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Improving concentration: what works in daily life and what doesn't

October 12, 2026 · 5 min read

You sit down to read a text. After two paragraphs you've answered a message, fetched a glass of water and followed a thought that has nothing to do with the text. You're not undisciplined. You're sitting in an environment built for other things.

Concentration isn't a character trait

When you ask people why they can't concentrate, they mostly name themselves: not enough discipline, too restless, too easily distracted. But attention depends heavily on conditions. A phone that buzzes, a window with twelve tabs, a room with the TV on: all of that pulls attention whether you want it or not. What can't be changed is that humans react to what's new. What can be changed is what surrounds them.

Five things you can change right now

Put the phone away, don't just flip it over. The effect of a phone's mere presence on concentration is debated in research, and the findings are mixed. But everyone knows from experience what a device within reach does to the hand. Put it in another room for twenty minutes. It's not a test of character, it's logistics.

One goal per block. "Write the report" isn't a task, it's a mountain. "Get the introduction down to half a page" is one. If you write down beforehand what should be done in the next thirty minutes, you also have a yardstick for when you've drifted.

If-then plans. "When I sit down, I first put the phone in the drawer." Such resolutions (Peter Gollwitzer calls them implementation intentions) are well studied and help because in that moment you no longer have to decide.

Breaks before you're tired. Five minutes: stand up, go to the window, walk a little. If you only pause when nothing works anymore, it takes you longer to come back.

Sleep and movement. Banal, but again there's no trick that beats them. If you sleep badly, your attention is bad. A walk, on the other hand, is the cheapest measure there is.

What doesn't help

Concentration music, supplements and miracle techniques promise a lot, and the evidence ranges from thin to mixed. Some people work better with background music, others worse. Try it, but don't expect a turnaround. And "multitasking" is mostly fast switching, and every switch costs something. The often-quoted figure that it takes about 23 minutes to get back into a task after an interruption comes from the work of Gloria Mark. It's vivid, but not a law of nature. "Longer than you think" is the order of magnitude to keep.

A five-minute test

Set a timer for five minutes. Count backwards in your head from 200 in steps of seven: 200, 193, 186 and so on. Don't write it down, don't say it aloud. As soon as you notice that your mind is somewhere else, start again from the last number you were sure of.

When it's more than habit

If you've felt severely impaired for a long time, or if concentration problems are new or come with exhaustion, low mood or sleep problems, it's worth having a doctor look at it. A blog article can't replace that and doesn't want to.

Effort in small doses

Concentration doesn't grow by demanding it with strain. It grows when you give it small, clear tasks and then leave it alone. That's the same idea as in Five minutes of effort, and it works partly because it fits into a day that's full anyway. If you want to turn it into a fixed time, Building a daily habit offers an approach.

Reading without drifting

One area where many people notice it has gotten harder is reading longer texts. That has less to do with the texts than with the tempo we've gotten used to: constantly new snippets, short paragraphs, a reward every few seconds. A long paragraph without a picture then feels like a hiking trail without a view.

What helps is unspectacular. Read for ten minutes in one go, with nothing else in your hand. If you drift, mentally mark the spot where it happened and read on from there. After a few days you notice that the spot where you wander off comes later. It's like running: you don't suddenly get faster, but the stretch until it pinches gets longer.

A trick that is often underestimated is the pen. If you have something in your hand while reading and occasionally underline a sentence or note a thought in the margin, you're more likely to stay with it. Not because underlining is magic, but because it forces you to decide what's important. Deciding keeps you awake.

A last thought for days when none of this works. They exist, and they aren't proof that you're doing something wrong. Slept badly, worries on your mind, an argument in the morning: attention is not a constant. On such days, plan smaller, take the easiest task first and allow yourself to stop earlier. Half a result on a bad day isn't a step back, it's a day on which you stayed with it.