Psychiatrist's Tip for Increasing Attention Span

Someone should create algorythmic education, that makes focusing on learning addictive

if this technique works, it technically hurts our channel. so make sure to like comment and subscribe to balance it out :^)

I've literally stared at the wall for an hour wandering in my mind now, hoping, that I'd find motivation to keep working (im in home office)... i just realized that just looking at the wall was more entertaining and fulfilling than actually working... what is wrong with me man

My dad always said one of the problems today is that people don't just sit with themselves. They never just let themselves sit and think. He would say the best thing is to let your brain have down time to be still and let your brain sort itself. It's processing time, and our brains need it. And your sleep definitely improves if you allow your mind downtime to think before you try to sleep.

The only issue I have with this is that without external distractions my mind is still capable of going into endless thought chains for hours, day dreaming. I'll isolate myself to study and still I'll just be sitting and thinking random stuff. So, I try to distract myself with things I do not like, for example doing chores or talking a walk or exercising a bit. Seems to bring back my focus.

All these short videos on yt, insta, tiktok and reddit play a huge role in short attention spans. They literally train your brain to focus on one thing for a matter of a few seconds or minutes before scrolling on. When we watch YouTube we're always looking for more dopamine by reading the comments while the video is playing or searching for another video to watch during the video is on.

TLDR: How to focus in a world of algorithms? Stare at a wall.

So I just did the "easy" challenge Dr K. suggested and went for a 1h walk without my headphones. I had my cellphone with me but only checked it twice to see how long it had been. It was an interesting experience. My mind started going to all sorts of places. I randomly started counting the steps in my head or replayed voicelines from podcasts I listen to in my head over and over. I also noticed things I never noticed before, like how the hairs on my ears make a weird sound when they scrape the inside of my hoody when I walk. Stuff that you don't really pay attention to when you are mentally occupied with different things I guess. Towards the end of the walk I was falling back into "normal" thought patterns, starting to think about what I'll do once I get home. I guess that's also to be expected to an extend. Overall a really cool experience. Give it a try!

Tolerating boredom is way easier than closing random videos and go to study.

- Dr.K. "Bitch we're gonna study today" slaps mind across the face

This exercise was so much harder than I thought! 1 hour felt like 5. My experience was very enlightening. I had no concept of time but first I went through looking to solve all my problems, I know that I struggle with perfectionism so I started there. By minute 15, I thought to myself, “Ok, I figured everything out, I guess I don’t have to do this anymore.. Dr. I said an hour so I guess I’ll wait. About 30 minutes in I had a tremendous amount of anxiety, wondering if I forgot to set my alarm and convincing myself that I was not doing the exercise correctly and was wasting my time. About minute 40 I broke through and realized I didn’t solve my perfectionism at all, I was still looking for the perfect way to do nothing. It sounds insane! The last 20 minutes I was so happy that I got something out of this and when the alarm went off, I was ecstatic. Today I’ve been going through your perfectionism videos and working through the grieving process. Thank you Dr. K!

I tried not using my phone, computer, watching TV, or using the internet for one day, and I was really going crazy. It was like I was having addiction withdrawals.

The best is when you think you have your addiction beat, and then all of your professors assign YouTube videos to watch.

I just finished staring at my wall for an hour. No joke, about 30 minutes in I trusted a fart and shit my pants. I don't know if thats what Dr. K wanted, but it happened.

I really like how he connects our lack of attention to social media. Most people that question why their attention span is short wouldn’t think to blame social medias addictive algorithm. Nice video 👍

I legit started laughing so hard when he said "Stare at a wall for 1hour and amazing things will happen". 🤣🤣 Its like a parent convincing kid to do stuff

That explains that, when i unsubbed a shit load of channels, i was constantly bored, because all the normal youtube videos I could browse through were so boring. So I spontaneous picked up reading books again, and I read 100 pages on saturday, which is crazy tbh..

I just... become the algorithm.

I actually came up with a technique a year ago that's pretty similar. Whenever I feel like I can't focus I just sit upright in my chair, make sure I'm relaxed, close my eyes and try to not think about anything. At first it will be impossible but with every passing minute the chaos in your head becomes quieter and quieter. First you will feel the need to watch YouTube, grab your phone and so on as if your life depends on it but after some time you will be perfectly content with just sitting there. Then your mind reaches like a "blank status" and when you look at your book again you won't have any distractions in mind. Once your mind gets scattered again after having some work done, you repeat the process but then it won't take as much time as it did at the beginning. Try to not think about the time you spend while using this technique, do it as long as it takes whether it's 1 minute or 60 minutes.

I can easily do hours of just thinking if I'm in the right headspace. In fact, aside from Youtube and similar, a big source of my procrastination is just staring blankly at the screen with my mind just all over the place. I can't help but feel like that beats the purpose of this, even though I realize not every exercise is suitable for everyone.