You also end up expending a lot more mental energy than needed. Without a clear goal and road map, things can turn out frantic and frustrating, with many wrong turns. Think of your brain as a muscle that you can train to focus better so you can be more productive.įocus is the way in which you deliberately target your energy to push progress in something you care about.īecause focus takes energy, time, and effort, whatever it is that you need to focus on should be something meaningful to you, something that’s worth shutting down phone calls, text messages, and social media for. The great news is that you can and should improve your concentration. Now that you know why you struggle to focus, let’s look at how you can build up your concentration. Pay attention the next time you feel an impulse to check your phone: chances are, you will go through each of the above 4 steps. When you have to sacrifice something like this, you will be more likely to build a longer-term relationship with the product.

It asks you to make some kind of investment, whether that is money, time or data. Lastly, the app secures your attention for the long term. Like a lottery, the reward is new and ever-changing: you will always find something fresh and exciting when you open up the app. Everything from the animation, to the endless scrollable content and sparkly UI is designed to keep us hooked on the app. Apps are gamified to hit our reward bells. Apps are designed to minimize any barriers to entry so it is super easy to act on a trigger.įor completing this action, you get a dopamine hit. That could be sharing that news story recommended to you in a push notification. Over time, that trigger becomes internally driven and you develop an impulse to open an app without being prompted.Ĭlick, tap, or scroll - whatever the intended action of the trigger was, you do it. It is irresistible: you see it, you click.

Usually it is external, like an app alert or audible notification. The trigger is the ‘hook’ that gets you scrolling on your phone. In his book Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal outlines how addictive products work in 4 steps: To become a focus ninja, you first have to understand how modern technology hijacks our attention. 7 Tips to Help You Concentrate And Focus.

How to Concentrate And Build Your Focus.

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