In 2018, Microsoft did a study that showed the average focus time in the office is 8 seconds. For comparison, they’ve tracked a goldfish’s attention span at 9 seconds. Obviously some of that is being distracted by other people– an email or slack notification, a text or even a coworker coming up to ask about the weekend. But it’s also us getting in our own way. We’re used to distracting ourselves. [Apple confirmed](https://www.businessinsider.com/dscout-research-people-touch-cell-phones-2617-times-a-day-2016-7#:~:text=The Dscout research also found,to seven times every hour.) that users on average unlock their phone 80 times a day. (It’s much higher than that since COVID). We’re constantly distracted and looking for something to occupy our brain and field of vision.

But these are just averages. It’s possible to expand our attention span beyond 8 seconds. To not check our phones every 10 minutes or more. To avoid multitasking and splitting our attention between tabs.

Think about what you’d like to accomplish in your career. Want to write a book? Make a movie? Sell a screenplay? Ship a new product? Launch a business? Start a podcast? Record an album? All of those things take deep work. Focus without distraction on a demanding task. All of those things will get done if we can learn to focus for more than 8 seconds at a time.

But it takes discipline. Let’s start by putting our phones out of reach and out of sight when we’re working. Next, let’s practice monotasking. Not opening up a new tab every 2 minutes or jumping to your inbox as soon as a page loads slowly or you get bored. And the biggest one is to monotask while on calls. It’s so easy to be scrolling through Facebook, or texting just out of view. But two things are happening while you’re doing this. First, your attention span is shortening again. And second, the other person notices. It’s easy to spot when someone is distracted– multitasking on a call. And that creates emotional distance. So not only are you hurting yourself by limiting your attention span as you respond to that email while on Zoom. But you’re also hurting your relationship with the person on the call.

Monotasking can build attention spans as well as trust.

Caveday is a company aimed at improving your relationship to work. We write regular posts on Medium and send out monthly newsletters with productivity tips, life hacks, and recommendations. Sign up for the mailing list here.

Jake Kahana is a cofounder of Caveday. Sign up for his personal emails, called “The Email Refrigerator” here.