Improve focus and concentration -
The more comfortable and welcoming your environment is, the easier it will likely be for you to stay focused. Here are some ideas for improving your physical environment:. Follow some simple nutritional tips:.
Constant distractions, and the low productivity that's associated with these distractions, have become so commonplace in today's workplace that doctors have even given it a name: Attention Deficit Trait, or ADT. And, they say that entire organizations can suffer from it. Follow some of these guidelines to help focus your mind:.
Limiting distractions allows you to get into the flow of your work — so you get more done. If you'd like to learn more about improving your focus, read the articles In Flow and Managing Interruptions.
There are more tips for defeating distractions in our infographic: Improve Your Concentration. Sitting down to focus on one task can be difficult, especially when you're constantly interrupted. To help increase your focus, start with a good breakfast, and drink plenty of water throughout the day.
Close your door, listen to music, and don't multitask. Although it may sound somewhat counter-intuitive, taking short, regular breaks throughout the day can also help you to focus.
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Handling Information and Data. Project Management. Knowledge Management. Self-Development and Goal Setting. Time Management. Presentation Skills. Learning Skills. Siebern from the Stanford University Sleep Medicine Centre notes that if you cannot concentrate on what is at hand, it is unlikely to make it to either your short- or long-term memory.
Have you ever noticed how vigorous exercise leaves you feeling more relaxed and energetic throughout the day? You may feel tightness in your neck, shoulder, and chest and such persistent, low-level discomfort can affect your concentration.
What we eat contributes to how we feel , including our mental sharpness and clarity, throughout the day. Low-fat diets can ruin focus because the brain needs certain essential fatty acids. Other restrictive diets may negatively affect concentration by not providing the nutrients the brain needs or by creating hunger, cravings, or feeling of unwellness in the body that are themselves distracting.
Depending on what you are doing, the environment can affect your focus. Obviously, a noise level that is too loud is a problem, but many people also have difficulty concentrating when it is too quiet. A favorite song quickly has you singing along, happily distracted, while less distinct instrumentals might keep you attuned to the task.
Lighting that is too bright or too dim can affect your vision. A room that is too hot or too cold creates discomfort. Depending on the cause, you may have to temporarily accept that your concentration is low and learn a few tricks to reduce the impact or accept the dips as they come.
If you need help with concentration and think your difficulties go beyond the list above, consult with a professional. Now you know why you need help with concentration. What can help you to focus better?
Eliminate distractions. How do we focus better if we are always bombarded with information? Make a practice blocking time in your schedule to do a specific task or activity. During this time, request that you be left alone or go to a place where others are unlikely to disturb you: a library, a coffee shop, a private room.
Close social media and other apps, silence notifications, and k eep your phone hidden from sight in a bag or backpack. As described in HBR, researchers found that cognitive capacity was significantly better when the phone was out of sight , not just turned off.
Keep Your primary focus is to complete what you need to do. Shutting off both internal and external disturbances can help you to concentrate. Reduce multitasking. Attempting to perform multiple activities at the same time makes us feel productive. And lower productivity can lead to burnout.
Examples of multitasking include listening to a podcast while responding to an email or talking to someone over the phone while writing your report. Such multitasking not only hampers your ability to focus but compromises your work quality.
Practice mindfulness and meditation. Meditating or practicing mindfulness activities can strengthen well-being and mental fitness and improve focus.
During the meditation process, our brain becomes calmer and our whole body becomes more relaxed. We focus on our breath during the process so that we will not be distracted by our minds.
With practice, we can learn to use our breath to bring our attention back to a particular task so that it can be done well even if we get interrupted. Get more sleep. Many factors affect your sleep. One of the most common is reading from an electronic device like a computer, phone, or tablet or watching your favorite movie or TV show on an LED TV just before bedtime.
Research has shown that such devices emit light towards the blue end of the spectrum. Such light will stimulate your eye retina and prevent the secretion of melatonin that promotes sleep anticipation in the brain. Use a filter or "blue light" glasses to minimize such blue light or avoid all electronic devices before bed.
Other ways to improve sleep include avoiding exercise late in the day, staying hydrated throughout the day, using journaling or breathing exercises to quiet the mind, and creating a predictable bedtime routine and schedule.
Choose to focus on the moment. It might feel counterintuitive when you feel unable to concentrate, but remember that you choose where you focus. It's tough to concentrate when your mind is always in the past and worrying about the future. Acknowledge the impact, what you felt, and what you learned from it, then let it go.
Similarly, acknowledge your concerns about the future, consider how you are experiencing that anxiety in your body, then choose to let it go. We want to train our mental resources to focus on the details of what matters at the moment. Our minds go in the direction we choose to focus.
Take a short break. This also might seem counterintuitive, but when you focus on something for a long time, your focus may begin to die down. You may feel more and more difficulty devoting your attention to the task. Researchers have found that our brains tend to ignore sources of constant stimulation.
Taking very small breaks by refocusing your attention elsewhere can dramatically improve mental concentration after that.
The next time you are working on a project, take a break when you begin to feel stuck. Move around, talk to someone, or even switch to a different type of task. You will come back with a more focused mind to keep your performance high. Connect with nature. Research has found that even having plants in office spaces can help increase concentration and productivity, as well as workplace satisfaction and better air quality.
Finding time to take a walk in the park or appreciating the plants or flowers in your garden can boost your concentration and help you feel refreshed.
Train your brain. Scientific research is starting to amass evidence on the ability of brain training activities to enhance cognitive abilities, including concentration, in adults. Such brain training games for concentration can also help you develop your working and short-term memory, as well as your processing and problem-solving skills.
Examples of such games include jigsaw puzzles, sudoku, chess, and brain-stimulating video games. Start your day with simple exercise and get your body moving. According to the May issue of the Harvard Men's Health Watch, regular exercise releases chemicals key for memory, concentration, and mental sharpness.
Other research found that exercise can boost the brain's dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin levels and all these will affect focus and attention.
Individuals who do some form of exercise or sports perform better on cognitive tasks when compared with those who have poor physical health. Physical movement helps relax the muscles and relieve tension in the body.
Since the body and mind are so closely linked, when your body feels better so, too, will your mind. Listen to music. Music has been shown to have therapeutic effects on our brains. Depression or sleep disorders such as sleep apnea can undermine your ability to concentrate.
So can the effects of vision or hearing loss. You waste precious cognitive resources when you spend too much time trying to make out what's written on a page or just hear what someone is saying. Medication side effects. Some drugs, especially anticholinergics such as treatments for incontinence, depression, or allergies , can slow processing speed and your ability to think clearly.
Excessive drinking. Having too much alcohol impairs thinking and causes interrupted sleep, which affects concentration. Information overload. We are bombarded with information from TVs, computers, and messages such as texts or emails.
When there's too much material, it burdens our filtering system and it's easy to get distracted. Want a way to boost your attention and focus?
Neuropsychologist Kim Willment of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests a single-task exercise like reading.
When it goes off, ask yourself if your mind has wandered. If so, just refocus on what you're reading," she says. She recommends sitting still for a few minutes each day, closing your eyes, and focusing on your breathing as well as the sounds and sensations around you.
Cognitive training. Computerized cognitive training games aim to improve your response times and attention. Evidence that this works has been mixed. So if you reach a certain level of sustained attention, pushing it to the next level can help improve it, and this may translate to everyday life.
A healthier lifestyle. Many aspects of a healthy lifestyle can help attention, starting with sleep and exercise. There is a direct link between exercise and cognitive ability, especially attention.
When you exercise, you increase the availability of brain chemicals that promote new brain connections, reduce stress, and improve sleep. And when we sleep, we reduce stress hormones that can be harmful to the brain, and we clear out proteins that injure it.
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