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Teenagers’ concentration falters, on average, every 90 seconds. Something as simple as an audible notification can take focus away from the task. When people are distracted, it takes 23 minutes to return to that previous level of focus. In schools, this means that in a 55-minute class period, multiple distractions across the classroom create the nearly impossible task of staying on topic and focused. “When you switch between two things, you lose cognitive energy and it takes longer to achieve deep focus,” the school psychologist said. Rebecca Branstetter. Teenagers “don’t realize that multitasking is neurologically impossible.”
Branstetter recently spoke at Learning and the Brain: Teaching Engaged Minds Conference in San Francisco, where I cited the above statistics from the book Stolen focus By Johann Hari. When Branstetter asked about challenges related to screens in the classroom, the audience of teachers exclaimed familiar student behaviors, including:
- Playing games during class,
- Denying that their phone was off when it was visible and
- You appear tired from scrolling all night.
These distractions are not only frustrating for teachers, but research shows that they reduce cognitive efficiency. Since social media is designed to keep users engaged for long periods of time, and Children and teens are still learning executive function skillsShe said it’s important for parents and teachers to set boundaries and act as technology mentors. “Willpower alone is not enough. You have to need that environment to set the stage for how to help kids prioritize and focus.” In her talk and a follow-up interview with MindShift, Branstetter offered 10 tips and tricks to help boost teens’ executive function skills and manage screen time.
1. See technology as a tool
Technology is like a hammer, Branstetter said. “It’s a tool, and you can use it to create beautiful things and you can use it to destroy things. It depends on how you use it.” Adults can help empower children to see technology as a tool by encouraging them to find an app or tech tool that addresses a specific challenge they face. If a teen has anxiety, for example, they could test out some meditation apps and report it to an adult.
Branstetter also noted that there are apps that block the most searched websites on the device for a period of time, which can be helpful for a student who has difficulty focusing on tasks for long periods of time.
2. Trainer by starting the task
Starting a mission is one of the big things Executive function skills Interrupted by technology and cell phone use, according to Branstetter. Adults may assume that stopping a previous task is a clear precursor to starting a new task, but children and adolescents may need more explicit instructions to develop that sequencing habit. This can look like you asking students what to do to start a particular task. Students might suggest that the phones need to go away and that they need to pull out the materials needed to perform the new task at hand. According to Branstetter, this is an important practice in self-awareness.
3. Explore the emotions behind your phone distraction
Impulse control is another executive function skill that adolescents develop. If a student is having trouble refraining from looking at their phone when starting a new task, this can help encourage quick mindful thinking. An adult could ask a teenager: “What makes you use your phone?” And suggest some feelings they might empathize with, such as anxiety or boredom. Then the adult and teen can quickly create a plan to stop using the phone at that moment and refocus on the more urgent task.
4. Try the hair tie trick or airplane mode
Placing a hair tie over the front camera prevents the smartphone’s facial recognition from unlocking the phone easily. Branstetter recommended guiding teens to use that moment when the phone isn’t unlocked to do a mental check-in: “Why am I checking this? How am I feeling?” If the necktie method doesn’t work, Branstetter suggested teaching teens to use airplane mode during times when phone distraction isn’t welcome.
5. Benefit from artificial intelligence
There are also some useful AI tools for teens who may have difficulty breaking down and completing tasks. Branstetter recommended Sprite Toolswhich requires a prompt such as “I must write a five-page paper on Mesopotamia,” and creating a checklist containing the steps the student might need to take to complete the assignment.
6. Use the focus timer
the Pomodoro technique, which uses 25-minute bursts of time with breaks in between, has been a useful tool for the teens Branstetter works with. Also recommended forest, which can be downloaded as a smartphone app or used as a Chrome extension. The Forest app helps users track their focus time with a visual reminder to focus as the tree slowly grows on the screen, as well as real-world incentives. When the user completes a certain amount of focus time, without distraction, a real tree is planted through Forest’s app partner, Trees For The Future.
7. Create a technical contract
Technical agreements Or contracts, allowing teachers or parents to do so Collaborate with youth on expectations For technology. One aspect of a technology agreement can be to identify where technology “hot spots” and “cold spots” are located in the classroom or home. By determining in advance where technology is expected to be used or not used, students have a better opportunity to apply the executive and proactive thinking skills they have learned. It can be technical agreements Review and modify it Whenever needed, Branstetter said.
8. Keep a technology diary
Another exercise that parents and teachers may find helpful when it comes to making teens aware of their own habits, Branstetter said, is to have them create a log of their daily activities. For example, students can write out a schedule for their day and determine how much time they spend outside, being physically active, socializing, having fun, focusing, and downtime without using technology. Branstetter said that by having children take the time to think about their own data and figure out how much time during their day they spend doing certain activities, moments of imbalance become very clear.
9. Encouraging future thinking
Future planning is It is also a learned executive function skill. “Because motivation is the ability to see positive feelings for the future…we need to help kids draw a diagram of the future,” Branstetter said. Helping students envision what it might look and feel like in the future to complete a task will help them think proactively.
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