Bharat SainiLast Updated on January 31, 2018 by Bharat Saini
Concentration is taking your mind off many things and putting it on one thing at a time; i.e. eliminating distractions. Our senses are prone to easy distractions, with our concentration breaking with a slight buzz in any aspect of our atmosphere and distractions in our modern day work environment abound. Human mind is not meant to work best under such an environment. The success of anything you do begins with concentration and focus. That’s when you call all your powers together for the accomplishment of a thing. Learning to focus your attention and eliminate distractions in our lives is crucial to success; and maximise productivity, achieve goals, and advance in career. Focus is one of the secrets of success that ties everything together. According to the Law of Attraction, it is our ability to attract into our lives whatever we are focusing on and this law uses the power of the mind to translate whatever is in our thoughts and materialise them into reality. As you focus or concentrate on all the qualities of success, you attract them to you. Focus is an act of will which is the faculty that rules everything.
Strategies to minimise distractions & stress, and improve focus & concentration:
Meditation: Successful persons are all advocates for the practice of meditation, and swear by its effectiveness in calming the mind and improving focus. Meditation is that which gives you deep rest and is an activity in which the practitioner just sits and allows the mind to dissolve. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens. The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. It leads to a better mood, increased verbal and non-verbal reasoning, and improved capability for manipulating mental information. It brings clarity of perception, improves communication and improves concentration.
Perseverance: You may not get inspiration when you start a piece of work that requires thinking. Try to focus on the work at hand and you will start to attract thoughts about it that you can work on. Then those thoughts will attract more thoughts and you are then in the flow. This is perseverance, training to instruct you to preserve with the task. Each time you come to a stop, continue to focus and you will find yourself moving again. This is the secret of creating from nothing. You attract all the parts of the work together simply by using the power of focus.
Conquer Procrastination: Focusing on the problems causes lack of focus on the solution. The lack of focus is the reason for failure. We all procrastinate and it is as humanly a trait as breathing is. When you are procrastinating, hesitating, dragging and stopping, it is because you are focusing on the stuff that takes your focus away from the stuff that contributes to your work. Instruct yourself to not leave your spot until you have finished off the task. Once you are halfway into it, you will find motivation for the rest half as well.
Environment: Selecting environment that is calm, with the least distractions, proper lighting and a comfortable seat is the most crucial decision you make when you have to focus. Keep all things you may need around you for your working such as Books, Notes, Computer, Stationery and water etc. to keep any thoughts of deficiencies away. Put your phone on silent mode, invest in ear plugs and find a corner which is isolated or silent. If your atmosphere is calm, your work quality will show it. Cutting off all noise is really important when it comes to bettering your concentration levels.
Positivity: is a habit which needs to be inculcated in your behaviour, always have positive attitude towards life; always try to find positivity in negativity. Focus on the negative causes lack of focus on the positives. Think positive about your concentration power as well. If you focus on positive thoughts and have goals that you aim to achieve, you will find a way to achieve them with massive action.
Controlling Thoughts: To improve concentrations try to control your wandering mind while you are at work by trying to cut irrelevant thoughts off in between by relevant thoughts. This will only happen through practice.
Assign Time Estimates: Make realistic decisions about what you are truly able to accomplish within the scheduled time. To achieve certain task you set a time target that will keep you on the task and adhering to it will give you a sense of accomplishment. Having a plan in mind will always lessen distractions by increasing your drive towards your goal. Seeing how much time each task requires for completion is a smart way of doing it.
Multi-tasking: or trying to do more than one thing at a time has to be avoided as this doesn’t let you focus on the more important thing at hand. Constant sensory input is to be avoided. Multi-tasking, loud noises, and visual stimulation such as from a T.V., make concentration much more difficult, and being around them or doing them too much can put you into a habit of non-attention, which can be hard to break. Although, it is an age of multi-tasking and some consider the ability to multitask as strength, it isn’t a thing you should indulge in. As the multi-tasking doesn’t let you focus on the more important thing at hand, Millennial and corporates are realizing this and now the focus has shifted to mono-tasking. Make it a point to put your full concentration on whatever you are doing. Don’t let anything distract you. Focusing on other things causes lack of focus on the primary thing. Therefore if you want to achieve maximum and fastest results, keep your eye on the ball.
Take a Break: Deactivating and reactivating your goals allows you to stay focused. Sometimes the best strategy is to stop trying so hard and take a break. Go for a walk in between. When faced with long tasks such as studying before a final exam, it is best to impose brief breaks on yourself. Brief mental breaks actually help you stay focused on your task as our brains were not built to maintain constant attention, and taking short breaks can improve your ability to maintain focus over long periods of time. The point is to disengage from what you were working on and change up what you’re doing. By breaking up your concentration, you’ll give your brain a chance to recharge so you can return to what you were doing refreshed.
Exercise: There are innumerable benefits of physical, mental and emotional exercise. Exercise increases our confidence in our ability to accomplish challenging things. A short 10 to 40 minute sessions of exercise results in an improvement in mental concentration and focus, even a quick walk can have major benefits on your focus, productivity, and general well-being. Try exercising a few hours beforehand, and find yourself with an ample amount of focus to compensate during your more challenging hours. If a focused mind-set is a goal for you, it’s time to get moving.
Get Sound Sleep: Your healthy workout schedule improves your sleep. Exercising before bed leads to falling asleep around 15 minutes earlier and extends sleep for an average of 45 minutes a night. Entrepreneurs who sleep better become quicker thinkers, have more focus and are capable of leading their industries in ways their sleep-deprived colleagues are not. You may have to impose a bedtime to yourself but that’s important. If your sleep cycle is satisfactory, so will be your quality of the day.
