Something we can all take advantage of, is learning to become more focused. Forcing yourself to remain focused on a job, especially a boring one, can seem like a tedious undertaking.
Fortunately, There are tonnes of methods that can help improve your concentration.
If your struggling to stay focused, attempt one – or all 10 – of these ideas.
1. Remove Distractions
Firstly: You will need to avoid being distracted. While you can’t remove all of them , you can make a good start by reducing as many as possible.
Change the easy things:
- Moving to a silent area.
- Put your phone away, turn it to silent or turn it off.
- Shut the door to keep outside noise at bay.
- Let people know you need to be left alone for a while.Avoid using apps and closing unessecary programs down on your desktop.
2. Limit Your Coffee intake
Drinking coffee, or various other caffeinated drinks, in smaller dosages may have a favorable influence on your ability to concentrate, a 2010 study suggests.
The secret to taking advantage of caffeine’s cognitive-enhancing effects is to use it moderately. Drinking too much can cause anxiety and make you feel sketchy, which typically decreases your capacity to focus.
3. Learn the Pomodoro strategy
Remaining focused can help you get things done faster. This is easier said than done and sometimes you will still find yourself struggling to focus. This is where the Pomodoro strategy comes in.
This timing approach retrains your brain to concentrate on tasks for brief amounts of time. Here’s how you do it:
- Program your timer for 25 mins and knuckle down!
- When the alarm goes off, take a short break.
- Hook the timer up once more and get back to the grind. After you’ve managed to get through 4 rounds of this you can chill for a bit longer.
4. Avoid or Block Social Media On Your Phone
If you find yourself scrolling through Facebook or Instagram on your break, you should think about downloading an app that locks social networks.
There’s some good apps out there that can stop you from scrolling. Along with social media sites, several of these feed-locking apps will also stop you from using video games, as well as other applications and also websites like YouTube, Netflix, Amazon.com, Twitter, messenger, and e-mails.
Several of the best social network blockers include Flexibility, AppBlock and FocusMe.
5. Fuel Your Mind
Everyone’s heard of the term “hangry”. This unwelcome combo of rage and hunger can really stifle your mental state.
In order to stay focused and stop yourself from having an emotional breakdown, remember to eat at regular intervals.
Find a balance between lean protein, healthy carbohydrates, as well as good fats to stay on top. Munch on fruit, veg, seeds and nuts if hunger strikes and always remember to drink enough water as dehydration can leave you feeling tired and confused.
And, to top it off, Harvard Medical Data suggests including some of these important brain foods throughout the day:
- Greens, leaf veggies like kale, spinach, and also broccoli
- Fatty fish such as tuna or salmon
- Berries, like goji’s, strawberries, raspberries, or blackberries
- Pecans and walnuts
- Green tea as well as moderately drinking coffee for the caffeine.
6. Getting enough sleep
It’s a known fact that getting a less than perfect nights sleep can lead to all kinds of problems. While the odd night of minimal sleep is alright, failing to get enough Zs on a regualr basis can dramatically affect both your memory, and your capability to focus.
Recent data suggests the recommended amount of sleep for adults between 18 to 60 years of age is 7 plus hours every evening. Older groups may require up to 9 hrs sleep.
To enhance your sleep quality, do this:
- Steer clear of caffeinated drinks after 3pm.
- Turn off all gadgets at least an hour before bed. The blue light these devices give off can affect your brain preventing you from feeling sleepy.
- Take time to unwind. Do some reading, take a hot bath, do some meditation. Create an ideal enviroment for sleeping. The best temperature for snoozing is between 15 and 19°C
7. Get SMART
If you feel overwhelmed by an intricate task, attempt chopping it up into smaller sized chunks and take advantage of the SMART blueprint.
SMART means:
- Specific. What has to be done?
- Measurable. Can you track your progression?
- Possible. Is it practical? Can you do it by your target date?
- Relevant. Exactly how does it work with the strategy or larger goal?
- Timely. When do you need to have it finished?
When you take a large, complicated job and simplify it into smaller sized jobs, you can increase your ability to focus and concentrate on certain tasks. This is due to the fact you have narrowed down your goals, to the point where you feel like you can achieve them.
8. Be More Aware
Do your thoughts tend to float around, leaving you feeling distracted? This is something most people experience and is perfectly normal.
These brief brain farts make it more challenging to concentrate on the task at hand. That’s why mindfulness is so important.
being mindful can help you preserve focused awareness and give you a good understanding of your surroundings – which is a lifesaver when your trying to concentrate.
By maintaining a focused awareness and recognizing when your interest starts to wain, you can rapidly bring your attention back to the present moment. And also, you can train your mind to be a lot more aware and mindful by learning simple meditative breathing techniques, and stretching excercises, such as yoga.
9. Write a daily check list.
Lets’s be honest, finding the motivation to complete every task on a check list can be overwhelming.
Fortunately for you, new data suggests that having a written strategy can greatly increase your chance of completing tasks.
After you make your to-do list, choose a couple of the most important tasks as well and place them at the top. Now place the rest of the tasks in order of priority. This enables you to tackle immediate tasks when your mind is at it’s peak performance.
10. Concentrate on Priority Tasks
Getting tired of flicking between one thought to another? If your multitasking skills are lacking then pick the same high priority tasks and work through them together.
This makes things a lot smoother, helping you to avoid jumping between jobs.
Although attractive, multitasking can actually prevent you from getting more work done. Recent data suggests that it can harm your ability to complete tasks by up to 40 percent.
Conclusion
Whether your knee deep in unreachable deadlines, heavily sleep deprived, or just generally feeling a bit off, being unable to concentrate can really stifle your work flow.
That’s why it is necessary to have a couple of easy ideas to become more focused. Understanding how to implement what has to be done will aid you in becoming more present and give you a better understanding of what it takes to achieve your goals.