Pay attention to your attention.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard, American author (1945 – )

What you focus on, day after day, year after year, all adds up to a life spent ... doing what? Maybe it’s attaining career success, earning a Nobel Peace Prize, honing enviable skills, earning the admiration of your peers ...

Or maybe it’s looking up sports statistics, Netflix bingeing, child-rearing, Instagram-scrolling, working all the time, and other things you won’t really remember doing.

The good news that it’s largely up to you.

The bad news?

There’s never a lack of things competing for your attention. There are the usual distractions: loud children, insistent pets, piling-up chores, snacks tempting you from your refrigerator.

But these days, increasingly sophisticated, machine-learning algorithms track every click and “like” we make online — so they can show us ads we’re more likely to notice, things that we’re more likely to spend time and money on. Through all this data, the Internet is also learning how to get even better at grabbing our focus.

Thing is, attention is a limited resource. We only have so much to give.

And what is life but whatever it is you’re paying attention to, moment by moment?

What you can do to reclaim your focus:

Notice.

We’ve all had that feeling. You’re working merrily away — answering emails, balancing budgets, writing code, or coming up with topics for your email newsletter — and suddenly you look up from the bottom of a rabbit hole where you’ve just spent half an hour online shoe shopping. It happens! The internet is really good at distracting you. The first step is noticing when you lose your concentration so that the hours don’t just slip by.

Make the decision to refocus.

Actually decide to do it. Don’t let yourself get away with it. Force yourself if you have to. Tear your attention away from YouTube and toward your task. It is surprisingly difficult, but it gets easier with practice.

Keep doing that.

Like many things, refocusing your attention back to the matter at hand is a skill you can improve. The more you decide to get back to what you’re doing, the easier it gets. Practice makes perfect. And as time goes on, you might find yourself becoming less distracted to begin with.

Set yourself up for focus.

In the beginning, it can be difficult to rely on willpower. Many smartphones have settings that allow you to set limits on apps that eat away at your time. And set up your workspace so that distractions are less likely to sneak in. Have a clean desk. Close the door if you have one. Try to keep your less-important to-dos out of view, especially if you’re working from home. Laundry and dishes can wait.

Meditate.

Many people find that a regular, mindful meditation practice — even just a few minutes a day — can make a huge difference in helping you stay focused and less distractible. Yoga helps, too. Train your brain to focus on what you’re doing here and now and it will become habit over time.

Log in now. Learn how to focus your attention, minimize distractions, and other things you can do every day to maintain your mental health.

(This is an example of the health literacy-improving newsletters that go out to all EdLogics users every week. To learn how to gain access for your organization, contact us.)