How to Focus When Reading: 15 Ways to Rebuild Attention

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If you can’t focus when reading, don’t keep dragging your eyes across the same sentence and hoping concentration will magically return.

Change how you’re engaging with the text.

Depending on the situation, as someone who has needed to assert my own focus for years, I might use any of the following strategies:

• Read the passage out loud
• Stand up and move around before trying again
• Preview another part of the book
• Create a mnemonic association
• Read while listening to the audiobook
• Take a quick note and keep going
• Stop entirely because I need food, rest or a walk

Which option works best depends on what I need from the book.

That’s important because I’ve never found one trick that solves every reading focus problem.

Instead, I’ve learned to focus by other means.

Memory techniques, imagination, movement, reading aloud, note-taking and changing locations can all give your attention another way to engage with what you’re reading.

I started developing this approach during graduate school.

Back in 2003, I was struggling with depression so badly that I could barely focus on a sentence. Looming exams made the situation worse, and I nearly dropped out.

Failure wasn’t an option, however.

So I experimented.

By combining index-card note-taking, memory techniques and better reading habits, I eventually completed my PhD. Later, I earned a major research grant and continued using these approaches while reading for my books, courses, podcast and YouTube channel.

More recently, I deliberately stress-tested many of these techniques during law school.

I even chose to read my law materials digitally whenever possible. I wanted to challenge my dependence on print and better understand what students experience when ebooks and online resources are all they have.

That experiment taught me even more about how memory techniques can help restore concentration.

I’ll show you exactly what I mean below.

How to Focus When Reading

One: Start With the Outcome

Before worrying about your attention span, ask a more useful question:

What does this reading need to produce?

Suppose I’m reading a novel just for fun and realize I’ve missed a paragraph.

I might simply keep going.

Perhaps the author will repeat the point. Maybe the detail doesn’t matter.

On the other hand, I might be reading for an exam, researching a book or preparing for a live discussion.

Now the outcome is different.

Missing an important passage has consequences, so I’m willing to tolerate more difficulty and work harder to reassert my focus.

This distinction matters because good reading does not require perfect attention to every word.

What matters is maintaining enough concentration to achieve your goal.

If your broader reading abilities need work too, start with my guide on how to improve your reading skills.

Two: Ask These Questions Before You Start Reading

A quick diagnostic can save a lot of frustration.

Ask yourself:

• Am I reading for pleasure, an exam, research or a specific project?
• What do I need to understand or remember when I’m finished?
• Am I genuinely tired, hungry or restless?
• Are notifications, tabs or other people breaking my concentration?
• Is the writing itself difficult, vague or poorly organized?
• Would changing how I’m engaging with the text help?

Your answers tell you what kind of intervention makes sense.

There is no cookie-cutter solution.

What I Do When I Notice My Mind Has Wandered

Sometimes I realize I’ve read an entire paragraph without absorbing it.

What happens next depends on the outcome I need.

If the material probably isn’t important, I may plow on.

When I need the information, I often reread the passage out loud.

Reading aloud forces me to slow down and adds another channel of attention.

Movement helps too.

Rather than glare at the same sentence for the fifth time, I’ll stand up, move around for a moment and return.

However, neither tactic helps much if the real problem is physical.

Sometimes you simply need a walk.

Other times you need something to eat or more rest.

Trying to overpower those conditions with another “productivity hack” makes little sense.

Once those basics are handled, memory techniques provide another powerful option.

Three: Focus By Other Means

Let’s talk about how memory techniques can improve concentration.

One reason I’ve spent so many years using them is that they make information more experiential.

Instead of staring passively at words, you’re engaging imagination, fantasy, association and logic.

I think of this as focusing by other means.

For example, my recent law-school experiment involved huge amounts of dry legal reading.

Believe me:

A lot of legal writing is not designed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Far from it!

So to reassert my focus, I continually paid attention to page numbers.

Why?

Because I already have numbers from 00-99 connected with people, actions and objects.

That meant an otherwise boring page number could trigger material from my PAO System.

Suddenly, there was something else for my mind to do.

The technique helped me reassert my attention while also exercising recall.

Digital reading made the process more cumbersome at times. Some ebooks required me to scroll around before I could even locate the page number.

I did it anyway.

The added engagement was worth the effort.

Four: Optimize Your Mnemonic Images to Snap Your Attention Back

Here’s an even simpler example.

Years ago, the Thor Technique occurred to me spontaneously while reading.

It builds on an old principle from memory training: use vivid mental imagery to make otherwise ordinary information impossible to ignore.

Whenever I notice my attention wandering, I can find the word “the” on the page.

Then I imagine Thor smashing his hammer down on it.

The imagined impact is loud, dynamic and funny.

Suddenly, I’m looking at the page again.

That’s the point.

You don’t have to use Thor. The broader principle is to use vigorous mnemonic imagery to interrupt passive reading and reassert deliberate attention.

Five: Don’t Try to Memorize Everything You Read

There’s an important warning here.

I do not suggest converting every sentence into a mnemonic.

In fact, when it comes to deliberate memorization, less is more.

Most of the time, I read first.

Then I identify what matters.

Notes come next, followed by organization and deliberate memorization when necessary.

That’s the realistic process I teach in my guide on how to memorize a textbook.

A Memory Palace usually enters my process after I’ve decided which information deserves to be remembered.

Nevertheless, mnemonic thinking can improve the reading experience long before formal memorization begins.

That’s the distinction.

Memory techniques can help you focus without requiring you to memorize everything.

Six: Build a Mental Map Before You Read From Beginning to End

Another powerful way to increase reading focus is to stop assuming every nonfiction book must be read linearly.

Except with novels, I rarely start on page one and march obediently to the final page.

Instead, I usually explore the book first.

My sequence often looks something like this:

1. Check the index
2. Visit passages connected to topics or people I already know
3. Read the conclusion
4. Study the table of contents
5. Read whichever chapter looks most interesting
6. Check the colophon and other publication information
7. Then go back toward the beginning

This approach gives me a mental map.

It also creates anticipation.

During law school, for example, I spotted Jacques Derrida in an index.

Because I’d studied Derrida before, I immediately went to the relevant passage.

My focus increased at once.

Previous knowledge gave me something to connect with.

In other words, the name became an attention magnet.

From there, the surrounding material had more context.

Of course, not every book gives you the same options. Many of my assigned law books didn’t have conclusions in the conventional sense. Some of my secondary sources for essays did.

You adapt.

Seven: Use the Picture Walk Method

Pictures, charts and diagrams can provide the same kind of advance structure.

Before reading a chapter, quickly look through it for visual material.

Barbara Oakley discusses this kind of picture walk in Learning How to Learn.

Even discovering that there are no images can be useful.

At least you know a wall of text is coming.

Now you can prepare accordingly.

Eight: Don’t Blame Yourself When the Writing Is the Problem

People who can’t focus often assume something is wrong with them.

Sometimes their habits do need work.

However, many books are simply not as well written as they could be.

One of my Magnetic Memory Method students once came to me because he was struggling with reading comprehension.

The book giving him trouble was One Nation Under God by James Moore.

In one sense, the prose was clean. I didn’t notice obvious typos.

Clarity was another matter.

For example, Moore says that “nothing in human experience compares to prayer.”

What exactly does that mean?

Prayer compares with all kinds of human activities.

Confession comes to mind.

So does talking with a psychoanalyst, using mantras, engaging in self-talk and many other practices.

Moore also uses phrases like “by any objective measure” without immediately giving readers a concrete measure.

As a result, the reader has little to picture.

It’s not until later that he introduces a vivid example involving people gathering in Yankee Stadium to pray after the 9/11 attacks.

Suddenly, there’s something concrete to think about.

Nine: Translate Vague Writing Into Something You Can Experience

When writing gets vague, I perform a kind of real-time translation.

I ask:

• What would make this claim concrete?
• What would it look like?
• Which example would let me experience the author’s point?

For Moore’s opening, I found myself imagining people in Yankee Stadium after 9/11, dealing with anger, patriotism, fear and the desire for revenge while using prayer to process those emotions.

Now I have something to think about.

The writing has become experiential.

That translation process demands attention, but it also creates attention.

I’ve had decades of practice reading multiple forms of literature, and I’ve written many books myself. So this process has become fairly natural for me.

You can practice it too.

Read what the author says.

Then make it concrete.

Ten: Interrogate the Author Without Becoming Hostile

At university, one of my favorite reading concepts was the hermeneutics of suspicion.

I don’t carry all the political baggage sometimes attached to this approach.

The useful part is simple:

• Read skeptically.
• Ask what the author really means.
• Challenge vague generalizations.

At the same time, read with enough faith to assume the author is trying to communicate something worthwhile.

Suspicion without patience becomes tedious.

Patience without questioning becomes passive.

Balancing the two keeps reading active.

Eleven: Change the Input When You Can’t Concentrate

Sometimes the best way to focus is to change the sensory experience.

Reading aloud is one example.

Combining audio and text is another.

During graduate school, I frequently listened to audiobooks while following along in physical books.

James Joyce’s Ulysses was one of the most important examples.

At the time, it was the hardest text I’d encountered.

I eventually tracked down an audiobook version on cassette through an interlibrary loan during the early days of the Internet.

Then I listened while reading the physical book.

Every page demanded concentration.

Yet combining my eyes and ears made the task far more manageable.

When I finally finished, I remember shouting:

“I know Modernism!”

That strategy was not merely something I used during a difficult period decades ago.

I still use it.

More recently, I read Plato’s Gorgias for an online course with live discussions.

Following the audio while reading increased my engagement considerably.

Ideas jumped out.

I paused, captured observations on index cards and later brought them into the live conversation.

Because I’d focused closely enough to notice those points, other participants could respond to them.

That feedback made the reading even more valuable.

So the sequence wasn’t merely:

Reading = concentration.

After improvement, the process became:

Reading + attention + observation + note-taking + discussion + feedback = concentration.

That’s what good focus is for.

Note: Digital Reading May Require More Deliberate Effort

My law-school experiment also changed how I think about ebooks.

I deliberately chose digital materials whenever possible because many students don’t have the luxury of selecting print.

Personally, I find print easier.

On screens, I noticed that I needed to read aloud more frequently.

Finding page numbers also required extra scrolling in some books.

Still, the same principles worked.

I could use page numbers mnemonically, extract notes and continue engaging with the material.

You don’t need to pretend digital reading feels exactly like print.

Instead, notice what the medium takes away and deliberately put that engagement back.

Twelve: Optimize Where and When You Read

Before blaming your attention span, look at where and when you’re reading.

These factors are enormous.

During graduate school, I regularly changed locations.

I’d work at a proper desk with good lighting. Then I might spend 60-90 minutes at the Metro Reference Library before moving to Robarts Library.

Changing locations gave me enough novelty to feel refreshed without constantly reaching for a phone.

I still use this approach.

Depending on the day, I’ll read in different parts of my apartment, outside, at the beach or in cafes.

Years ago, I was reading at one of my regular outdoor spots when it suddenly started raining.

People crowded under the umbrella covering my picnic table.

No problem.

I left.

Because I already had other reading locations in mind, there was no reason to sit there fighting an environment that had stopped working.

Before your next serious reading session, consider:

• Scheduling the reading when your energy is appropriate
• Telling other people you don’t want to be interrupted
• Turning off unnecessary notifications
• Closing irrelevant browser tabs
• Using a separate window for your reading material
• Keeping paper nearby for notes
• Choosing a quieter location when possible
• Having another location available if conditions change

These steps aren’t glamorous.

They work because you stop asking your attention to fight battles that don’t need to exist.

What About Short-Form Video and Your Attention Span?

There’s also good reason to pay attention to your digital habits.

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis published in Psychological Bulletin examined 71 studies involving 98,299 participants.

Greater short-form video use was associated with poorer cognitive performance, particularly in attention and inhibitory control.

Notice my wording:

Associated with.

The study does not prove that watching short videos permanently destroys your ability to read.

Still, if you spend hours switching rapidly between tiny bursts of information, I wouldn’t ignore the possibility that your habits and your reading experience are related.

Reducing unnecessary digital novelty gives sustained attention more room to operate.

Thirteen: Use the Pinch Technique to Make Progress Physical

Another focus technique I developed is embarrassingly simple.

I call it the Pinch Technique.

Before reading a chapter, I look at exactly how many pages it contains.

Then I physically pinch that group of pages between my fingers while I read.

Yes, it sounds silly.

I’ve used it for years anyway.

Seeing and feeling the number of pages remaining gives progress a physical dimension.

There’s no vague mystery about how much longer the chapter will last.

You can feel the target shrinking.

In my experience, the Pinch Technique works with many kinds of books.

However, it won’t solve unrelated irritations.

If you desperately need a walk, food or rest, pinching pages isn’t going to change that.

Use techniques for the problems they can actually solve.

Fourteen: Interleave Instead of Scheduling an Interruption

One popular focus method I’ve never particularly liked is the Pomodoro Technique.

My objection is straightforward.

If I’m concentrating successfully, why would I tell a digital device to interrupt me?

I’d rather notice when my attention is actually flagging.

Then I can stand up, stretch or switch intelligently to another useful reading or study task.

This approach lets me use interleaving instead of stopping just because an alarm says a predetermined number of minutes has passed.

For example, I might feel as though I’ve been reading for 40 minutes.

Then I check the time and discover that only 14 minutes have passed.

Why interrupt that productive state?

Eventually, attention will weaken naturally.

At that point, I’ll move, stretch or rotate into another useful activity.

You’re still protecting the study session.

You’re simply changing what you’re doing within it.

Fifteen: Take Notes Without Turning Reading Into Constant Studying

Note-taking can improve focus dramatically.

It can also destroy reading flow if you try to capture everything.

My solution is batching.

While reading, I extract ideas onto index cards.

Crucially, I also record enough source information to find the passage again.

That usually includes:

• The author’s name
• The book title
• The page number
• The key idea, quotation or paraphrase

Why be so specific?

Because keywords aren’t always evocative enough months or years later.

Perhaps I want to fact-check my paraphrase.

Maybe I need to verify that I copied a quotation correctly.

Sometimes I simply want to return to the surrounding argument.

Source details let me get back there quickly.

My broader note-taking strategies go much deeper, but the focus principle is simple:

Capture enough to preserve the idea, then keep reading.

Organization and deliberate memorization can happen later.

That separation keeps my reading streamlined.

Knowing Where Information Lives Is Part of Memory

People sometimes think remembering means carrying every nuance of a book around in your head.

I disagree.

During courses and exams, I pay close attention to assignment requirements.

Those requirements help determine which main points deserve memorization.

I’ll also remember information I find especially interesting or predict will become useful.

Every nuance?

Impossible.

And usually pointless.

However, remembering authors, titles and enough context to know where information lives can be extremely valuable.

That knowledge makes later research faster.

It also improves future reading focus because new ideas have somewhere to connect.

Confidence matters here.

When I know I’ll be able to relocate an important source, I’m less tempted to stop constantly and over-process every sentence.

If retention is your main challenge rather than concentration, my separate guide explains how to remember what you read in much greater detail.

Can Reading Rebuild Your Ability to Focus?

I believe people can restore their intention.

As I’m updating this article in 2026, long-form reading has even become part of a social-media conversation about recovering attention.

One widely shared example involved a reader describing how reading The Count of Monte Cristo helped rebuild his attention span.

Similar discussions have appeared around challenging scholarly books.

That’s encouraging.

But let’s keep anecdote and evidence separate.

No single giant novel has been scientifically established as a cure for a fragmented attention span.

The more useful idea is that sustained reading gives you an opportunity to practice sustained reading.

Over time, practice matters.

At the same time, don’t reduce the solution to “read longer books.”

Your environment matters.

So does your purpose.

Engagement matters.

Prior knowledge, note-taking, memory and the difficulty of the writing all play roles too.

Research into reading-strategy interventions also suggests that there isn’t necessarily one universally superior tactic. A Bayesian network meta-analysis of 52 studies found that different reading strategy combinations produced different results.

That research involved students with reading difficulties, so I wouldn’t stretch its findings into a universal law about adult concentration.

Still, it supports a principle I’ve found repeatedly useful:

Choose strategies that fit the reading problem instead of worshipping one technique.

How to Focus on Reading for the Next 20 Minutes

If you’ve found this article because you need to focus right now, don’t try all of these techniques at once.

Instead, stack a few of them together to get started more simply.

First, decide what you need from the next reading session.

Maybe it’s one argument.

Perhaps you need three pages.

For an exam, you might need to identify the main points from one section.

Next, remove the easiest external interruptions.

Put the phone somewhere inconvenient.

Close unrelated tabs.

Choose a place where you have a reasonable chance of concentrating.

Then start reading.

When your focus slips, don’t immediately keep rereading in exactly the same way.

• Change something.
• Read the passage aloud.
• Stand up briefly.
• Make one mnemonic association.
• Look at the index or conclusion to restore context.
• If audio is available, combine listening with the text.
• When an important idea appears, capture it with the page number and source.

Then continue.

Should your attention genuinely collapse, ask whether you need movement, food, rest or a switch to another useful task.

That’s a much better approach than blaming yourself and grinding against the same paragraph indefinitely.

My Final Word on How to Focus When Reading

Concentration is something you can practice.

More importantly, reading focus does not have to come from brute force.

You can focus by other means.

Sometimes that means changing locations.

At other times, you need to read aloud, preview the book, listen while reading or make the information more concrete.

Memory techniques add another level.

They give your imagination and associative thinking something active to do.

Just don’t confuse that with trying to memorize everything.

Selectivity matters.

During my PhD, my research career, decades of reading and my recent law-school experiment, I’ve repeatedly found that the desired outcome should determine how hard I fight for focus and which techniques I use.

The same principle can work for you.

Pay attention to what the reading needs to accomplish.

Then build a stack of strategies appropriate to that task.

If you’d like to strengthen the memory side of the equation too, grab my free Memory Improvement Kit:

The video course gives you four focused lessons plus three PDFs with exercises you can use to start improving your memory.

And yes…

That means you’ll have something else worthwhile to read.