How To Stay Focused

Focus is an important skill to master these days. Don’t underestimate its power.

Do creative work first. Typically, we do mindless work first and build up to the toughest tasks. That drains your energy and lowers your focus. "An hour into doing your work, you've got a lot less capacity than (at the beginning)," Rock says. "Every decision we make tires the brain."

We are truly focused for an average of only six hours per week. You want to be really diligent with what you put into those hours.

Notice where and when you focus best, then allocate your toughest tasks for those moments.

Practice concentration by turning off all distractions and committing your attention to a single task. Start small, maybe five minutes per day, and work up to larger chunks of time. If you find your mind wandering, just return to the task at hand.

When multitasking is the norm, your brain quickly adapts. You lose the ability to focus as distraction becomes a habit.

Any meaningful task or routine takes a large part of one’s focus. Before starting anything, ask yourself why you should do it. With your answer, there will be that output you so desire — and so you value the task. Don’t stick within borders of “approved” output; have your options opened for new, fun ideas.

Don’t lose precious time and be distracted with discomfort. Get a really good chair with great back support; make sure your desk or worktable is well-structured as well. That way you can work for many hours and not find your body and eyes getting strained.

Drinking water isn’t only healthy, it refreshes you as well. Once you feel the first sign of fatigue or hunger, a glass of water can push them away. Then you can finish what you’re doing and rest at a later time. Besides, not all stomach rumblings are signs of hunger and drinking a glass of water usually deals with it.

Stay away from social networking sites. Not only will it defeat your purpose of staying focused at work, but there’s plenty of information there that could get your mind unnecessarily perturbed — like a friend’s status about her heartbreak, or someone from work getting a raise.

Pinpoint the problem. What causes you to lose focus? Is it fatigue, hunger or a Twitter addition? Figuring out the issue is the first step toward trying to fix it.

Plan ahead. Envision what the workday will look like before it happens. Write down what things need to get done or what you want to accomplish. Setting goals can help people stay on track.

Meditate. Scientists have discovered that meditation may enhance certain brain functions linked to attention. It can’t hurt to try shutting everything off to get more done in the long run.

Meditation is about mindfulness. This is supposed to be how we live all the time. However, we usually keep ourselves busy with unimportant things and struggle with choosing what to focus on. This brings chaos to the mind. By meditating, however, you become one with the present moment.

Work offline. One survey found nearly 60% of disruptions at work come from email, social networks and cell phones. So for tasks that don’t involve the Internet, try using old-fashioned paper and pen — perfect for brainstorming! Put your phone on silent and limit time on social media too.

Reward yourself. A little motivation can go a long way. Say, “After I finish this page, I’ll go buy a cookie!” Watch that to-do list vanish in no time.

Take little breaks. Getting to the office early, working through lunch and staying late doesn’t necessarily mean getting more stuff done. Short bursts of hard work followed by quick breaks can be more beneficial than never taking a breather, since the brain may just burn out.

To perform better at work, learn new skills, be more productive, make decisions, study smarter, and make progress in basically anything that involves your brain, it’s advisable to work on how to focus better.

Your attention is your biggest asset, so it’s important to keep it where it’s supposed to be — on the task at hand that is getting you one step closer to achieving your goals and dreams.

Identify any distraction in your surroundings; then, remove it.mThe point is to not just learn how to focus, but also how to stay focused. And for that to happen, all distractions need to be eliminated. Let’s begin by identifying distractions.In order to make room for focus, you must first remove distractions.

Your willpower works like a muscle and so does your mind. A muscle needs exercise to be stronger. What you need to do in order to learn how to focus and do it effortlessly, is to train yourself to become more disciplined. In order to improve your willpower, you will need exactly what a muscle needs to grow— resistance.

Improving your willpower can help you learn how to focus better because you have more control over your mind— you will soon begin doing anything you should just by telling yourself to do it.

True focus happens when you’re only doing only one thing at a time and investing all your attention in it. It is actually another form of meditation— it’s what can get you in ‘the zone’ when you work. Doing more than one thing at a time is the biggest distraction of them all— and you’re the one choosing to do it.

Train your brain to stay focused by catching yourself before you fall into bad habits. Each time you feel yourself being distracted stop as soon as you can. The harder you make it to become distracted, the more your mind will stay focused.

To strengthen your focus, find a place that is free from distraction. Whether that’s a different part of the house or a cafe without wifi, the point here is to give your focus a chance to recharge.

Our mind is unable to focus on more than one thing at a time, and in fact, ‘multi-tasking’ just means switching from one thing to another very, very quickly. And the more we switch, the more energy we use (And the more energy we use, the less we have to stay focused on what matters).

Stress is a focus killer of epic proportions. Which really sucks considering that we’re most likely to be stressed when we need to focus the most. Instead, mindfulness training teaches us to not get swept away by stress or strong emotions by being more aware of what we’re doing and what we’re thinking about.

Exercise isn't just good for the body. It promotes brain health, too, which is important for memory capacity and concentration.

In particular, scientists think regular exercise may help stimulate the release of a chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which some research suggests helps rewire memory circuits to improve their functioning.

One of the main symptoms of chronic sleep loss is poor concentration. Getting a solid seven to eight hours ahead of a busy work day could be the difference between being frazzled and being laser-focused.