Q&A for How to Pay Attention

Engage in some kind of mindfulness practice, like meditation, every day. This will help you stay centered and you'll find it much easier to ignore distractions in your daily life.

Well, it's bad if your distractions take you away from whatever you're doing. However, it's important to recognize that distractions are a natural part of life, and every single distraction isn't going to be the bane of your existence. You can learn to brush things off or use them as an opportunity to reframe whatever you're doing.

It's all about cultivating your interior life to be calm and peaceful. Practice gratitude, escape to your happy place when necessary, and try to be non-judgmental. If your spirit is at peace, you won't get so distracted when things around you aren't so simple and quiet.

The first step when you're distracted is to identify what kind of distractions are occurring. Broadly, there are three categories of distractions: digital distractions, human distractions, and internal distractions. Digital distractions can be handled digitally. You can put your phone on silent or turn on Do Not Disturb. You can turn off notifications on your computer. With human distractions, you can communicate to people that you need space and quiet for a bit. You can move to a quiet place at home to work. For internal distractions, it's a little more nuanced. One common internal distraction is stress. You might be trying to work but thinking about something else. If it's a low level of stress, you can recognize it and set it aside for now until later. If it's a high level of stress, you might need to pause and attend to that stress before you get back to your homework.