Learning how to focus every day is a must. There is no one way to do it, but here are three tips you can use to build your focus and concentration.
Video by BetterThanYesterday
Key Takeaways
Are you easily distracted? Do you find it difficult to focus on the task at hand because your mind keeps wandering? Do you worry too much or have too many things to do, that you can’t sit down and concentrate on one thing?
We all struggle to maintain focus in our daily lives. Endless distractions keep our brains from concentrating as we struggle to get things done at work and complete projects around the house.
But remember, with pure focus we can be unstoppable. You can get more done in a day than most get done in a week, if you just learn how to stay on a task for long periods of time.
Simply put, learning how to focus every day is a must.
When you lose yourself in that task, you become so immersed into the work that your happiness increases, stress goes down, and work improves. You become a better student or employee as well as a more organized person overall.
3 Tips to Build Your Focus
1. Remove Distractions
There is no one way to find focus, but what works for most people is to create a distraction free space.
Before you can add, you will need to subtract. There’s never been another time in history when there was so much to be distracted by.
- Our technology reinforces the feeling that you’re missing out on something if you don’t check your Facebook feed every 15 minutes or reply to that email the first second you get it.
- Just because someone decides to email or call you, doesn’t mean it’s more important than the project you should be working on. All other things can wait.
- But if you know they are waiting there, you’ll be tempted to check on them. And you should avoid temptation at all cost, because your mind won’t be able to focus on the task otherwise.
Close and remove everything that is not needed for the task at hand.
- This means everything on your computer that isn’t absolutely necessary. If you don’t need the Internet to do something, close it. Close email, all notifications and reminders, all programs not needed for your task. If you need your browser open, close all tabs or bookmark them. You can always open those sites when you’re done.
- Your phone can also wait until you finish your work.
So pinpoint what breaks your concentration and remove it. Is it loud co-workers? Your smart phone? Make sure to subtract whatever is distracting you from immersing yourself on the task at hand.
2. Meditate and Read
If you are completely relaxed and stress-free, then your mind will also work more efficiently.
Meditating is not only a great way to wind down, but if you meditate for just 10 to 20 minutes every day, you will slowly improve your overall concentration.
- A study has shown that intensive meditation can help people focus their attention and sustain it, even during the most boring of tasks. You can easily transfer these meditation skills to focusing on the work ahead of you.
Reading is a great way to build up your focus. To read a book, you need to actually sit down and read word for word. If you want to understand what you’re reading that is.
- Being able to concentrate on the material in front of you, whether you’re reading a romance novel or a biography, will help you learn to focus on your work.
- If your mind wanders when you read larger amounts of text, that’s a good indicator that you need to bring up your focus.
3. Slowly Build Up your Focus Stamina
Each person may start off with a certain amount of focus, but rest assured that this is something that can be improved over time.
To build your focus stamina, just give yourself a certain amount of time, say 5 minutes, to do nothing but work on a certain task.
- When that time passes, see how long you can keep going before actually stopping, whether it’s just another five minutes or another half hour. Keep going until you feel you need to stop, and try to focus for longer next time.
- If you can’t focus for even 5 minutes, start ever smaller. You only need to focus for one minute at first. Clear everything away, pick your one important task, and just do it for one minute without switching.
- This is hard to do in the beginning, but if you consciously focus on focusing, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s just a minute after all. But next time, make it two minutes.
- You can do multiple focus sessions a day, but remember to keep taking these baby steps.
- When you get to 10 minutes, take a 2 minute break. When you get to 20 minutes, take a 3 minute break. At 30 minutes of focus, you’ve earned a 5 minute break.
- Once you can focus for 30 minutes without stopping you can stay there. No need to burn yourself out.