How to Stop Getting Distracted in the Attention Economy

You sit down to work, check one thing, and twenty minutes later you are three videos deep with no memory of what you opened the app for. That is not a character flaw. In the attention economy, apps compete for your attention, and short video feeds are built to catch it.

So if you want to know how to stop getting distracted, more willpower is the wrong place to start. Structure works better: decide what the next block of work is for, protect that block, and fill the break with something a feed cannot offer. Here is why focus feels harder than it used to, what the research says, and how to set it up.

Why can't I focus anymore?

Gloria Mark, a researcher at UC Irvine and the author of Attention Span, found that our attention on a screen averages 47 seconds, and that it is shrinking. Each switch is small. Together they leave little room for work that only moves when you stay with it.

Short video feeds are the extreme case. In an experiment with 60 people, researchers asked participants to carry out an action they had planned earlier, across interruptions spent on TikTok, Twitter, YouTube or nothing at all. Only the TikTok condition hurt their performance.

That finding is about plans, which is what a workday runs on. You still know the proposal exists. What is at risk is the decision you made at nine to finish it before lunch. So the answer is not to grit your teeth through the noise. It is to give one stretch of work a clear purpose and a fence around it. (Switching between work apps has a cost of its own, covered in why context switching wears you down.)

Does the Pomodoro technique actually work?

The Pomodoro technique is the best known fence: work for a set stretch, take a short break, repeat. A study of 87 students compared breaks set in advance with breaks taken whenever the students decided to, over one day of real self-study.

The students who chose their own breaks reported more fatigue and distraction, and less concentration and motivation. Effort and the amount of work finished did not differ between the groups, and the planned breaks appeared to get the same work done in less time.

So how often should you take breaks? On a schedule you set before you begin. The planned breaks in that study came after every 12 or 24 minutes of study, and it did not test longer blocks. So here is our advice, not the study's: pick a rhythm you can keep, and keep to it. The point is that the decision of when to stop is made before you start, so you are not making it again every time a video looks more interesting than the next paragraph.

What should I do on a break so I don't end up scrolling?

Move. A break spent in a feed is the same mix of short videos and quick switching that the study above found hard on plans, and a feed has no natural end.

A small study at Columbia University had 11 adults sit for eight hours with different walking breaks. Three of the four walking schedules lowered fatigue and lifted mood. None of them changed cognition, so the case for a walking break is how you feel coming back, not a sharper mind.

That is also the simplest fix for doomscrolling at your desk: give the break a job. Stand up, walk to a window, do a few squats, refill your water. A break with something to do is harder to lose to a phone.

How Focus in Ranya protects one block at a time

We live in a world full of TikTok and things that take away our attention. We created Focus and Plan today so that you can understand what is required of you to feel productive today, and actually tackle the high-priority items instead of just working without thinking or prioritizing.

Focus is the part of Ranya built on those ideas, to help you stay focused at work. It does not fight your phone. It helps you decide, keeps the plan in front of you, and settles when to stop before you start.

• Decide first. Focus opens on Plan today: what is overdue, due today, pinned, in your Inbox, and the habits today still owes. Pick what you will get done, then start.
• Work in blocks. Take a break every 25, 45 or 60 minutes, or set your own rhythm. The default is a 45 minute block with a 10 minute break.
• A timer that follows you. Press Minimise and the timer goes with you to every page, still running. On a phone, the session screen stays awake while the clock runs.
• A heads-up before a meeting. If a meeting on a calendar you have connected is about to cut into the block, the session tells you. It never moves the block.
• Breaks that get you moving. Each break suggests a short movement you can do anywhere.
• Break banners if you want them. In-app break banners stay off until you turn them on.
• A streak that forgives. Your focus streak forgives one missed day a week, and it is kept in the browser or app where you focus.

How to stop getting distracted: a focus session, step by step

1. Decide what the block is for

   Press ⌘⇧FCommand Shift F or tap Plan today on the Focus card on Home. Pick what you will get done, or type to add something new. Not sure what matters today? Start with how to plan your day when everything feels urgent, and if the work needs a fixed time, put it on your calendar first.

2. Pick a rhythm

   Under your plan, one line says how the session will run: 45 min blocks and 10 min breaks by default. Press Edit, then under Break every choose 25 minutes if starting is the hard part, 45 for most work, or 60 for long, deep work. Custom takes your own number. Break for sets how long each break is: 10 minutes unless you change it.

3. Press Start

   The button names what you picked, like Start 3 tasks. One task sits under Now and the rest wait in Up next. If you need another page, press Minimise (the chevron at the top on a phone): the timer keeps running and goes with you.

4. Capture stray thoughts, don't follow them

   When something else pops into your head mid-block, do not switch. Press ⌘JCommand J, type it into the box that says Add to Inbox, and press Enter. On a phone, press Minimise, then tap More and Task. Either way, it waits in your Inbox for later.

   Add to Inbox: Send the invoice

   ⌘J

   Example quick add box with Send the invoice typed in, opened with Command J.

   If it is a task you already have and it belongs in this block, say so on a call instead: "Add the invoice to my focus." Ranya reads it back and adds it when you say yes. With more than one focus open, she asks which one first.

5. On the break, move

   When a block is behind you, the session says so, with Take 10 min and Keep going. Take the break, do the movement on the card, or tap Something else for another.

6. Get back to work, or end it

   When the break runs out, the session says Break is over and waits for you to press Back to work. When you are done for now, press End focus. Ending completes and deletes nothing, and the work you finished still counts.

Do focus sounds help?

It depends on you. Some people settle faster with a steady sound in the background, and some need quiet. Treat sound as a preference, not a technique.

Focus has nine sounds, from brown noise and rain to a warm guitar loop called July. Sound is off until you turn it on in the session, and you can leave it off.

Can I run a focus session by voice?

Yes. On a call with Ranya, or in chat, you can start a session, add to it, pause, take a break, get back to work and end it. Each change waits for your yes, adding a task included, and with more than one focus open Ranya asks which one it goes in. To go further, see how to plan your whole day out loud on a call, or everything Focus does.