10 Tips to Cure Your Short Attention Span

A quick search in Google for "short attention span" turns up a lot of information on ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) in children and how to treat it. But what about we adults?There's not much information or help at all if you are an adult merely suffering a temporary (or semi-permanent!) bout of "short attention spanness", which I'll dub SAS. Since I'm a frequent sufferer of the above mentioned SAS, I thought I'd write a little about how I combat it.

Here are 10 things I do. I'm not sure whether these will work for you or not, but they seem to help inject some stability and focus when my mind is feeling particularly fractured:

1. Kill all unnecessary external stimuli. This means turn off the TV. TV is fun, it's good to relax after over-focusing on stuff, and since it requires little focus, it might seem like just what you need. However, lack of focus (SAS) is a sign that you are suffering from too much external stimuli - and TV the enemy!
   
2. Stare at a wall for five minutes in silence. I'm serious - it's called "meditating". I tend to stare at my ceiling, which has an intricate pattern of lines, and I simply try, over and over, to count those lines. Though for meditation gurus, you're really supposed to think about nothing at all. Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing...for we mere mortals, that's tough. So I count the lines in the pattern, and eventually try to pay attention to what sounds I can hear - a car passing by outside, the refrigerator fan, etc...Then I concentrate on how the air feels on my skin. This clears my mind of all the other thoughts and pressures imposing on me.
3. Take a hot (hot!) bath, complete with scented bath salts by candlelight . This is a precursor and/or substitute for number 4. Allows a brief escape, and simply being "locked" in a small room with limited stimuli is a good thing.
   
4. Aromatherapy. That's just a fancy word for "burn some incense". I also dim the lights, play some of my favourite New Age music (generally aiming for some vintage Loreena McKennitt) and stare into darkness.
5. Exercise. If possible, out of doors, where you can walk, run or ride and feel like you don't ever have to stop. This frees the minds and relaxes the body.
6. Drink some St. John's Wort herbal tea, or take the tablets. St. John's Wort helps stabilize one's moods in general and is helpful in alleviating the symptoms of SAS.
   
7. Do some puzzles. Something not too tough - some sudoku, easy crosswords or logic puzzles. Challenging enough to keep you interested, but not so challenging as to make you lose interest! Just a temporary fix, but still helpful and keeps your mind sharp!
   
8. Create a To-Do list. Too practical, true. And it seems counter-intuitive - you already have too much to do, right? But writing it down will free your brain so it doesn't have to keep coming back to the thought "Oh, I've still got to..." right when you're in the middle of something else. The paper and pen method, in a nice little agenda, works better for me than any of the numerous online to-do lists（Ta-Da Lists, Remember the Milk).
9. Avoid alcohol, at least til the SAS passes.
10. If all else fails, pull a Garbo (you know, "I vant to be alone"...). Go into seclusion, and while there, employ all of the above.
    

PS:As this post has taken several hours to complete, due to SAS and frequent side-trips to Digg and List Universe, please take this advice at your own risk!