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If you guys are anything like the readers of Slate.com, 38 percent of you are already gone. You couldn't stay focused long enough to engage with this post at all. Is it time to scroll

to see more? _Too much effort, too busy, meh, gotta go, HEY LOOK, SOMETHING SHINY!!!_ — another 5 percent of you just vanished. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts

behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter,

get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. Yes,

attention spans are that bad. Now I'm wondering if I should have made this post shorter. Cal Newport, Georgetown professor and expert on expertise, thinks the ability to stay focused

will be the superpower of the 21st century. Those who can sit in a chair, undistracted for hours, mastering subjects, and creating things will rule the world — while the rest of us

frantically and futilely try to keep up with texts, tweets, and other incessant interruptions. HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR ATTENTION SPAN? HERE ARE FIVE TIPS: A free daily email with the

biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com 1. STRESS MAKES YOU FRAZZLED AND STUPID Reducing stress improves your ability to stay focused. (Here's more on

reducing stress.) 2. GIVE IT YOUR BEST HOURS Want to insure you can focus? Give whatever is most important your prime hours, when you have the most energy. As the _The Power of Full

Engagement_ says, "Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance." Night owl or morning lark? Work on important things when you're not depleted.

(Here's more on using your prime hours wisely.) 3. DEDICATE TIME If it's important, give a project its own exclusive block of time. This gives you permission to work on it and

ignore other things. You stress less about work when you have a plan. Believe it or not, worry affects you less when you schedule a time to worry: (Here's more on using time wisely.) 4.

ONE THING AT A TIME Put aside the distractions and do one thing at a time. Your brain was never designed to multitask well. Across the board, multitasking lowers productivity. But if

multitasking doesn't work, why do you do it so often? It makes you more emotionally satisfied as it makes you less productive: (Here's more on productivity.) 5. MEDITATION IS

WEIGHT LIFTING FOR YOUR ATTENTION SPAN Meditation doesn't just chill you out; if your attention span is a muscle, meditation is exercise: (Here's more on meditation–including how

to do it.) WOW! Congratulations on finishing this post. (Then again, if you finished it, maybe you're not the type who needed help…) STILL STRUGGLING TO STAY FOCUSED? FOR MORE TIPS FROM

FOCUS-MASTER CAL NEWPORT, SIGN UP FOR MY FREE WEEKLY UPDATE VIA EMAIL HERE. MORE FROM BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE…