I've (kinda) found a way to improve my attention span.

Last night I watched a YouTube video on why it’s difficult to maintain journaling as a daily practice and what to do about it.

At the start of that video, something came to my mind. I decided to not open the comment section and read every single comment while watching.

I managed to finish the 13-minute video without scrolling through the comments, even though I did peek at one featured comment for a second when I un-rotated the video.

After a long time, I finally got to focus on one thing. I felt pretty good about it.

I should find more long form content on YouTube and try to do the same.

You see, my brain is technically fried after spending a very long time watching short-form content and scrolling through comments at the same time. Those videos are bad enough to reduce my attention span. And reading the comments made me feel the worst feelings. I ended up struggling to maintain my focus and control myself every day for as long as I can remember.

I quitted TikTok because of this (and I have no interest in using it again)… still, I am trapped by YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. But then, I try my best to limit my time. Anyway, people are helpful enough to upload stuff from TikTok to the other two.

Quitting bad habits is a hard thing to do, but there’s no harm in trying. Starting small is always the best way. And the more frequent we do the small things every day, the better (thanks James Clear).

Without focus, nothing can be done. Focus is exactly what I need, and I will do what I can to reclaim it.

P.s.: if you want to watch the video, you can click here or watch it below. It’s a really nice video on how to journal better. Try not to read all the comments. Cheers!

With warmth, Nurul.