Focus and Concentration: Try these Eight Helpful Tips to Boost Yours
If you struggle with focus and concentration you might think you have ADHD. Well, many people do struggle and they often blame their inability to concentrate properly on an actual condition called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, better known as ADHD – although in fact most of them do not have that condition.
Although it’s quite possible that you might well be suffering from some kind of mental issue – because you don’t seem able to focus properly whenever you’re in a stressful situation such as an important business meeting – there are certain activities you can try in your everyday life that will improve your ability to concentrate properly. So before you visit your doctor and complain about suffering from ADHD, rather give the following tips a try. The odds are that you are NOT one of the less than five percent of adults that are suffering from ADHD.
Just imagine for a moment that your brain is a muscle which, through constant training, you can teach to focus and concentrate. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, the following daily exercises, lifestyle alterations and ‘tricks’ are excellent ways by which you can improve your focus and concentration.
1) Beat Procrastination and use Focus and Concentration
‘Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.’ ~ Denis Waitley
Procrastination can steal your time and cause you to put off a task you're supposed to be tackling. If you struggle to concentrate when you have a task to complete, then it could be because you’re having trouble with your focus and concentration.
So next time you're about to postpone a task prepare yourself to focus sufficiently and tackle it anyway. You may be pleasantly surprised and find that you complete the work with no problem at all by using a combination of mindset and tools to set up an environment that fosters focus.
2) Meditation Helps Focus and Concentration
Despite its often negative public perception, meditation is something that everyone can take part in. There’s a good reason for this. It’s been shown time and time again that mindful meditation strengthens your mental capacity and increases your attention span. In addition, it can negate the negative physical effects of stress on your health and wellbeing.
A recent study involving 140 volunteers showed that, after a course of mindful meditation training that lasted for eight weeks, there was a significant increase in their attention span. Furthermore, there’s no need to spend the rest of your life indulging in this activity to reap the benefits. After no more than four days of between ten and twenty minutes of meditation throughout the day, you can improve your focus and concentration significantly.
Throughout each and every day, simply by practising mindfulness you will do a great deal to prevent yourself from becoming distracted. An example of this is turning your normal passive eating activity while watching television into an active eating experience.
An active eating (also called mindful eating) means concentrating on your chewing and experiencing all the lovely flavours and different textures of the food in a conscious manner. By doing this you will become less likely to be distracted. So always be aware of the now, of the present, if you begin to feel that you’re becoming distracted.
3) Simply Make a ‘to do’ List
This is not a new concept, and it certainly works. It’s possible to considerably increase your ability to focus by doing something as easy as making a ‘to do’ list. It’s been suggested by Dr Simon A Rego, the renowned cognitive behavioural psychologist, that you should always compose lists that prioritise your important tasks first before composing a list of the less important ones. This will allow you to take control of your life and declutter your brain.
Such lists prioritise your activities and deadlines, and also prevent you from multitasking. And most people cannot multitask, despite what they say to the contrary!
People are able to effectively perform only one task at a time. Multitasking merely lowers the quality and effectiveness of your work through becoming distracted. Therefore it’s much better to focus on the first item on your list before tackling the second.
4) Check the Thermostat
If your work environment is too hot or too cool, it could impact how you focus and concentrate. A study from Cornell University found that workers are most productive and make fewer errors in an environment that is somewhere between 68 and 77 degrees. If you don’t have access to the thermostat, you can simply dress accordingly or bring a fan if it’s too hot.
5) Wiggle your Toes for Focus and Concentration
Wiggling your toes to help you concentrate is a trick suggested by author Olivia Fox Cabane. She writes that people often become distracted or daydream when they really should be concentrating on what is being said, especially at an important meeting.
People tend to seek some form of distraction, such as an incoming email, or any other kind of instant gratification. She continues by suggesting that, in order to avoid such things happening, you should focus for a moment on mindfully concentrating on your toes and start wiggling them around. Once you’ve done this you’ll be more able to concentrate on what really is important.
6) Try to Reduce Distractions
You can become only too easily distracted when you’re at an important meeting, for example, and are trying to concentrate when you become aware that you’ve received an email. This, no doubt, can cause you to lose focus. But so can many other kinds of distractions – if you let them. So don’t let your attention span be limited. Rather block out any form of distraction or diversion.
More often than not the main cause of distractions is failing to disconnect from easily available interruptions such as the Internet or your smartphone. Author, motivational speaker and television host Melanie (Mel) Robbins has a suggestion to counter this. Simply leave your phone outside the room and, should you feel yourself becoming distracted or your mind starting to wander, all you do is count slowly to five, then force yourself to carry on with whatever you were doing.
7) Take a Break
Should you find that your attention is wandering, you should simply build short breaks into your plan. A study from the University of Illinois found that taking a short break in the middle of a long task reenergizes the brain. Psychologist Alejandro Lleras found that participants who were given short breaks during a 50-minute task performed better than those who worked straight through.
8) Manage your Energy
Structure your day according to what tasks you have to complete and when you have the energy to focus. Everyone is different and some people work best early in the morning while others work better into the night. Only you will know when you are better able to concentrate or when you’re at you most creative or analytical.
Keeping a diary for a week or two may help you if you haven’t figured out what your cycle is, and what time of day is best for you for you to tackle tasks that require concentration.
It’s as simple as that. Close your computer, put your phone in a drawer where you can’t hear it, meditate for ten to twenty minutes, take short breaks, wiggle your toes, and then get on with your work. If you feel that you need more information there's this article on how to improve focus and concentration.
Alternatively, you can read this article on how self-help books changed my life which should give you some ideas of how to bring focus and concentration into your life.