve this. Write out whatever you may have to do, change, or accomplish first in order to get what you want.

For example, underneath “get a promotion at work” I would write “express my interest for more responsibility with my boss, prove my abilities while at work, and take on more responsibility without being asked”.

Be honest with yourself when writing as well. If your goal is to start getting better grades but you go out drinking every night instead of studying and skip class daily, you need to admit this. Further, find a reasonable way to go about changing this.

Don’t be afraid to journal your free-floating thoughts too. I’ve noticed that once I start putting my random scattered thoughts down in my journal, it usually leads to more realizations and creates good, structured thoughts. Using a journal creates a safe space to vocalize the things that clog up your brain space and keep you distracted.

One of my favorite things I’ve started is my “phone journal.” This basically consists of a notes page on my phone full of scattered thoughts in bullet form. It’s perfect because whenever I’m thinking of something noteworthy, I can easily pull out my phone and write it down before I forget. This is a stream of consciousness more than anything else, but it’s great for those instant realizations you have walking around the supermarket per se. It’s also great for those with an awful memory such as myself.

Do things when you think of them

This one is big. As college students, we have so much mental stimulation that it’s almost impossible to prioritize a single task. That’s why you need to do something exactly when it comes to mind rather than pushing it aside for later.

If you’re in the middle of Starbucks with your friends and your brain sparks you to respond to that email from your professor, don’t wait. Force yourself to pull out your laptop right then and there and send it. That way, the task will already be done and you won’t have to add it to your already long list of to-do’s.

And let’s be honest, you likely would have forgotten to even add it to the list by later anyhow.

Doing this will change everything, especially as a student. Doing things in a timely manner in a world of procrastinators makes you stand out. Your cluttered brain will thank you and trust me, your professors will thank you too.

Meditate

To all my mediation haters out there–stop and listen up. Those who meditate frequently will understand when I say that meditation is life-changing. It not only calms you down but makes you grounded and also helps you stop and figure out a lot of things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When you meditate, many thoughts pop up in your head. When they do this, it becomes much more noticeable what it is that is taking up so much of your headspace.

Of course, the main goal is to rid yourself of these thoughts completely. Though taking notice of the thoughts that flare up is equally important. When you acknowledge a thought, you can then work to understand why you are thinking it. Then you can figure out how to tackle it and get it out of your brain altogether.

Take inventory of all the things floating in your head to organize your thoughts. This will helps make up free space for the more important things you actually want to spend your mental energy on.

When you think about it, it really does make sense. We aren’t paying conscious energy to each thought all the time, but they are still taking up space lingering in our subconscious.

So whether you find yourself being able to discover true, uncluttered silence in meditation or you are like the majority and end up lying down with a spinning head, you are still doing yourself good.

Meditation can really do no wrong, so just try it. Or, if you are already meditating try adding a journaling component to take your practice to the next level.

Reading

Someone once told me that reading is the version of running for our minds. And they were completely right.

Remember the days of middle school when you would come to class after a long Summer and feel like you just couldn’t focus? Getting back into the school groove took a good few weeks and a lot of effort, but eventually, it felt normal again.

Reading is the same way. Your brain is a muscle and needs to be worked just as much as the rest of the body.

Many people get discouraged when they pick up a copy of War and Peace after years of barely reading and can’t get past page 5. But it’s completely understandable. Just like you can’t go from sitting in front of the TV to running a marathon, it’s likely your brain won’t be up for something so challenging. You might not be jumping right into reading Shakespeare on day 1, but take time to train your brain and you’ll get there.

Reading is the best tool for focus. Recently, I found an article that mentioned how reading fiction is actually better for your focus than non-fiction. It all comes down to the act of details and remembering. When you read a newspaper article, it’s easy to breeze through and get the summary without remembering much of the details. Though when you read fiction, you need to remember the characters’ names, the time, the place, and all the subsequent events in order to make it to the end.

Kind of impressive that your brain can hold onto that much info isn’t it? Who knew that reading the whole Harry Potter series when you were a teen would’ve been so helpful.

So try and pick up a fiction book next time. I know that in your busy day it feels like there’s no time, but try and practice reading every day. With time you‘ll focus better when reading, and it’ll also improve your day-to-day life.

Since I’ve gotten into reading again I’ve found myself understanding more challenging books, staying concentrated on my writing, reading entire newspaper articles, and even completing my text messages before swiping onto something else.

Amazing what our brains can do when we treat them like we should.

Forced Free Time

Last but not least, we have this kicker. It seems like an oxymoron of sorts- scheduled free time?? When I mention this to people they often give me a perplexed look and call me a type-A freak, but I promise it’s not that extreme.

Many times (especially during the busy semester) I find myself spinning in circles, getting burnt out, and wondering when I’ll ever find time to enjoy the hobbies I used to love. Usually, I tell myself “finish all your work and then you can sit down and read a book”.

The only issue is that this is college. And the work has no end.

I’ll be at the end of a long day in the library, finally about to pack up but then make the mistake of glancing at my planner. I’ll come across another assignment- one that I don’t have to do but I can. And of course, I decide to do that since college has taught us to feel guilty when we’re not ahead, right?

Next thing, I’ll be neck deep in an assignment due a week out instead of spending my time relaxing like I want to.

The only way I’ve been able to enjoy some solid, good-old free time is to pencil it in. I will go into my planner and carve out an hour of my day and label it “reading”, “yoga”, or whatever it is I decide to do. Doing this helps me focus on that task while separating myself from all the other things. Having a set finish time helps at well. If I schedule my at-home yoga workout from 5pm-6pm, I know I’ll stop then and get back to work.

It’s time efficient and rejuvenating.

After I do this, I always go back to work feeling more motivated and happier than before. Doing something we love will boost our moods and make working that much less awful. It’ll definitely help us focus on individual tasks too. Taking this break to work on a scheduled task allows us to focus better on both our enjoyable activity and our work. A total win-win if you will.

College life has surely ruined our attention span in our over-stimulated world. Everyone can relate to having a terrible lack of focus nowadays, not just students. But there’s still a way to take back the focus we’ve lost.

Like most things, it’s going to take effort. However, it’s entirely possible to retrain your mind to get it to where you want it to be. If you’re motivated, try a few tips. And, do yourself a favor and put the phone on DND for a while… your brain will thank you for that too.