Your Attention Please

With all the distractions we face these days, can you actually concentrate on something longer than, say, a goldfish can?

If it weren’t for her live-in boyfriend, says Jessica Winston, her Wood-Ridge home likely would be in disarray. The 37-year-old works from home, as does her significant other, and during her downtime she often starts household projects: doing laundry, washing dishes, cooking dinner, propagating plants. It sounds like she’s a multitasker, but there’s one problem. “I’ll often start something but won’t finish it because I’ve moved on to a different task,” she says. “So my boyfriend is always closing cupboard doors that I’ve left open, replacing boxes that I’ve scattered or moving clothes from the washer to dryer.”

Winston chalks her problem up to a shortened functional attention span, and the Mayo Clinic backs her up—leaving tasks partially done is a leading sign of that phenomenon, it says. And anecdotal evidence suggests that she’s far from alone. While many of us remark on our so-called “multitasking” ability, our lengthening “things to do” lists and our availability to an escalating number of rings and dings throughout the day, there’s a growing sense that the center isn’t holding—that we’re all harried and distracted, and that our very busyness is making us less effective instead of more.

So, what’s causing our shortened attention spans? To answer, it’s important to understand the science of attention, which is the core cognitive ability to actively and passively process nearby information, says Jeffrey Portnoy, PhD, a clinical neuropsychologist at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck. When information is processed, it’s stored in the prefrontal cortex of the brain as “working memory” and used in the execution of cognitive tasks. “We are always paying some amount of attention to the things happening around us, even when we are not fully aware of it,” Portnoy says. “As with most of our mental abilities, attention is not in infinite supply, and it can be used up temporarily.” The inability to process information for a prolonged period leads to a shortened attention span.

Attention spans can range anywhere from two seconds to two hours, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The purported 8.25-second average attention span statistic publicized by the Microsoft Corporation in 2015— that was shorter than that of a common goldfish— has since been debunked. But that’s not to say our collective attention spans are not diminishing. The number of distractions around a person plays a large role in the decline.

“Everyone has their own set of cognitive strengths and weaknesses, but the average person has an attention span that we expect to fall in a set range,” says Portnoy. “Shortening of one’s attention span is usually more a result of not optimizing your attentional resources than of a true problem with your attentional abilities. For example, if there are many nearby distractions, your attentional ‘muscles’ are divided by having to filter out what is important to the task at hand and what is irrelevant. Similarly, if you attempt to multitask, you are splitting your limited attention across several different tasks at once. That limits your ability to focus on any one task at a time. Research is ongoing in this area, but for the most part, it is unlikely that any major transformation has happened in the adult brain that has caused our attention spans to actually shorten.”

Portnoy also points to the increased use of technology as a major contributor to attention-span decline. “The world in which the human brain evolved was very different from the world today,” he says. “More than ever, we are surrounded by numerous distractions, and modern technologies such as phones and computers have created an expectation that we are accessible at all times. While we still likely have the same raw attentional abilities as people did generations ago—and in many cases are thought to have stronger raw cognitive abilities than our predecessors—we now live in an environment where we expect to frequently divide our attention over multiple things at once, leading us to use those resources less efficiently, and exhaust them more quickly.”

• Signs of shortened attention span. Multiple incomplete tasks, as in Winston’s case, could indicate one’s diminishing attention span. Other clues could be poor work performance, mental strain and fatigue. “Doing a task in short bursts due to mental exhaustion often leads to poor work quality,” our expert says.

• Is it a concern? In many cases, a shortened attention span is not indicative of a more serious underlying condition, Portnoy says, and people can refuel their mental resources with good sleep and better nutrition. There are cases, however, when medical conditions can cause reductions in attention span. In recent years, there’s been an uptick of Americans diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—in 2023, about 6 percent of U.S. adults (around 15 million) reported having been diagnosed with the condition, while an earlier estimate was around 4.5 percent, the Association of American Medical Colleges says.

“ADHD is often diagnosed in children who are struggling in school,” says Portnoy. “However, while the underlying condition must be present in childhood for the diagnosis to be made, it is often not until adulthood that individuals start to struggle when their life responsibilities change and the strategies they had used to work around their symptoms are no longer as effective.”

Other conditions, such as thyroid, liver or kidney disorders also can impact cognitive function, Portnoy adds. “Some amount of age-related cognitive change is considered normal, but many diseases of the brain, including degenerative conditions and changes in the brain’s blood vessels, can occur later in life, with an impact on cognitive performance.” Tools such as bloodwork, brain scans and neuropsychological testing can accurately diagnose cognitive disorders. Consider seeking help from a physician or psychiatrist when poor attention creates work or personal problems, which can lead to anxiety or moodiness. Sometimes, however, a slight habit change can do the trick. “I’m trying to do fewer things at the same time,” says Winston, our multitaster. “Or I ask my boyfriend for help with chores so I can concentrate on one thing.”