This is Your Brain on a Jet Ski: How to Fight Your 8-second Attention Span and Win
I have some troubling news about goldfish.
Actually, that troubling news is about you — and me, and probably everyone else you know, too.
To have a “mind like a goldfish” is no compliment, and there are even songs referencing the aquatic creatures’ allegedly puny memories (alleged, because this 15-year-old Australian kid flushed that myth down the toilet). Yet despite its bad cognitive rap, in a fin-to-fist battle for attention span primacy, the humble goldfish outstrips us humans by a second.
Their 9 seconds to our 8 isn’t too deflating until you consider that in the year 2000, we could pay attention for an additional 4 seconds. What’s to blame? There are too many possibilities to make any hard conclusions, but my money would be on the way that we’ve grown accustomed to cycling quickly through media bytes on our devices (see media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s work on how the media we consume shapes our thoughts as well as our thought processes). One thing’s for certain: more and more, our focus follows what Nicholas Carr metaphorizes quite nicely in his Atlantic essay from 2008: “Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words,” he writes. “Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.”
In this particular instance, Carr is referring to his digital reading habits, but the Jet Ski model of attention — shallow and brief versus deep and sustained — applies off of the digital page, too. How many times in your average workday do you start in on your Real Work only to, moments later, refresh your inbox or get up to make a(nother) cup of coffee? How many times do you hove back to your facebook feed instead of doing research? If that sounds familiar, you’re in good company.
Focusing is hard, and if statistics are to be believed, we’re getting worse at it rather than better. So perhaps the best thing we can do is evolve techniques that help us work with our brains’ newly programmed preferences to pogo from one thing to the next rather than struggling against them.
Enter the Pomodoro Technique.
If you’ve made it through the basics, you’ll know that pomodoro is Italian for tomato. It isn’t that eating more gems from the nightshade fam will help you get more things done; rather, the Pomodoro Technique takes its name from its creator, Francesco Cirillo’s, tomato-shaped timer. Cirillo developed this technique to haul himself out of distraction and procrastination. The principle behind the Pomodoro technique is breaking your work time into small sprints, peppering in generous breaks to reprogram your brain for concentration and keep you motivated. Here’s how it works.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your tomatoes
All you’ll need to get going is a timer (your smartphone will do) and two lists: one with today’s to-dos and one with a total inventory of all the things you need to get done. Once you know what you’ll tackle first, set your timer for 25 minutes. In those 25 minutes, you’ll be focusing only on the task you’ve chosen, no matter how much your mind would like to stray. When those 25 minutes have passed, do a little dance for having completed your first pomodori. The more you use pomodoros, the better you’ll get at estimating how long it takes to get to the end of the task.
And now, a break
With the Pomodoro Technique, breaks are not optional because they’re as critical to the success of the technique as those 25 minutes of work. After every sprint of “on” time, give yourself 5 minutes to relax, walk around, grab a glass of water or a nibble, and allow your mind to reset.
By taking intentional breaks, what you’re doing is teaching your mind to recalibrate and refocus, demonstrating that there is a clear distinction between work time and leisure time. Once you’ve finished 4 pomodori, treat yourself to a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes — you’ve earned it.
The Rules of Engagement
To make such a simple process work, you’ve got to stick to the rules. Luckily, there are only 3:
- There are only complete pomodori
No halves, no 80% complete, and especially none that you finish with a minute remaining. Keep refining ‘til the time runs out.
2. 25 minutes means of work means 25 minutes of work
Once you’ve started your timer, you’re committed to 25 minutes of focus on whatever task you’ve chosen to do — and only that one.
3. Protect your pomodori
Internal interruptions (like remembering you need to buy mom a birthday present), and external interruptions (a phone call, an email, or the Hoover man at the door) are surmountable. Turn on your voicemail, turn off your notifications, or, hey — try putting your phone on flight mode: it’ll keep your timer available and your distractions at bay.
You’re not made for long stretches of productivity, and neither am I. Happily, we don’t have the focus-inducing benefits of living inside a very small bowl, either. And you know what? That’s okay. Do it right and the Pomodoro Technique can help you rewire your brain for focus and get more done.
Now. Grab your timer and show those goldfish who’s boss.
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