Long term attention is a muscle you have to exercise. Turn your phone off and watch a movie, read a book, play a game, listen to an album, listen to an audiobook, watch a video essay, put together a model kit, draw or paint something. Focus on only paying attention to the thing you’re doing. Meditate for ten minutes in silence. Get coffee with a friend and turn your phone off while they’re talking. Delete shortform apps from your phone. Find a hobby that gets you in a flowstate and spend an hour or more on it. Your attention span will come back, but you have to put the work in.
The best diet is the one you’ll stick with. If you want to get into fiction but haven’t read a lot before, try finding a short story collection. “Best short stories of 2026” or something more genre if you know you like a particular genre. I like Weird Fiction and cosmic horror for example, so I might look for a Weird Fiction reader. If you don’t like a story, you can move onto the next one. Once you find a writer you like, try reading their longer form stuff.
Same thing with nonfiction. Browse through publications in subjects you know you’re interested in. If you want to learn about String Theory or ancient Rome or modern Japan, pick up something focused on that and move outward.
If handling a novels is difficult due to length, short stories are great for something long enough to tell a full story but short enough for most people to read in one sitting. Stephen King short story collections were my favorite back in the day, far more than his novels.
The problem is while I do all this… other people do not.
You can’t control other folks. And if you do, they will hate you. If you tell your phone addicted friend to put the phone away they will choose the phone over you, everytime.
Long term attention is a muscle you have to exercise. Turn your phone off and watch a movie, read a book, play a game, listen to an album, listen to an audiobook, watch a video essay, put together a model kit, draw or paint something. Focus on only paying attention to the thing you’re doing. Meditate for ten minutes in silence. Get coffee with a friend and turn your phone off while they’re talking. Delete shortform apps from your phone. Find a hobby that gets you in a flowstate and spend an hour or more on it. Your attention span will come back, but you have to put the work in.
but i have a question: which one is better to read since i am not really onto reading: Novels, Or Guides, Science Whatever
The best diet is the one you’ll stick with. If you want to get into fiction but haven’t read a lot before, try finding a short story collection. “Best short stories of 2026” or something more genre if you know you like a particular genre. I like Weird Fiction and cosmic horror for example, so I might look for a Weird Fiction reader. If you don’t like a story, you can move onto the next one. Once you find a writer you like, try reading their longer form stuff.
Same thing with nonfiction. Browse through publications in subjects you know you’re interested in. If you want to learn about String Theory or ancient Rome or modern Japan, pick up something focused on that and move outward.
If handling a novels is difficult due to length, short stories are great for something long enough to tell a full story but short enough for most people to read in one sitting. Stephen King short story collections were my favorite back in the day, far more than his novels.
The problem is while I do all this… other people do not.
You can’t control other folks. And if you do, they will hate you. If you tell your phone addicted friend to put the phone away they will choose the phone over you, everytime.