Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Staying on task can be difficult, but it can be particularly challenging when you are surrounded by constant distraction. In today's always-connected world, diversions are nothing more than a click away.
Even during quiet moments, distraction is literally at your fingertips as you find yourself checking your Instagram notifications or the latest news updates. The ability to concentrate on something in your environment and direct mental effort toward it is critical for learning new things, achieving goals , and performing well across a wide variety of situations.
Whether you are trying to finish a report at work or competing in a marathon, your ability to focus can mean the difference between success and failure. Fortunately, focus is a lot like a mental muscle. The more you work on building it up, the stronger it gets.
Improving your mental focus is achievable, but that doesn't mean that it's always quick and easy. If it was simple, then we would all have the razor-sharp concentration of an elite athlete. It will take some real effort on your part and you may have to make some changes to some of your daily habits.
Here are some tips and tricks from psychology that can help you develop laser-like mental focus and concentration. Before you start working toward improving your mental focus, you might want to begin by assessing just how strong your mental focus is at the present moment. If the first set of statements seems more your style, then you probably already have fairly good concentration skills, but you could be even stronger with a little practice.
If you identify more with the second set of statements, then you probably need to work on your mental focus quite a bit. It might take some time, but practicing some good habits and being mindful of your distractibility can help. While it may sound obvious, people often underestimate just how many distractions prevent them from concentrating on the task at hand.
Such intrusions might come in the form of a radio blaring in the background or perhaps an obnoxious co-worker who constantly drops by your cubicle to chat. Minimizing these sources of distraction isn't always as easy as it sounds. While it might be as simple as turning off the television or radio, you might find it much more challenging to deal with an interrupting co-worker, spouse, child, or roommate.
One way to deal with this is to set aside a specific time and place and request to be left alone for that period of time. Another alternative is to seek out a calm location where you know you will be able to work undisturbed.
The library, a private room in your house, or even a quiet coffee shop might all be good spots to try. Not all distractions come from outside sources. Exhaustion, worry , anxiety, poor motivation, and other internal disturbances can be particularly difficult to avoid. A few strategies you might want to try to minimize or eliminate such internal distractions are to make sure you are well-rested prior to the task and to use positive thoughts and imagery to fight off anxiety and worry.
If you find your mind wandering toward distracting thoughts, consciously bring your focus back to the task at hand. While multitasking may seem like a great way to get a lot done quickly, it turns out that people are actually rather bad at it.
Juggling multiple tasks at once can dramatically cut down on productivity and makes it much harder to hone in on the details that are truly important.
Think of your attention as a spotlight. If you shine that spotlight on one particular area, you can see things very clearly. If you were to try to spread that same amount of light across a large dark room, you might instead only glimpse the shadowy outlines.
Part of improving your mental focus is all about making the most of the resources you have available. Stop multitasking and instead give your full attention to one thing at a time. It's tough to stay mentally focused when you are ruminating about the past, worrying about the future, or tuned out of the present moment for some other reason. You have probably heard people talk about the importance of " being present. Any natural environment has benefits. Scientific evidence increasingly supports the positive impact of natural environments.
Research from found evidence to suggest including plants in office spaces helped increase concentration and productivity, as well as workplace satisfaction and air quality. Try adding a plant or two to your workspace or home for a range of positive benefits. Children benefit from natural environments, too. Research published in followed over 1, children from birth to age 7. The study hoped to determine how lifelong exposure to trees and greenery at home or in the neighborhood might affect attention in children.
The study found evidence to suggest natural environments could benefit brain development and may also improve attention in children.
Nature may have even more benefit for children with ADHD. A study that looked at 17 children with ADHD found evidence that a minute walk in the park could help improve concentration more than a walk of the same length in an urban setting.
Meditation and mindfulness practices can offer multiple benefits. Improved concentration is only one of these. A review of 23 studies found evidence to suggest mindfulness training that emphasizes attention focus could help increase attention and focus. Mindfulness can also improve memory and other cognitive abilities. Yoga , deep breathing, and many other activities can help you meditate.
How can taking a break from work or homework increase your concentration? This idea might seem counterintuitive, but experts say it really works. But your struggle to focus just makes you feel stressed and anxious about not completing your work in time. Next time this happens, when you first feel your concentration drop, take a short mental break.
Refresh yourself with a cool drink or nutritious snack, take a quick walk, or go outside and get some sun. Breaks can help boost these functions and more. Turning on music while working or studying may help increase concentration. The type of music you listen to can make a difference.
Experts generally agree classical music, particularly baroque classical music or nature sounds are good choices to help increase your focus. The foods you eat can affect cognitive functions like concentration and memory. Avoiding processed foods, too much sugar, and very greasy or fatty foods. To boost concentration, try eating more of the following:.
You can find more brain foods on this list. Staying hydrated can also have a positive impact on concentration. Even mild dehydration can make it harder to focus or remember information.
Eating breakfast can help by boosting your focus first thing in the morning. Oatmeal, plain yogurt with fruit, or whole-grain toast with eggs are all good breakfast choices. If you feel your concentration starting to drop, consider a cup of coffee or green tea.
A study found evidence to suggest phytochemicals naturally found in matcha, a type of green tea, not only improve cognitive function but can help promote relaxation. So matcha may be a good option if coffee tends to make you feel jittery or on edge.
Some supplements may help promote better concentration and improved brain function. Concentration workouts often help children who have trouble focusing. This mental workout involves fully devoting attention to an activity for a set period of time.
After completing one of the activities, ask your child to write a short summary or sketch how they felt during the experience. Young children can simply use words to describe their feelings. Talking about where they lost concentration and how they managed to refocus can help them develop these skills for use in daily tasks. Trouble concentrating can relate to things going on around you. Common causes include interruptions from co-workers, distractions from your roommates or family members, or social media notifications.
Distractions simply get screened out. The problem with putting this into practice, however, is finding the right kind of distraction and keeping it on the right side of being overwhelming. There are a few apps, such as ommwriter or focus will , that add visual or musical distractions to order, but so far none have been tested in scientific studies and may be no better than putting the radio on.
The key is to give your mind just enough to do, so that your brain doesn't have the chance to look elsewhere for stimulation. For most people it might be a case of trial and error to find what works for them, but since screening out distractions can be tiring, perhaps this is one to use sparingly, when all else has failed.
But there is a huge amount of evidence to suggest it can actually help you get more done. The challenge is working out when to take a break, for how long, and what to do with that downtime. Some studies dating from the s suggest that due to natural variations in our cycle of alertness, we can concentrate for no longer than 90 minutes before needing a minute break. Other studies have found that even a micro-break of a few seconds will work, provided it is a total distraction — in the studies, people did a few seconds of mental arithmetic, so you may have to do something more intense than staring out of the window.
For those who can unglue themselves from their keyboards, a lunchtime jog outdoors could do the trick Credit: Getty Images. Exercise is a good thing to do in with your break, as it seems to rev up the brain , putting it into a better state to knuckle back down, particularly, according to this study , if you follow it with a caffeinated drink.
Meditation is another option. If that all sounds a bit time-consuming, the good news is that, with or without exercise, a quick dose of caffeine improves memory, reaction time and attention in the short term. So however you choose to take your break, always stop to put the kettle on as you make your way back to your desk.
Exercise not your thing? Caffeine can provide a short-term solution Credit: Alamy. In brain imaging experiments, they found that the most successful strategy for staying on course was to focus for a while, and then to take a short break before going back to concentrating.
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