Attention span

#1Last night’s sleep[1, 2]≈−15%*

The best-evidenced attention factor there is.

How much sleep did you get last night?

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#2Time on task without a rest[3]≈−14%*

Vigilance decays with time on task: across the classic vigilance literature, sensitivity to the signal drops by d ≈ 0.71 over a watch [3], and the decline starts within the first 20 to 30 minutes.

How long do you usually push through a single block of focused work before any real break?

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#3Alcohol on board[4, 5]≈−14%*

Vigilance is one of the first things alcohol takes: impairment is detectable from about 0.02 to 0.03% blood alcohol [4], and in calibration studies of psychomotor vigilance the effect reaches ES ≈ 0.29 at 0.5 g/L (about 0.05%) and ≈ 0.70 at 0.8 g/L (about 0.08%, Jongen et al. [5]).

Any alcohol in the last few hours?

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#4Caffeine after a short night[6]≈+12%*

Caffeine does far more for a sleep-deprived brain than a rested one: after sleep loss it restored attention response speed by g 0.86 and accuracy by g 0.68, rising with dose [6].

How much caffeine so far today? (A coffee is roughly 100 mg, an energy drink 80 to 200.)

Same number, 2 answers: The meta-analysis reports one pooled effect that rises with dose rather than separate 200 and 400 mg figures, and the index caps the rescue at +12 either way, so both doses share it

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#5Indoor air and ventilation[7, 8, 9]≈−11%

The one factor here with study-native percentages, though on complex cognitive batteries rather than a pure vigilance task.

How is the air where you are working?

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#6Hydration[10]≈−10%*

Losing about 2% of body mass in water is where attention measurably suffers: in Wittbrodt and Millard-Stafford’s meta-analysis, overall cognition fell by ES −0.21 and attention by ES −0.52, worse above the 2% mark.

How hydrated are you right now?

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#7Sleep quality this week[1, 2]≈−8%*

A week of poor sleep or an insomnia stretch hurts attention in the same direction as one short night, and the days stack: Lowe et al. [1] found cumulative days of restriction moderate the effect, and the same pooled restriction figure (sustained attention g −0.41 across 61 studies, protocols from one night to a week) is the nearest number the literature prints for a poor week, so it is converted here and starred; OK is placed halfway.

How has your sleep been over the past week?

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#8ADHD and stimulant treatment[11, 12]≈+8%*

Untreated ADHD is a large gap on continuous-performance tasks (more omissions and commissions, Losier et al. [11]), but the size depends on the task, so this pill measures medication against your own untreated baseline rather than against people without ADHD.

Do you have ADHD, and is it treated?

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#9Background noise and speech[13, 14]≈−7%*

Noise hurts performance by g ≈ −0.31 overall, and the kind matters: speech costs g ≈ −0.43, non-speech noise g ≈ −0.16 [13].

What can you hear where you are working?

Same number, 2 answers: The meta-analysis pools intelligible speech without a separate open-plan figure; open-plan chatter is likely worse, but no number exists for it, so both answers share the speech figure

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#10Nicotine[15]≈+7%*

An acute dose of nicotine sharpens alerting attention, accuracy and reaction time each by g ≈ 0.34 [15].

Do you smoke?

Same number, 2 answers: The meta-analysis pools acute nicotine doses rather than light versus heavy smokers, so both answers share the one alerting figure

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#11Background music[14]≈−7%*

Systematic reviews put the overall effect of background music on cognition at about zero, with the harms concentrated on memory, language and difficult tasks, and lyrics the most disruptive; a small positive in some learning studies (d ≈ 0.31) is not a sustained-attention result.

Any music while you work?

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#12Mindfulness practice[16, 17]≈+6%*

Across 111 randomized trials, mindfulness-based programmes improved sustained attention among other cognitive domains, with effects in the g ≈ 0.26 to 0.64 band against waitlists and smaller (g ≈ 0.19 to 0.39) against active controls [16]; an earlier attention-specific meta-analysis found a smaller g ≈ 0.17 [17].

Do you have a regular relaxation or mindfulness practice?

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#13Action video game training[18]≈+6%*

Training on action video games transfers to top-down attentional control: g ≈ 0.31 across intervention studies, and g ≈ 0.62 in cross-sectional comparisons of habitual players, which carry selection confounds [18].

How much have you played action video games (shooters, fast-paced action)?

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#14Caffeine today, rested[19]≈+5%*

In rested, healthy adults across 31 trials and 1,455 people, caffeine improved attention accuracy by g 0.27 and reaction time by g 0.28.

How much caffeine so far today? (A coffee is roughly 100 mg, an energy drink 80 to 200.)

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#15Acute stress right now[20]≈−5%*

Acute stress hits executive control more clearly than raw vigilance: in Shields, Sazma and Yonelinas’s meta-analysis, working memory fell by g ≈ −0.20, cognitive flexibility by g ≈ −0.30 and cognitive inhibition by g ≈ −0.21 (their separate SART-type response-inhibition figure actually ran positive, g ≈ +0.30, so it is not used here).

How stressed are you right now, in this hour?

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#16Where the phone is[21]≈−5%*

The “brain drain” finding: a silent phone on the desk versus in another room reduced working-memory span and fluid capacity by a small amount (ηp² ≈ 0.014 to 0.026, Ward et al. [21], d ≈ 0.24 to 0.33), while the sustained-attention Go/No-Go task showed nothing, and replications are mixed.

While you work, where is your phone (silent, not buzzing)?

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#17Room temperature[22, 23]≈−4%

Office temperature studies find little change in performance below about 21 °C, and slower, less accurate work above about 25 °C, especially after an hour and on demanding tasks (2024 office meta-analysis).

How warm is the room you are working in?

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#18Exercise today[24, 25, 26]≈+3%*

A single bout of moderate aerobic exercise lifts cognition for the following hours: overall g ≈ 0.13 in a Bayesian meta-analysis of young adults [24], with executive-timing measures at g ≈ 0.35 [25]; chronic aerobic programmes move attention and processing by g ≈ 0.16 [26].

Any exercise so far today?

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#19Time in nature today[27, 28, 29]≈+3%*

Attention restoration theory holds up better for working memory and attentional control than for classic vigilance: nature exposure improved working memory by g ≈ 0.16 and cognitive flexibility similarly [27], while sustained-attention tasks like the SART were often null [28].

Any time in green space today?

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#20Media multitasking habit[30, 31]≈−3%*

Heavy media multitaskers report worse attention, and a decade of studies pooled gives a small association with cognitive control (z ≈ 0.14) and sustained attention (z ≈ 0.19), driven by self-report: on performance-based tasks the pooled link is a small d ≈ 0.17 for distractibility and crosses zero for some sustained-attention pools [30, 31].

How often do you have several media streams going at once (chat plus video plus work)?

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#21Breaks in a long block[32, 3]≈+2%*

Micro-breaks reliably restore vigour (d = 0.36) and cut fatigue (d = −0.35), but the pooled effect on performance was small and not significant (d = 0.16), better on less demanding tasks and with longer breaks [32].

In a long stretch of work, what do your breaks look like?

Same number, 2 answers: The micro-break meta-analysis is the only pooled performance number; See et al. [3] finds complete rest holds vigilance best but prints no %, so both kinds of break share the micro-break figure

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#22Phone notifications[33, 34]

You do not have to answer a notification for it to cost you: merely hearing one raised commission errors and anticipatory responses on a sustained-attention task [33], and interruptions of under three seconds double to triple sequence errors on the task you return to [34].

Your phone during focused work: what do notifications do?

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#23Breakfast versus fasting[35, 36, 37, 38]

Skipping a meal does not measurably dent attention in healthy adults: across 222 effect sizes and 3,484 people, a median 12 hours fasted versus fed came out at g 0.02 (95% CrI −0.05 to 0.10, Bamberg and Moreau [35]), with only modest dips for longer fasts and younger adults.

What have you eaten today?

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#24Screens late last night[39, 40, 41]

Bright, blue-enriched light late delays and suppresses melatonin and screen use goes with poorer sleep, but the next-day attention evidence is thin and inconsistent, and a meta-analysis of single evening exposures found no average change in sleep architecture.

What does the last half hour before bed look like, light-wise?

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