Your Attention Is Worsening. Strategies, Nutrition, & Supplements To Improve It
"The ability to focus attention on important things is a
defining characteristic of intelligence."
—Robert J. Shiller
As an occupational therapist, I assess cognitive changes in my patients as a top priority, with attention being a canary in the coal mine for many neurological conditions, sleep disorders, medication side effects, and more. While memory faults and errors are often top of mind, attention is often the first thing to go. Many times, changes in attention can be a symptom of medical concerns, however, it is increasingly becoming a result of how we interact with our environment.
There's growing evidence that our attention spans have waned significantly in recent years, with negative consequences impacting our mental health, productivity, relationships, and overall well-being. This is a cause for concern, as focus is essential for success in all areas of life.
In this article, I'll explore the importance of focus, the factors that contribute to attention deficit, and natural ways to increase focus and concentration, including cognitive strategies, supplements, and nutrition bars. By understanding the science behind attention and how to improve it, we can all lead more productive and fulfilling lives.
Our Attention Is Worsening
"You have a finite amount of attention to spend in life, and if you're not careful, people will steal your time. They'll walk away with your life."
—Naval Ravikant
Our attention is relentlessly besieged by external stimuli, primarily originating from our digital devices. A 2015 study by Microsoft found that the average human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2015, less than that of a goldfish. Just as the tabs on our browser decrease the speed of our CPU, our brains work in the same way. The more notifications and distractions we have, the more cognitive resources our brains have to expend to switch between tasks.
These countless notifications from social media, email, unread texts, and that app you downloaded but never use incessantly vie for our attention at a rate of 65-80 notifications per day on average. Even when we attempt to resist these, our minds remain fixated on them, driven by the desire for the dopamine surge that checking them provides. This phenomenon is termed the "online brain" and has induced profound changes in our cognitive processes.
The consequence of this digital onslaught is a marked decline in our ability to focus on a task for more than a short period. A study published in 2021 revealed a noteworthy connection between social media use and the subconscious fulfillment of emotional needs. They found that people tend to turn to social media when experiencing emotions such as boredom, loneliness, or stress, creating a habitual loop that reflexively directs attention to their phones. This further curtails their capacity to attend to their emotions.
These external distractors teach our minds to be internally distracted, exacerbating our attention woes. From a neuroscience perspective, frequent task-switching prevents the strengthening of neural pathways dedicated to sustained attention. In other words, since we're not using these pathways, we're losing them, leaving us more susceptible to attention lapses.
Does Worse Focus Really Matter?
In today's digital world, the dwindling state of our attention span raises a pertinent question: does this decline in attention really matter? The answer unravels a series of real-world implications that go beyond our capacity to concentrate.
Academic Setbacks
The educational domain takes a notable hit from diminishing focus. Research has illuminated a direct link between shorter attention spans and academic performance. A telling example is seen in students asked to study for 15 minutes for “something very important.” The students, on average, could only sustain a total studying time of less than 10 minutes. The ones who accessed social media during this time were found to have lower GPAs overall.
Further research has found that even the proximity of the phone is correlated with grades. This table is taken from a simple but powerful letter from Angela Duckworth, author of Grit and host of the No Stupid Questions podcast. It provides a clear association between how far away the phone is from the students and their grades. She provides some other suggestions from the undergraduates she teaches here (scroll down).
Reduced Workplace Productivity
The professional arena is not spared from the adverse consequences of waning focus. Office workers, for instance, experience a significant drop in productivity due to their inability to resist the lure of email notifications. It takes them just 6 seconds to react to these distractions, and the subsequent reorientation to their tasks consumes over 90 minutes of their time throughout the workday.
Related: Productivity Technology: Using Tech to Make the Most Out of Your Workday
Impaired Social Bonds
Beyond the realms of academia and the workplace, the deterioration of our attention span disrupts our ability to build and maintain meaningful social connections. Then there was this fascinating research about how the mere presence of a cell phone affects our minds. The two studies in this research revealed that simply having a cell phone on a table can interfere with the formation of human relationships, reducing interpersonal closeness, trust, empathy, and understanding, particularly during discussions of personally meaningful topics.
Impulsivity and Social Media Dependency
Recent research has shown a strong connection between decreasing attention spans and impulsivity, particularly in heavy social media users. Researchers found that social media users are more likely to be impulsive. They go on to say that "anxiety and social media dependency are related, and fear of uncertainty and is linked with digital experiential avoidance," which creates a vicious cycle of worsening attention.
Decreased Happiness
Attention is like a flashlight that can only focus on one thing at a time. Multitasking divides our attention and makes us less happy. The more we focus on the present moment and the small things in life, the happier we are. In his book, From Strength to Strength, Arthur Brooks argues that satisfaction comes from paying attention to smaller and smaller things, not chasing bigger and bigger things. Joy lies in our ability to be mindful and present in the moment.
Related: The Secret of Happy People
Increased Risk of Mental Health Issues
Furthermore, when we are not in control of our minds, someone (or something) else is. "You become what you give your attention to,” Epictetus wrote. “If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will." Research has shown that those who have lower levels of autonomy are more likely to be at risk of a variety of mental health disorders ranging from anxiety and depression to eating disorders and work stress.
One study shed light on this dependence and rates of anxiety among students (see figure below). Researchers looked at students who abstained from using their smartphones for an hour. They found that these individuals experienced varying levels of anxiety depending on their daily smartphone usage. “Light” users experienced low and steady anxiety levels, “moderate” users experienced a spike in anxiety after 30 minutes, and “heavy” users experienced a steady increase in anxiety throughout the hour.
How To Improve Your Attention
The good news is that worsening attention isn’t a life sentence. Our brains are extremely plastic, meaning we’re able to change them, but it takes two main things: awareness and repetition.
Below is a list of the best strategies to improve your attention naturally. Notice how they are simple, straightforward, and seemingly boring. If and when you try them, there’s no double that you’re attention is going to drift. Simply bring the attention back to the task and continue. You may have to do this 1,000 times but think of each of those times as one rep just as one rep in the gym of a deadlift or a step during a run brings you closer to your goal.
The second part contains things you can use to help with your focus. I’ve tried a lot of supplements and foods in the day and these are the ones that I’ve found to be the most effective, the safest, and they’re the ones I use regularly.
There are a number of things you can do to improve your attention, both naturally and with supplements.
Natural Strategies To Improve Focus
Here are a few natural ways to improve your attention:
Meditate: Meditation has been shown to improve a lot of things, notably attention and focus. Even a few minutes of meditation each day can make a difference.
Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness can be practiced anywhere, anytime. One of my go-to’s, in order to help me get reined in, is to do the five senses challenge, a mindfulness exercise where you focus your attention on one of your senses at a time, such as the sound of your breath, the taste of food, or the feeling of your feet on the ground.
Do breathwork. Pick a few simple breathwork strategies, practice them often (such as in the car or before going to bed), and use them to ground you when you can’t focus. Here are two examples of breathwork strategies:
Resonance breathing: Inhale for a count of four, exhale for a count of four. Repeat this pattern for several breath cycles, focusing on the rhythm of your breath.
Extended exhales: Inhale for a count of four, then exhale for a count of eight. This elongated exhale can help induce relaxation.
Decrease external stimuli: When you need to focus, try to eliminate as many distractions as possible. One study found that interruptions ate up about 6.2 hours a day or 31 hours a week. The reason isn’t necessarily because of the interruption but because it takes an average of about 23 minutes to recover from that distraction. Minimize these by turning off your phone, closing unnecessary tabs on your computer, and finding a quiet place to work. See more below.
Recognize attention stealers
Lack of sleep
Lack of movement
A low-quality diet (see more below)
Poor stress management
Notifications on your phone
Step away: Take breaks throughout the day, especially if you have a sedentary job. Go for a walk, do a yoga routine, or do a microworkout.
Get enough nutrients. Nutritional deficiencies are often one of the main factors contributing to attention deficits. When it comes to allowing the brain to focus for sustained periods of time, here are the main vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that are involved. Use the Cronomoeter app to make sure you’re getting the minimum amount and check out my supplement page for recommendations.
Choline
Zinc
Magnesium
Iodine
Potassium
Vitamin D
Get bored. Boredom, though uncomfortable, serves a purpose. It's a natural state that once prompted our ancestors to take action for survival. In today's digital age, we often sidestep boredom with our phones, missing out on its potential benefits for our attention and creativity.
Set ground rules with electronics.
Put the phone away then your kids are present.
Unsubscribe from any email newsletter you don't read.
Turn off non-essential notifications to reduce distractions.
Implement a daily screen time limit for specific apps or activities.
Put your phone away from your head at night, or in a different room.
Schedule regular digital detox days where you disconnect from your devices entirely.
Unfollow or mute accounts on social media that don't bring value or positivity to your life.
Set specific time blocks for checking and responding to emails, messages, and social media.
The Best Supplements To Improve Focus
Winner: Mind Lab Pro
Mind Lab Pro, by Performance Lab, is hands-down my favorite supplement for improving attention, memory, and processing speed. It’s a nootropic that contains Vitamins B6, B9, and B12, Citicoline, Bacopa Monnieri, Lion's Mane Mushroom, Phosphatidylserine, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, L-Theanine, Rhodiola Rosea, and Maritime Pine Bark Extract.
What I Like: It’s third-party tested, backed by research on the supplement itself, there’s no proprietary blend, and there’s no caffeine. When I take too much caffeine I get a little jittery and slightly anxious. When I take these I don’t feel very different but my productivity goes through the roof, and without a crash.
What I Do: I take 2 capsules on busier days when I need to be more productive or focused or on days when I’m sleep-deprived.
Runner Up: Four Sigmatic Focus Organic Mushroom Blend
I discovered Four Sigmatic 4 years ago when we had our first child. The newborn nights were as tough as I’ve been told they’d be and coffee just wasn’t cutting it. I went to Four Sigmatic for the touted cognitive benefits to keep me focused on those sleep-deprived mornings and it worked like a charm.
Four Sigmatic uses mushrooms like chaga, reishi, cordyceps, and lion's mane in a variety of products including coffee, powder, and creamers. After doing some diffing, I found that some companies just use the cheap and ineffective parts of the mushrooms so I reached out to them for more. They said, “Instead of using Mycelium, Four Sigmatic uses only the fruiting body extracts of functional mushrooms in all of their blends so every sip is packed with their full power. Mycelium is the “root system” of the mushroom, which really means it contains no mushrooms at all. With mycelium, you’re just paying for filler, oats and grains.”
What I Like: Four Sigmatic is third-party tested, organic, and doesn’t contain any fillers. I’ve found that their blends give me a great, sustained focus without major swings. Beyond improved attention, these mushrooms have researched-backed benefits ranging from decreased inflammation to improved immune systems to better gut health.
What I Do: Sometimes we go with Four Sigmatic’s coffee, other times we go with their powder blends which we put right in our coffee. My wife is a fan of their creamer which has a coconut flavor???? They also have them in capsule form but I have I’ve yet to try these.
Best Bars: IQ Bars
There are a number of these kinds of bars claiming to improve your focus but these are the two I’ve found to be the best: IQ Bars. These bars contain a blend of ingredients designed to improve focus including DHA, phosphatidylserine, choline, MCTs, vitamin E, flavonoids, Lion’s Mane, and vitamins B6 and B12.
What I Like: Aside from containing the right ingredients for attention, they also contain 12 grams of protein. It’s also what they don’t contain that attracted me to them in the first place: seed oils, added sugars, gluten, soy, or a lot of carbs (3g of net carbs total!). Plus, they’re delicious and travel well. They come in a variety of flavors including chocolate chip, peanut butter chip, lemon blueberry, and toasted coconut chip.
What I Do: We have these at the ready at our house for a quick snack or as a way to help make sure you hit the minimum effective dose of protein at the end of the day.
Use MINDBODYDAD for 15% off.
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