Could Writing Solve Your Broken Attention Span?

First of all, you don’t have ADHD. You just consume a lot of social media. Second thing: you’ll be IMPRESSED by what daily writing does to your brain. 

In 2015, the average social media user could focus on a single post for 12.1 seconds; by 2025, it's down to 8.25 seconds. 

I often think after long sessions of scrolling "what didn’t I learn?" And the answer almost always is: I don’t even know what I saw. 

Now with that said, can writing really fix your broken attention span? 

Yes. Students assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings demonstrated larger working memory gains 7 weeks later compared with writers assigned to a trivial topic. (PubMed). Also, Expressive writing reduces intrusive and avoidant thinking about stressful experiences, thus freeing working memory resources.(PubMed)

Moreover, only children in the expressive writing group showed working memory improvement, while all children showed decreases in depression and anxiety (ResearchGate). 

With that said, the question isn’t about whether writing fixes your "ADHD" or not (Because it does!). It’s more of: 'how can you integrate writing into your daily life'? The answer is simple. We all write for different reasons. You can write a note and delete it. You can journal. You can start creative writing projects. Regardless, just imagine that every word you write makes your attention span longer, and ready to focus for extended periods of time. In a nutshell, it’s become a necessity in this day and age, not a luxury. 

disclaimer: this is a personal blog and I don’t use AI for any of my writing.