Repairing your attention span

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Repairing your attention span Scholar 02/04/15 (Wed) 13:16:52 No.178

How does one go about repairing a damaged attention span? I used to be able to read a good book or listen to a full piece of classical music, but since buying a smartphone a few years ago my attention span has gone downhill. Is there a way to reverse this process?

Scholar 02/04/15 (Wed) 14:53:46 No.182

Bumping because I have a similar problem.

When my parents got me cable TV I was only 5 y/o. I used to spend many evenings just flipping through the channels (there were so many), not watching a single thing for more than 15 minutes.

I think that channel flipping has damaged my attention span when I was a kid (add to my very own PC + Internet, which I got a few year later).

From time I still manage to enter the so called "flow" state, especially after a heavy work out.

Is there some sort of behavioral therapy that can help my shit attention span?

Scholar 02/04/15 (Wed) 16:16:02 No.185

i don't know any behavioral therapy for that, but usually just reading helps me, and i mean any kind of non digital reading
start with few minutes a day and slowly increase the time, your concentration should be better

Scholar 02/04/15 (Wed) 16:48:39 No.191

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>>185
What this scholar says, the only way I know of is training it. Start reading books and listening to classical music again, and turn off that damn phone.

Meditation may also help.

Scholar 02/05/15 (Thu) 13:23:01 No.210

reefer

Scholar 02/07/15 (Sat) 05:09:25 No.240

Consider this thread >>28

Scholar 02/17/15 (Tue) 05:46:12 No.276

>>185
I find the problem dies not with the reading being digital, but rather with the abundance of links to follow that come with digital reading.
Downloaded books with no links cause no issues.

But it's also not exactly the solution per say. A weak attention span is something that must be fought off through discipline, and reading as such just happens to train that.
Anything you can do and just keep doing may help. As long as you make the conscious decision to do so, rather than letting your mood guide you.

If you do have issues with distraction, like 'Holy shit I have to do something ELSE', then the best idea is not to hide those distractions, but to actively stop yourself from acting on them.

Discipline is key. Simple as is.

But then again, some have issues strong enough to consider mental help. ADD, ADHD, etc.
It may be worth looking into substance use. But try to avoid addictive ones.
Simple theanine works for me. To 'Calm the storm of thoughts' without putting me to sleep.

Scholar 08/19/15 (Wed) 16:18:14 No.425

>>182

You cannot actually "damage" your attention span.

But you can weaken it like a muscle not used.

What >>191 says is spot on. I remember when I started reading university-level textbooks for fun during highschool: At first I felt dead tired after 5 minutes and desperately wanted to do something else.

But as I forced myself to just keep reading it got better very fast.

After IIRC 2 weeks of doing this daily I was reading around 4-5 hours a day with no problems.

A few month later it was up to 13 hours a day.

Now granted I took regular breaks, but those were indeed breaks where I did nothing at all, not "lets check facebook/4chan" kinda breaks as those do not regenerate you.

Also I switched books every hour or so as I found this helped keep things from getting boring.

Scholar 08/20/15 (Thu) 17:42:03 No.426

>>425

>up to 13 hours a day.

Just remember to take a short break every hour or so and move a little.