Do you have the following symptoms:
Frequent distractions while working or studying, checking messages on your phone, scrolling through Twitter, and checking market trends.
Seeing long research reports and articles, lacking the patience to read through them, and throwing them to AI for summarizing key points.
Even when entertaining, unable to concentrate and watch a movie to the end, opting for fast play, or only willing to watch 3-minute summaries.
Unable to read a book seriously, either reading it too quickly or listening to those 5-minute audio highlights.
If you feel the same, please don't worry; this is a situation we all commonly face.
Every day, we receive thousands of pieces of information through devices like phones and computers, with continuous pushes and notifications constantly disrupting our focus. From waking up in the morning to check the news and emails, to scrolling through social media late at night, this cycle has become the norm of life.
The rise of social media and short videos offers content for rapid consumption, causing us to gradually become accustomed to brief, quick stimuli. They are like tempting candies that instantly grab our attention, yet pull us away from tasks requiring concentration, which is precisely a root cause of attention fragmentation.
It not only deprives us of the ability to understand things in depth but also makes it increasingly difficult for us to engage in long-term, deep thinking. The lack of focus prevents us from putting sufficient energy into our work, leading to inefficiency and even feeling lost and helpless when facing complex problems.
The harm of this phenomenon is not only reflected in work and study. Many decisions, thoughts, and self-reflections in life are conducted in deep focus. When we cannot calm down to think carefully, our judgment and decision-making abilities will also be affected, which may negatively impact our quality of life and interpersonal relationships.
If you think this is just a matter of lifestyle habits, you are mistaken. The fragmented flow of information constantly stimulates the brain, leading to a dopamine system disorder, trapping us in the quagmire of pursuing instant gratification. This state further severely impacts the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for high-level cognitive functions. Frequent phone use and distractions directly lead to the loss of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, significantly weakening focus and complex thinking abilities. Over time, the hippocampus, responsible for memory conversion, may also shrink, resulting in significant memory decline.
Ultimately, our core cognitive abilities will face systemic damage.
Fortunately, according to the principle of neuroplasticity, this damage is not irreversible. Based on my own recent studies, I recommend several methods.
1. Regularly schedule a day (or half a day) each week away from all instant information sources, including social media, short videos, and mobile notifications. Replace it with simple and low-stimulation activities, such as walking, meditating, or handwriting a diary. By reducing frequent dopamine stimulation, the brain will gradually regain patience for long-term tasks and rebuild interest and demand for deep thinking.
2. Set fixed time slots each day for at least 20 minutes of focused work. Gradually increase the duration of focus to 60 minutes. Use time management tools like the Pomodoro Technique to set short breaks to prevent excessive brain fatigue. This 'training' can effectively activate the prefrontal cortex of the brain, enhancing focus and self-control, and avoiding the accumulation of cognitive fatigue. Over time, the gray matter density of the prefrontal cortex will be restored, thus improving cognitive abilities and focus.
3. Limit the quantity and variety of information you consume each day. Only browse selected news, read in-depth articles, and limit social media usage to a certain time (e.g., no more than 30 minutes a day). Avoid meaningless push notifications and reduce dependence on information. Reducing fragmented information input can lighten the brain's burden, making the brain less reliant on quick stimulation for information processing, thus restoring the demand for deep thinking.
4. Set a fixed time each day for deep reading, which can include lengthy books, papers, or articles. To enhance comprehension, practice 'note-taking while reading' or summarizing. Deep reading requires frequent interaction between various cognitive areas in the brain (such as language processing and analytical thinking), which helps strengthen neural connections in the brain, enhancing logical reasoning and long-term memory abilities.
5. Engage in 5 to 10 minutes of meditation each day, focusing on breathing or specialized guided meditation practices, helping the brain clear distractions and restore clear thinking. Research shows that long-term meditation can increase gray matter density in the prefrontal cortex, enhancing focus and emotional regulation abilities, and helping to alleviate anxiety and stress, thereby improving cognitive function.
6. When faced with temptation, practice delayed gratification. For example, when you want to check your phone, set a 'delay period' of 10 minutes, during which you can do a more important small task or engage in deep thinking. After each delay, reward yourself with the tempting behavior. This practice can train the brain's self-control system, enhancing the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, thereby improving the ability to handle complex tasks and delay gratification.
In this process of recovery and training, you need to reverse those long-term ingrained bad habits while constantly facing various external 'temptations' of information, which can be quite painful. You have to learn to forgive yourself, accept yourself, and continue to persist.
I hope that one day we can both regain our ability to focus and think deeply.
