One baseline.52 fair re-tests.

How do you make a new year resolution to focus better that sticks?

Make it something you practice, not something you quit, and measure it the same way every week. "Practice 25 focused minutes a day and re-test every Sunday" beats "stop scrolling", because you can do it, see it and check it, rather than only failing at it.

Resolutions get a bad reputation, but the research is kinder than the jokes. In a 2002 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Norcross and colleagues found that 46% of New Year's resolvers were continuously successful at six months, compared with 4% of people who wanted the same change but made no resolution.

A resolution isn't doomed. A vague one is.

Approach goals vs avoidance goals

A large 2020 experiment in PLOS ONE followed 1,066 people for a year. Those with approach-oriented resolutions, aiming toward something, were more successful than those with avoidance-oriented ones, aiming to stop something.

Share of participants who considered themselves successful at one year, Oscarsson et al., 2020.

Write the focus resolution as a verb you do, not a habit you don't.

Your 2027 focus plan, in four check-ins

1. Before January 1: take a baselineThe 20-second check above is a warm-up. In Attention Age, the five-minute test gives a 0–100 Attention Index across Sustained Attention, Response Control, Consistency, Distractor Handling and Object Tracking.
2. Every day: one approach goalName one task and start a 10 or 25 minute Deep Work session, both free. Or play the Daily Signal, a free 20-second challenge with the same pattern for everyone that day.
3. Every week: a fair re-testSame tasks, same scoring, any day that suits you. Changes under 5 points are called "about the same", and weekly results are always free.
4. March 31: look at the line, not the dayEvery result stays in your history, including lower ones. Early gains from familiarity are flagged, so a jump in week two doesn't fool you.

Baseline, daily practice, weekly re-test. That's the whole resolution.

Why short focus sessions, not marathons

Attention on screens is short to begin with. Gloria Mark, a professor at UC Irvine, said in a University of California interview from May 2023 that people's attention on any one screen averaged about 47 seconds in her recent studies, down from about two and a half minutes in 2004. A January plan built on 90-minute blocks asks too much, too soon. Breaks help too: a 2011 University of Illinois study in Cognition, reported by the university, found two brief breaks kept performance from declining over a 50-minute task.

Start with 25 minutes and a break. Grow from there.

What the year looks like in the app

A January, honestly

The score is a mirror. The sessions are the resolution.

Who should pick something else

• If you're worried about attention problems, see a clinician. Attention Age is an entertainment and self-practice app, not a medical, clinical or diagnostic test.
• If you want a ranking, look elsewhere. The Attention Index is not an age, a percentile or a ranking, and it is not compared with any population.
• If what you need is fewer distractions, an app blocker comes first. Practice helps less when the phone keeps winning.

Honest limit: scores usually rise with practice. That shows improvement at these tasks, not proof of broader change. One design decision: Lumen, the app's companion, grows when you show up, never because of your score.

Questions about focus resolutions