Why our generation can’t focus — and what we can do about it

Books feel harder to finish. Films are watched with a phone nearby. Moments of quiet are increasingly rare. And for students, sitting down for an hour of genuinely focused study can feel much harder than it should.

There are good reasons for this.

Our generation has grown up in an unprecedented competition for human attention. For much of the digital economy, attention is valuable. The longer we spend looking at a screen, the more opportunities there are to show us advertisements, learn about our preferences and keep us using a particular product.

Some of the world's most sophisticated companies therefore have an economic incentive to capture as much of our attention as possible. And they have become remarkably good at it.

The result is an environment saturated with stimulation. There is always another notification, video, message, headline or piece of content available. Our attention is constantly being invited somewhere else.

Studying requires almost the opposite conditions.

Reading a difficult paper can be slow. Writing can be frustrating. Understanding a difficult concept may require sitting with confusion for a while before something finally clicks. Learning requires sustained attention in a world increasingly designed to interrupt it.

So, what can students actually do about it?

1. View focus as an environmental problem, not a willpower problem

We often think concentration is a test of self-control: disciplined people focus; undisciplined people get distracted.

A better approach is to look at the environment in which you are trying to concentrate.

If your phone is beside you and notifications are arriving, focusing requires you to repeatedly resist temptation. Instead, remove the need to make those decisions. Put your phone somewhere else. Disable unnecessary notifications. Find somewhere you associate with concentrated work.

Don't just try harder to focus. Make your surroundings easier to focus in.

2. Make time for nature

There is evidence that natural environments can help restore our capacity for attention.

Psychologists Rachel and Stephen Kaplan developed Attention Restoration Theory, which proposes that sustained, directed attention can become fatigued and that certain environments — particularly natural ones — can help it recover.

This doesn't require disappearing into the wilderness. Spending time in a park, walking somewhere green or simply getting outside can provide a useful contrast to environments constantly demanding your attention.

For students spending much of the day studying indoors and surrounded by technology, deliberately making time for nature may be particularly valuable.

3. Carve out interruption-free blocks

Finally, create parts of your day in which your attention belongs to one thing.

You do not need to be perfectly focused for eight hours. Start by protecting a much smaller period — perhaps 30, 45 or 60 minutes — from interruption.

Decide beforehand what that period is for. Put distractions out of reach. Make yourself unavailable for anything that can reasonably wait.

Then take a proper break before beginning again.

The goal is not to eliminate distraction from your life. That is probably impossible.

It is to set aside stretches of the day where distraction simply isn't an option.