How the score is calculated.
Distraction Meter is a structured self-check, not a validated psychological test. This page shows exactly what it does with your answers, so you can judge how much weight to give the result.
What you answer
First, four questions about your day: what you need focus for, where you do it, how much focused time you'd like, and how long you can usually stay with one task. They shape the picture of your hour and the PRO plan, not the score.
Then twenty statements in five areas. For each, you say how often it was true over the last two weeks: Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Often or Almost always (0 to 4 points). In the set-up area the statements describe things that protect your focus, so they count in reverse: "Never" there is the biggest leak.
| Statement | Scoring |
|---|---|
| Phone pull · weight 25% | |
| I pick up my phone without deciding to, and only notice once it's in my hand. | 0 to 4 |
| Notifications (sounds, buzzes, banners) reach me while I'm trying to concentrate. | 0 to 4 |
| My phone is within reach and in sight while I work or study. | 0 to 4 |
| I check messages, news or social media "for a second" and lose more than ten minutes. | 0 to 4 |
| Other people · weight 20% | |
| Someone interrupts me in person, by chat or by phone while I'm in the middle of something. | 0 to 4 |
| I feel I have to answer messages or emails quickly, even when it breaks my work. | 0 to 4 |
| Noise or movement around me pulls my attention away. | 0 to 4 |
| Meetings, errands or chores chop my day into pieces too short for real work. | 0 to 4 |
| Your own switching · weight 25% | |
| I switch to another task or tab before finishing what I was doing. | 0 to 4 |
| I keep several things open at once and jump between them. | 0 to 4 |
| When a task gets hard or boring, I look for something else to do. | 0 to 4 |
| After an interruption, it takes me a long time to get back into what I was doing. | 0 to 4 |
| Energy and mind · weight 15% | |
| I sleep less than I need, or wake up tired. | 0 to 4 |
| Worries or unrelated thoughts run through my head while I try to work. | 0 to 4 |
| By early afternoon my concentration is used up. | 0 to 4 |
| I feel too stressed or rushed to settle into one thing. | 0 to 4 |
| Set-up gaps · weight 15% | |
| Before I start, I know the one thing I want to get done. | 4 to 0 (reversed) |
| I block time for focused work, and the people around me know it. | 4 to 0 (reversed) |
| I silence or pause notifications while I focus. | 4 to 0 (reversed) |
| I take short breaks on purpose, before I'm exhausted. | 4 to 0 (reversed) |
Your why, and your first step (not scored)
The check starts and ends with you, not with the score. Lasting change is more likely when people act for reasons they hold themselves, rather than because they are told to (Ryan & Deci, 2000). So we ask what you would want more focus for (up to two options, or your own words, or skip), invite you to describe a good day in your own words, and ask how much it matters to you, from 0 to 10. Every one of these can be skipped.
The importance question, and the follow-up straight after it ("Why a 7, and not a 4?"), come from motivational interviewing, a counselling approach that helps people put their own reasons for change into words (Miller & Rollnick, 2013). Your answer is reflected back in the result. A low number is respected: with 3 or less, the result offers ideas without asking you to choose, and the plan says to take only what feels useful.
At the end you choose one of three first steps for your biggest leak (or your second, if you prefer), turn it into an if-then plan, and say how sure you are that you'll do it. Below 7, the result asks what would move it two points higher, and offers a smaller version or lets you change it yourself; then it asks again. None of this changes the score. If you ask us to remember your step, a check at least 12 hours later begins by asking how it went ("I haven't had the chance yet" is an answer too).
From answers to numbers
Each area becomes a number from 0 to 100: the points you gave, divided by the most points possible in that area. The overall distraction score is a weighted average of the five areas:
distraction = 0.25 × phone + 0.2 × people + 0.25 × switching + 0.15 × energy + 0.15 × set-up gaps
Phone and your own switching weigh most, because they are the two leaks that are both very common and most within your control. Energy and set-up weigh less in the score, but the result still points to them when they are your biggest leak. These weights are our reasoned choice, informed by the research on Sources; they are not fitted to outcome data.
| Band | Score | What the result says |
|---|---|---|
| Steady | 0–24 | Your attention mostly holds. |
| Fraying | 25–44 | Your attention is fraying at the edges. |
| Leaking | 45–64 | Your focus is leaking. |
| Scattered | 65–100 | Your attention is in pieces. |
Your biggest leak is the area with the highest number. If two areas tie, the one with the larger weight comes first; if the weights are equal too, the order is phone, people, switching, energy, set-up.
The picture of your hour
The thread on your result is drawn from your own answer to "how long can you usually stay with one task". It's an illustration of what you told us, not a measurement of your time. The number of pings in the gaps grows with your phone, people and switching scores.
| Longest stretch | Pieces in the drawn hour | PRO focus block, week 1 |
|---|---|---|
| under 5 minutes | 12 | 10 min |
| 5 to 15 minutes | 6 | 20 min |
| 15 to 30 minutes | 3 | 30 min |
| 30 to 60 minutes | 2 | 45 min |
| over an hour | 1 | 60 min |
Two questions that are not scored
In the energy step we ask how often, over the last two weeks, you felt so low, anxious or exhausted that focusing felt impossible, and whether attention difficulties have been with you since childhood. They don't change the score. If you answer "on most days" or "nearly every day" to the first, the result says first that this deserves care and points to help. If you answer "yes" to the second, the result mentions that an assessment by a doctor or psychologist can help. The meter can't diagnose ADHD, depression or anything else.
The free result and the PRO plan
The free result shows your score, all five areas, your biggest leak, three concrete things to try for it and why it matters. It stands on its own.
The PRO plan opens with your own reasons, starts week 1 with the step you chose, and gives each week a four-line plan: what you want, the best outcome, the obstacle, and what you'll do when it shows up. This structure, called mental contrasting with implementation intentions (WOOP), helped people reach their goals across many studies (Wang et al., 2021).
The PRO plan is written on your device when you ask for it (when you click to get or open it, or paste a key). It follows fixed rules. Each of the twenty statements has one matching action. Going from your biggest leak down, and only for areas scoring 25 or more, the plan picks the actions for the statements you marked as real leaks (Often or Almost always, or Never or Rarely for protective ones); if an area has none, it uses the statements you marked Sometimes; if there are none of those either, the area is skipped. Week 1 starts with the step you chose in the result (if you chose one) and otherwise the first such area; the following weeks take the next areas, week 3 grows your focus block and adds the third, week 4 is review and a date to measure again. If no area qualifies, the weeks are about building the focus block. The block starts at the length in the table above, grows by 5 or 10 minutes a week for three weeks (up to 90 minutes), then holds.
Limits
- It relies on how you see yourself. People often underestimate how often they check their phone.
- It has not been validated against other measures and has no population norms. We don't compare you with other people; the score only describes your answers.
- It doesn't measure attention as an ability. A high score means much of your focus leaks away in daily life, not that you can't concentrate.
- The bands and weights are reasoned choices. We will revise them when a professional review or better evidence suggests it, and note it below.
Changes
- First version.