Can You Focus Beyond 7 Minutes?
The typical attention span of humans lasts about 7 minutes before the mind starts to wander away.
Research says that our mind cannot focus beyond 7 minutes. At the most, they can concentrate for 10 minutes. Beyond this, the human mind fundamentally stops comprehending anything. But the question then arises, is the world-conquering human brain so weak? If the brain is incapable of focusing on learning for more than 7 minutes, then how can it focus on a movie for 3 hours?
A Weird Different World
If the human mind could not focus beyond 7 mins, many things would be drastically different.
Movies would have intervals every 7 mins. Chess champions who plan their next move for hours would now have to take a break every 7 minutes.
In the examination hall, students would go on breaks every 7 minutes.
The Truth about 7 mins
Let’s suppose you’re forced to watch a bad movie or a movie in a foreign language. How long can you tolerate it? Suppose you are playing a game you dislike, how long can you bear it?
You go to a stand-up comedy show, but you are bored in 7 minutes, what does it indicate? On the contrary, if you lose track of time and focus beyond 7 minutes, what does THAT mean?
You get the point.
The brain fails to focus more than 7 minutes on boring, non-relevant things. Not otherwise.
That’s why the movie and gaming industry spend crores of rupees and work months/years to create movies and games that we enjoy and can focus on for hours together. Now think, if classroom lectures were conducted similarly? Would students then learn more and be able to focus better? Let’s find out.
What goes into preparing a lecture for students?
In the past few decades, job seekers haven’t preferred the education sector due to low salaries and declining respect (read). Also, in many regions teaching is considered merely about knowing the subject. However, the truth is fast revealing itself. Concerned schools, parents, guardians have understood the importance of proper teaching styles while also recognising that teaching requires a deep understanding of the psychology of students (read).
Due to the lack of good teachers and the absence of proper teaching techniques, teaching quality in our country is mostly ordinary. So, when one tests the human brain abilities with sub-standard teaching methods, 7-minutes is all one can get.
It’s similar to using a faulty thermometer to test body temperature.
In Conclusion
If we cannot engage a student for more than 7 minutes, let us not blame the human brain. Someone rightly said, if a student is sleeping, it is the system that needs to wake up.
When you carry out a task with genuine enthusiasm, you hate interruptions. Ask any good coder, painter or musician. Think about it, you are enjoying a movie but a break comes every 7 minutes, what do you feel? The same theory holds for learning, but only if it’s done the right way.
If focussed efforts are put in, with the right learning technique and a powerful lesson plan, students learn for a longer duration without difficulty. So, don’t let the 7-minute concentration be your excuse next time.
To read more about how you can improve your child’s concentration & attention skills, read here.
