You’ve probably met your monkey mind – the one that pings from thought to thought, never alighting long enough to make sense of the moment. It’s not a character flaw or a sign of ADD. Our average attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013 – and it’s likely gotten worse since. To put it in perspective, a goldfish can stay focused longer than the average human.

Take a guess: What percentage of waking hours does the average human spend unfocused, off-task, and distracted?

10%?

25%?

47%?

Using a smart phone app to track what 2,200 people were focused on at any given point during a day, researchers at Harvard learned that humans, on average, pay attention just 53% of the time. We spend 47% of our waking hours distracted by our thoughts, our surroundings, and our impulses. Our minds ruminate in the past and wander to the future.

Why does this matter? Who cares if you’re off in left field half the time as you’re scrolling Instagram or taking a walk or on a Zoom call?

Distraction can have serious consequences, especially for those working in healthcare and other high-stakes occupations. Diminished productivity at best, a life-or-death situation at worst. This attention deficit generates a chronic feeling of dissatisfaction and can lead to burnout. This becomes even more pronounced during times of intense stress, such as with COVID.

As neuroscientist Dr. Richie Davidson puts it, “a wandering mind is an unhappy mind.” Whether or not we’re paying attention to what we’re doing has more impact on our happiness than what we’re actually doing.

Practice

Just like we can lift weights to build physical muscles, we can train our mind and strengthen its ability to pay attention. We invite you to find a quiet space to cultivate awareness of the simplest act — breathing — with this 5-minute focused attention exercise.