Why You Can’t Focus — and How To Fix That

Do you struggle to maintain focus on important tasks? Does your mind wander as soon as you sit down to work? Do you turn to your phone, or Youtube (yes, WE SEE YOU), TikTok, or Twitter, to distract yourself from a project for your boss? What about watching too much TV or reading so much you never get your homework done? Does working on something for a whole hour sound like an impossible task? Utterly daunting? Totally unthinkable?

Well, you’re not alone. Focus is a difficult thing to master, and many people struggle with it. Even now as I write this, I find myself momentarily preoccupied with a spot of dirt on my laptop, flipping through the pages of a book nearby that I’ve never read, and crossing off the previous days on my wall calendar.

However, once you develop the ability to focus for an extended period of time, you may discover that your ability to focus is kind of like a superpower. But until then, not being able to focus can cause anxiety, frustration, and even lead to some pretty nasty consequences in the long run.

So WHY can’t you focus? There may be a lot of reasons. Let’s cover some of the major causes of a lack of attention, then move on to some ways to combat it and build your focusing powers.