1
Can you improve focus?
Yes, on the trained tasks.Scores on the games themselves rise quickly with practice. Gains on close variants are common; gains on unrelated, everyday tasks are much smaller and less consistent.
What is focus training?
Focus training is practice at keeping attention on a long, low-stimulation task,such as sustained attention, breath counting and vigilance tasks. The goal is to notice mind-wandering sooner and recover faster.
- Games
- 5
- Session
- 5–15 minutes
- Frequency
- 3–5× a week
- Levels
- Easy → hard, adaptive
- Cost
- Free, no account
SESSION BUILDER
How long have you got?
Intensity
Easy and medium games, ordered warm-up to finisher.Every focus game
5 games · 23 min if you play them all01Easy5 minBreath CounterCount breaths to nine without drifting.
ANATOMY OF THE SKILL
Attention over time
Focus is attention stretched out. Performance on long, dull tasks drops after a few minutes for almost everyone, the so-called vigilance decrement. Training here is about noticing drift sooner and coming back faster.
A week that works
Tap a day to switch it on or off · 45 min a week3–5×sessions a weekShort and frequent beats long and rare.
10–15minutes a sessionStop while you're still sharp.
4 in 5level-up ruleMove up once you score four in five.
6 wkbefore judgingGive it six weeks before deciding.
OUTSIDE THE GAME
Where you use focus every day
Three everyday moments that lean on this skill, and the game that practises the same move.
THE MOMENTTwenty pages in, you realise you haven't drifted once.
PRACTISE IT WITHSustained AttentionTHE MOMENTYou plan the steps of a hard problem before you start on the first one.
PRACTISE IT WITHTower of LondonTHE MOMENTHours of nothing, then one alert on the monitor, and you catch it.
PRACTISE IT WITHVigilance ClockFocus training, explained
2
How long does it take to see results?
Usually two to three weeks on the games, six weeks to judge.Most people improve fastest in the first few sessions as they learn the task, then more slowly. Give it about six weeks of regular practice before deciding whether it's helping you.
3
How often should you train focus?
Three to five short sessions a week.Ten to fifteen focused minutes beats an occasional hour. Spread sessions out, stop while you're still sharp, and move up a level once you score four in five.
4
Does focus training raise IQ?
Probably not by much.Large reviews find little evidence that brain-training games raise general intelligence. Expect better performance on what you practise, and use the IQ test to measure your starting point honestly.
5
How do you measure your focus?
Track your levels here and take a test for a benchmark.Your training stats show the level you reach in each game over time. For a standardised reading, the full IQ test scores four domains against other takers.
Sources
Research behind this page. Our methodology- Mackworth, N. H. (1948). The breakdown of vigilance during prolonged visual search. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1(1), 6–21.
- Robertson, I. H., et al. (1997). Oops!: performance correlates of everyday attentional failures. Neuropsychologia, 35(6), 747–758.
- Levinson, D. B., et al. (2014). A mind you can count on: validating breath counting. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1202.