Attention Isn't Broken – Your Day Is

Recently I finished research on motivation and second language learning. One finding stuck with me: people who combine intrinsic and extrinsic motivation – doing something because it matters and because it gets results – sustain effort better. Makes sense in theory. Except when I looked at my own language learning, I felt off. Years in, barely improved, and I couldn't pretend I didn't know why – I was being lazy. But my mind wasn't empty – it was crammed with a dozen ideas and project tasks, and I had no clue how to distribute my energy and time.

So where did all my attention go?

You didn't lose focus – you spent it elsewhere.

Here's the thing nobody wants to admit: we don't "lose focus". We redirect it. Every time we think "I can't concentrate today," what we actually mean is "I concentrated on something else." Scrolling. Refreshing. Watching. Our attention went somewhere – just not where we think it should've gone.

And let's be honest about why. We chose it. Don't tell ourselves we didn't, because when we decided to watch another video instead of opening that book, we rationalized ourselves into it. We all do. "Just five minutes." "I need a break." "I'll start after this." The choice might feel automatic, but it's still a choice.

So here's the real question: Why do we choose to lose focus?

Because at the end of the day, our attention has been shifted to what entertained us. Our day is broken because we broke our attention in the first place.

Now, I know this sounds like guilt-tripping. And yeah, I'm using it to explain why some of us operate in less-than-ideal ways. But I also get it – it's hard as hell to keep ourselves together in a world full of dopamine-fueled reward loops. Not gonna lie, I enjoy TikTok. Short videos are amazing to drop our nerves after a long day at the office.

The problem isn't that TikTok exists. The problem is our day has no walls.

Your day is designed for interruption.

We're not weak for getting distracted. We're living in an environment engineered to fragment our attention. Every app, every notification, every "quick check" – it's all designed by very smart people whose job is to keep us scrolling. They're good at it. They've made distraction easier than focus, and entertainment easier than effort.

But here's what makes it worse: We structure our days like they're infinite.

No boundaries between work and rest, focus and distraction, doing and consuming. Everything bleeds into everything else. Then we wonder why we can't concentrate.

Our attention isn't broken. The container holding it is.

Build walls, not more discipline.

Stop trying to fix ourselves. Our attention isn't the problem – it's that our day has no structure to hold it.

Think about when we actually get work done. It's not when we "feel motivated" or when conditions are perfect. It's when we have no other option – a deadline looming, a meeting in an hour, someone waiting for our response. Suddenly, we focus. Not because we found willpower, but because the situation built a wall around our attention.

That's not motivation. That's structure doing the work for us.

Most of us wait for external pressure – a critical component of extrinsic motivation – to create those walls. A boss breathing down our neck. A deadline we can't push back. The guilt of disappointing someone. Then we're surprised when, left to our own devices without any structure, we scroll for three hours and accomplish nothing.

What if we didn't wait? What if we built the wall before we needed someone else to build it for us?

Structure isn't a to-do list.

I'm not talking about goals or productivity hacks or making elaborate to-do lists we'll ignore by Wednesday. I'm talking about deciding in advance when our attention has one job, then protecting that time like it matters.

One block of time. Could be mornings if you're that kind of person. Could be late when everyone's asleep and the world finally shuts up. Could be two hours on Sunday afternoon. Doesn't matter when – what matters is that during that time, there's a wall around our attention.

Phone goes somewhere else. Email stays closed. The fifteen tabs we have open "just in case" get shut down. We're not trying to focus. We're just in a space where there's only one thing available to do, so we do it.

Some people need silence. Some people need coffee shop noise. Some need their desk to be completely clear, others work fine in organized chaos. The specifics don't matter – what matters is that we've removed the constant negotiation about whether to focus. The decision was already made yesterday, or last week, or whenever we set up the structure. Now we just show up.

One day that works, on repeat.

We don't need a perfect system that accounts for every hour of our week. We just need one block of time that actually works, then we do it again the next day, and the day after that, until it stops being a decision and starts being just what we do.

That's it. Not optimization. Not peak performance. Just: tomorrow, protect two hours. Figure out what needs to stay outside that wall, then actually keep it outside. See if our attention goes where we wanted it to go.

Because here's the thing – our attention will always go somewhere. Right now, our day is designed to let it go everywhere, which means it goes nowhere that actually matters to us.

Build one wall. See what fits inside it. Then build it again tomorrow.