It affects memory. This is a common question for many. And often, the answer can be found in your daily activities and some areas you can control. These can include:.

These are just a few examples of reasons you may not be able to concentrate. And they largely fall under five primary categories or factors. We are bombarded by a constant flow of information, whether new or old, during the process of doing something. Researchers have found that our brains are so primed for this distraction that just seeing our smartphone impairs our ability to concentrate.

We constantly assess whether the information is useful, sufficient, or meaningless. The sheer quantity coming in muddles our assessment of whether we actually need more information to make decisions. Scientists have found that lack of sleep can lead to lower alertness , slower thought processes, and reduced concentration.

You will have more difficulty focusing your attention and may become confused. As a result, your ability to perform tasks especially relating to reasoning or logic can be seriously affected.

Chronically poor sleep further affects your concentration and memory. Allison T. 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.

Light music may help you to concentrate better, but some music may distract you. Experts generally agree that classical music and nature sounds, such as water flowing, are good choices for concentration while music with lyrics and human voices may be distracting.

Multiple apps and services offer background music and soundscapes designed for different types of focus and work needs. Eat well. Choose foods that moderate blood sugar, maintain energy, and fuel the brain.

Fruits, vegetables, and high-fiber foods can keep your blood sugar levels even. Reduce sugary foods and drinks that cause spikes and dips in your sugar levels make you feel dizzy or drowsy.

Your brain needs lots of good fat to function properly. Nuts, berries, avocados, and coconut oil are all great ways to get healthy fats into your diet and help your brain run more smoothly.

Research has found that foods like blueberries can boost concentration and memory for up to 5 hours after consumption due to an enzyme that stimulates the flow of oxygen and blood to the brain, helping with memory as well as our ability to focus and learn new information.

Leafy green vegetables such as spinach contain potassium which accelerates the connections between neurons and can make our brain more responsive.

Set a daily priority. Write down what you want to accomplish each day , ideally the night before, and identify a single priority that you commit to accomplishing. This will help focus your brain on what matters, tackling the big jobs first and leaving the small stuff till later.

Break large tasks into smaller bytes so that you will not be overwhelmed. Identifying true priorities can help relieve distracting anxiety, and achieving small daily goals can wire your brain to achieve success. Create space for work.

Create a calm dedicated space for work , if possible. Not everyone can have a well-appointed office, but desk organizers, noise-canceling headphones, an adjustable monitor, and adjustable lighting can help. Clear clutter out of sight, make it as ergonomic and comfortable as possible, and try to keep your space neat and ventilated.

Research shows that exercise has positive effects on thinking, learning and memory skills. During physical exertion, the body undergoes physiological processes that encourage the production of growth factors. Brain imaging shows that physical exercise has a particularly positive effect on the hippocampus, which is one part of the brain responsible for memory.

The hippocampus is often one of the areas of the brain that degenerates with age-related cognitive decline.

Preserving the hippocampus through exercise may help to maintain brain performance with age. Exercise also contributes to improved brain function in indirect ways.

Increasing your physical activity levels can improve sleep quality and mood, both of which are associated with improved attention, problem-solving and other brain processes.

Sleep is critical for cognitive function. During sleep, the brain goes through a consolidation process where it takes all the information from the day and converts it into long-term memory. Research shows that not getting enough sleep can increase the risk of depression and impaired learning and memory.

In addition to memory consolidation and learning, other processes the brain undergoes during sleep involve the elimination of neurotoxins that accumulate during the day.

Additionally, a study found that people who got an average of only six hours of sleep per night in their 50s and 60s were more likely to develop dementia in later life. Getting enough sleep protects against both short-term and long-term cognitive impairments. Food supplies us with the nutrients our bodies need to operate.

Nutrients give us the energy required to power our physiological functions, as well as the minerals our cells need to build and repair themselves. Certain nutrients are particularly essential to cognitive function, making some foods better brain-boosters than others.

According to experts, the following brain-boosting nutrients can help with mental sharpness and cognitive well-being:.

Deficiencies in any of the above nutrients and minerals can contribute to brain fog, so eating a balanced diet can help improve mental sharpness. Water is essential to all physiological functions, but only recently have scientists learned about the important role that water plays in maintaining brain function.

Research shows that certain cognitive abilities and moods are affected by the amount of water we consume. It can also lead to headaches and irritability. According to the Mayo Clinic , men need 3. Your unique hydration needs depend on your climate and your activity levels, both of which can increase the amount of fluids you lose through sweat.

In addition to taking care of our physical health, there are also other things we can do to boost brainpower. Continuously learning new skills is one way to experience lifelong mental sharpness.

Skill-learning involves repetitive practicing of an activity in order to develop mastery of it. This repetitive practice builds up connections in the brain and increases the rate at which brain cells communicate. How much cognitive improvement you gain depends on the skill, with more complex skills leading to greater improvement in memory and other cognitive functions.

For example, one study found that learning a second language in adulthood helped to reduce the rate of cognitive decline in later life. Other skills you can practice to keep your mind sharp include:.

In addition to helping maintain cognitive function, learning new skills is also linked to improved self-esteem and emotional health. Most of us are faced with countless distractions throughout the day. From text messages to social media notifications to emails, there is a constant battle for our attention.

Research shows that our ability to pay attention while avoiding distractions has a significant impact on our memory and focus levels. If we make a habit of responding to distracting tasks over our actual priorities, then our ability to concentrate can erode over time.

An inability to focus affects how well we absorb and retain information, meaning that distractions can directly impact our memory. Thankfully, there are many tactics we can use to protect our focus and manage distractions in our lives. One of the most popular approaches is to work in distraction-free sessions of 20 to 90 minutes each.

During a session, put away all devices or sources of distraction and focus solely on the task at hand. Once the session is over, take a short break to check emails, social media or texts. The ancient practice of mindfulness has important modern applications.

According to extensive research on the benefits of mindfulness, meditation and similar practices can actually change the way our brains are structured.