Your Secret Weapon: Regaining Focus

Johann Hari’s new book Stolen Focus offers a comprehensive picture of the forces we are up against in a society that inundates us with information and stimuli. Yes, the devices are powerful and far too many, at times, to combat. Yet Hari also argues that a powerful collision of factors, including deteriorating diets, social isolation, and physical inactivity, reduces our power to sustain attention and think deeply.

Last month, as I was multitasking (or, as attentional experts would more appropriately call it, “task switching”) and listening to a podcast interview with Hari while driving to work, his charge resonated with me. His book provides a detailed overview of expanding your individual attentional arsenal and systemic solutions for this battle. As he summarized it, when it comes to the war on our attention, we need both offensive and defensive strategies.

The cost of losing attention and focus

Raise your hand if this has ever happened to you: You’re working on a project, parenting, or having a conversation with someone, and your attention begins to wander. Maybe you’re thinking about your commute home, or wondering if you received an email you’ve been waiting on. Maybe it’s a simple click out of a document into a news site or shopping cart. What’s the harm in a small slip of focus?

Well, actually, very little in the slip itself—after all, we’re not robots who can focus 100 percent of the time. But the costs start to add up when we remain distracted. Hari shares the research that it takes a person, on average, 23 minutes to regain the prior level of thought once distracted: 23 minutes!

Here are some of the costs that can compound from our minds wandering (in that 23 minutes or more):

• Our minds can become detached from our environment (not great if you’re parenting and watching your kids on the playground or in the pool).
• Our alertness decreases (which could be disastrous if you’re driving).
• We begin making more errors (not ideal at work).
• We have impaired comprehension during reading and lectures (so it becomes harder to take in and understand information that’s important).
• We can experience impaired test performance (or performance in other high-stakes events).
• Our memory formation and recall can be disrupted.

None of this is ideal, but if stopping distractions altogether is impossible, what can we do?

Strengthening awareness and refocusing abilities

In my work with elite performers in sport, business, and the military, I’ve seen how the ability to refocus and bring attention back to the problem at hand is a skill that separates the good from the great. We all get distracted, but elite performers recognize it and take action sooner. They do this through the continual practice of awareness and refocusing.

Elite performers think of focus and refocusing as a continuous loop:

1. They experience sustained focus on a task or problem.
2. Their mind wanders.
3. They have an awareness that their mind has wandered.
4. They shift attention back to whatever they want to sustain focus on.

This loop, and how well you can implement it, is the difference between a momentary lapse and an entire afternoon lost on social media. So, how do you practice this awareness and refocusing that serves elite performers so well? Here are three strategies to integrate into your daily schedule:

1. Use cue words and phrases to bring your attention back.

I’ve written before about the power of self-talk. Having a cue word or specific phrase you use to bring attention to the fact your focus has wandered can be incredibly helpful as you start to train your awareness. Here’s how it works:

• You notice your mind is wandering, and you use a cue phrase like “writing first” to bring yourself back to the present moment.
• This nudges you to look back at the document you’re working on.
• You can use another cue word such as “intro” to remind yourself of the area where you want to redirect your focus.
• You can even acknowledge the initial distraction by saying “hello” to it and then wishing it “goodbye” as you refocus.

A helpful phrase for many people is, “What’s important now?” (or WIN). By answering that one question, you’ll be back in the present moment, directing your attention to the single task you chose.

2. Practice the 3-2-1 technique.

This is a simple yet effective grounding technique to try in any context, personal or professional. When you feel your focus slipping or have the urge to stop paying attention to the task at hand, ask yourself these questions:

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• What are three things that I see now in the present moment? (For example, if you’re at work, it could be your computer, your desk, and your mug of coffee.)
• What are the last two things that I’ve done? (This re-centers you in where exactly you are in terms of completing the task. For example, if you’re making your child’s lunch, you might answer, “I cut up the cucumber and wiped out the lunchbox.”)
• What is the one thing that I need to focus on to accomplish my task? (You can ask yourself WIN here as well.)

3. Anchor yourself in the moment.

When our mind wanders, it can be beneficial to reconnect to our bodies and physical space as part of the refocusing process. Try this exercise to reset before asking WIN or using a cue phrase:

• Pick a physical or visual point you always have near you (such as your breath, your wedding ring, or a photo of your family on your desk).
• When needed, direct your attention to your anchor point (so focus on deep breaths or look at your ring or photo).
• Hold your attention on your anchor point, and use that pause to bring yourself back to the present.
• Once your attention is fully in the present, you can then direct your attention outward onto what’s important now and begin another period of sustained focus.

To summarize, our attention is enhanced when:

1. We increase awareness that our mind has wandered.
2. We become more efficient at shifting back to the matter at hand.

All of these exercises are designed to build that awareness and help us practice shifting back to the target faster. Practice the loop whenever needed in your professional and/or personal life.

And the next time you zone out of a presentation to look at social media, don’t beat yourself up: You’ve given yourself a valuable opportunity to train your refocusing skills like an elite performer.