Focus on core activities. How to focus. own stream of consciousness
Imagine the average office worker is distracted every three minutes. According to a study conducted at Carnegie Mellon University, once distracted, we spend up to 25 minutes on average just trying to regain the lost focus.
It is very easy to get distracted from work, sometimes we do not even notice how this happens, but it is very difficult to concentrate and maintain attention at an adequate level. And, despite the fact that almost everyone faces the problem of scattered attention at work, we do almost nothing to change our environment, mood and block external stimuli.
How the brain chooses what to focus on
Our brain is active at any time of the day or night. He constantly perceives information that continuously comes from outside. This means that the brain must constantly choose what to pay attention to and what to filter out and ignore. Neuroscientists call this process “selective attention,” and there are two types of it:
- Controlled attention is the process when we ourselves control what our attention is focused on. Whether we need to solve a problem, finish a project, or listen carefully to a presentation, we literally force our brains to focus on what we need.
- Uncontrolled attention is the process when the focus is distracted by an unexpected external or internal stimulus, whether it is a strange thought that has crept into the head, the smell of coffee, or a sharp, unexpected noise. The uncontrolled movement of focus is out of our control.
What is the problem?
The difficulty in maintaining focus and controlling attention is that we have no control over what type of selective attention our brain uses at any given moment. Despite the desire to maintain control, the normal functioning of the brain simply obliges the nervous system to respond to external stimuli. This is all connected with instincts, animal comfort and the correct, timely response to danger. If you are cold or hungry, it will be extremely difficult to force yourself to focus on exam preparation. If you hear an unexpected loud noise, the brain perceives it as a potential danger, and the danger is always more important than the quarterly report.
In addition, studies have shown that willpower and attention cannot be endless - the more often we are distracted, the harder it is to regain lost focus. However, some researchers have concluded that there are several ways to help the brain maintain controlled focus longer and more effectively.
Seven ways to focus on work
If you've ever been distracted at work, you know that you risk getting stuck in an endless and fruitless attempt to get back in the right mood. Who among us does not know how difficult it is to ignore notifications in in social networks, not be distracted by calls and conversations of colleagues and not be distracted by your own own thoughts and dreams? Once again, when external and internal stimuli begin to rob you of your precious will to concentrate with renewed vigor, remember the following useful tips.
Determine your ideal schedule
You have probably noticed that you are more or less concentrated in different time day and night. It depends on the activity of the brain. No wonder people are divided into larks and owls, and the point here is not always only in developed habits. Some people really find it easier to focus in the afternoon rather than early in the morning. For most people, the peak time of brain activity is in the late morning, and the maximum propensity to lose attention is at lunchtime.
If you are a night owl, it is easier for you to focus after lunch, and that is when you should take on more complex tasks that require maximum attention. If you are a morning person, on the contrary, start the day with the most difficult tasks, and in the afternoon, do routine activities.
Control standard distractions
Our brains learn by doing. The more we practice small, momentary distractions like checking email or Twitter a hundred times a day, the more habitual this behavior becomes and the harder it is to break.
Instead of getting distracted every 10 minutes, train your brain to stay focused by pulling yourself up every time your hand reaches for your phone and your eyes go to the new messages icon.
Take quality breaks
Most of our waking time is spent at the pace of obtaining the maximum amount of information in the shortest possible time. We have 15 tabs open at once, we spend the day at work in an endless stream of emails, phone calls, messages from colleagues. The maximum speed of work does not make this work more efficient. In fact, just the opposite.
To increase your ability to stay focused at work, take a break. Find a place where you will not be haunted by constant stimuli that require your attention. Spend some time in a park or cafe where there is no internet, while leaving the phone at work, in half an hour the apocalypse will not come, and your brain will have a long-awaited chance to recharge.
Forget about multitasking
Multitasking is nothing more than a myth. In the entire history of mankind, there have been only a dozen people who were able to effectively and simultaneously perform several tasks that require concentration.
Our brains are incapable of focusing on more than one thing at a time, in fact, "multitasking" simply means quickly switching attention from one problem to another. And the more often we switch, the more energy we spend. And the more energy we expend, the faster we get tired.
Make a list of tasks in order of importance and stick to it as closely as possible. The fewer tasks you try to complete at once, the more effective your overall work will be.
Choose tasks that match your energy level
If the task at hand isn't important enough to warrant your undivided attention, the brain quickly shifts to another object. If you are going to take on a very important presentation, and the brain is constantly distracted by extraneous thoughts, maybe it is worth postponing an important task for that period of the working day when your energy is not at a minimum level?
Don't give in to stress
Tension and stress have a very bad effect on concentration, and not only on it. Typically, stress at work is highest when the cool-headed ability to put aside everything unnecessary and fully concentrate on what is important is most needed.
The breaks and meditation mentioned above will help to avoid stress. Try to take five minutes for yourself, and focus only on what you feel: focus on the heartbeat, smell, breath and tactile sensations. This practice will help you quickly calm down and recover in a stressful situation.
Have snacks or chew gum
This method seems a bit odd, but studies show that chewing gum increases oxygen flow to the parts of the brain that are responsible for attention. Chewing also improves long-term memory and injects a small amount of insulin into the bloodstream, which increases brain activity. In addition, the chewing process helps nervous system relax and calm down - it's all about instincts - if we chew, then we eat, and if we eat, then we are safe.
If you're not a fan of chewing gum, snack on nuts, fruits, and dried fruits, and to give your brain a little extra energy, eat something sweet. However, it is best to get carried away with sweets at the end of the working day, because after a quick influx of energy, its same rapid fall follows, and then forgive both concentration and focus.
Open any book on popular psychology and you will find tips on how to avoid distractions and finish your work faster. But only many of them are difficult to implement. How do you like the idea of spending the whole day wearing headphones? Or turn off the Internet so as not to look at social networks? Maybe you are able to instantly switch and imagine that your work is the most interesting, inspiring and fun? But if the tips do not work, what will help you not to be distracted?
1. Unplug
Can't concentrate on important work? This may seem absurd, but - then do not try to do this. More and more researchers are coming to the conclusion that we spend a significant part of the day simply daydreaming and fantasizing. But this is not laziness, not a whim, but something necessary that helps the brain to function normally.
Concentration requires the concerted action of different parts of the brain, including the frontal lobe, which is responsible for countering distractions and controlling our natural drive to do more interesting things, among other things. It takes a lot of energy to keep this system running smoothly. So at a certain point we inevitably slow down and our mind starts to wander.
People who can turn off their brains are more successful at complex tasks than those who let their brains tell them when to work and when not to. Manage the process. Decide for yourself when you need maximum concentration, and when you can relax a little and switch off. And do not feel guilty about this - on the contrary, such switching will make the work more efficient.
Cats, videos, funny statuses that are copied and spread over the Web endlessly seem like a distraction to us. But some psychologists believe that such videos, on the contrary, allow us to successfully cope with the work.
In one experiment, people who watched a funny video searched for a solution to a difficult problem longer and more thoroughly than subjects from the control group, who were shown relaxing but not funny videos. The researchers concluded that in order for people to work effectively, offices need to create a relaxed, fun atmosphere. Of course, this does not mean that everyone should watch such videos all day long. However, it's good to break into jokes from time to time, especially when you're tired.
3. Load yourself up even more
As early as 1955, psychologist Nilli Lavy of University College London proposed a theory she called the Load Theory. According to her, there is a limit to how much information from the outside world our brain can process in a particular period of time. When it is overloaded, the attention system itself begins to choose what to focus on.
Levy's experiments have shown that we work more efficiently not at empty, clean desks and in complete silence, but in disorder and chaos. “Perhaps this is because when the cells of perception are filled, all the energy of the brain is directed to the most important task,” the scientist says. “Everything else just gets cut off.” The problem with implementing this idea is to provide the right amount of distractions and not over-load.
4. Take a break
When something urgently needs to be done, a break is the last thing that comes to mind. Everyone needs a little respite. We can focus on something for a maximum of 90 minutes, after which we need a 15-minute break.
Even a very short pause, lasting only a few seconds, can help - provided that you do not think about current case. You can look out the window, perform a few simple arithmetic operations. Even better - take a walk, do a little warm-up, meditate.
5. Don't stress too much.
"Take more breaks!" - advise Joe Degutis and Mike Esterman from the Boston Laboratory for the Study of Attention and Learning. Through a series of experiments, they found that The best way keep concentration - work a little, and then take a short break. Those who tried to work without stopping ended up getting more tired and making more mistakes.
Christian Olivers from the Free University of Amsterdam agrees with these conclusions: “If you are in constant stress, work without a break, the ability to concentrate gradually fades away. Load yourself less. And do not forget to take breaks more often - in the end you will have time for much more.
A couple of years ago, I could not even think that I would be worried about the question of how to focus on myself. I definitely considered myself an independent person. And although I am a fairly sociable person, I am interested in the lives of many of my friends and relatives, but still, before I focused more on myself, on my own life and not on other people's lives. I was constantly moving forward and trying to figure out how I could improve myself and my future. In short, earlier I was completely focused on my life and I was little bothered by what was happening around.
But just a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that I was starting to change. I began to become more interested in the activities of other people, and something revived in me the desire to start focusing again on my social life. However, I immediately experienced a negative change in my personal life and found that all my attention was focused on the lives of my friends, and not on my own problems, goals and desires.
I wouldn't say that I had any serious problems because of this change in focus. But I can definitely say that I'm not in my place. This realization had a strong influence on me, and I had to look for ways out of this situation. So if you are also too focused on other people's lives and not on your own, I have prepared some tips on how you can break free from dependence on other people and shift the focus back to yourself.
1. Spend less time with other people
You need to start taking more time for yourself if you want to change the way you interact with other people. When you create a certain distance between yourself and another person, you create more opportunities to focus on your emotions, thoughts and desires. You give yourself more time to think about what you want out of life. But this does not mean that you need to completely distance yourself from these people. This means you need to spend less time with people and eliminate possible unhealthy patterns in how you interact with them. When you begin to move away from them a little, clarity and understanding of your desires will come to you, and changes will come after clarity.
2. Become more mindful
Remove various gadgets and distractions more often so that you can focus on your own life, on your own plans and goals. Mindfulness and concentration will help you better assess the situation you are in. And you will be able to better understand how to focus on yourself.
3. Come up with a list of personal goals
When you realize that you have stopped paying enough attention to your life. You have a desire to catch up. You want to get back on track and move forward. So first of all, sit down and think about yours and what you need to do to achieve this. Depending on how much time you have spent on other people's lives, you will need certain period to make up for lost time. But no matter what goals you set for yourself, start putting them into action if you want to focus on yourself and your life.
4. Take action
Once you have developed a list of goals and written a plan to achieve them, start taking action. It doesn't matter how small steps you take now. What matters is that you are moving forward. When you begin to understand that you have control over your life. And that you can make a huge breakthrough in life, you will be unstoppable. You will find that it is much more interesting and rewarding to get involved in your own life and pursue your own goals than it is to take care of other people's lives.
5. Be persistent
The most important thing about change is that it's difficult. If it were so easy to change your life, then there would be no need for self-improvement. So no matter how difficult the changes are, don't give up. If you allow yourself to give up, then it will be more difficult for you to give up your old habits, and you will return to them again. So keep moving forward, achieve your goals, and the result will not be long in coming.
6. Learn to speak "No"
The next way to focus on yourself is to learn to refuse people. You will not be able to do everything that you will be asked. And you can't get back the time you spend on other people's lives. Therefore, it is useful to sometimes refuse people, and prioritize personal tasks. Thus, you will have more free time and you can focus on yourself. Which will benefit your own life and health.
7. Do something for yourself
Whether it's walking, going on vacation, playing sports, or going shopping. In any case, do what you like more often. It may not be necessary to go abroad to take a break. You can go and see the sights in your city or surroundings. Even driving through the countryside and soaking up the fresh air and colors from environment, can become and focus on their own thoughts.
8. Be positive
In order to focus on yourself, you need to try to find the positive in everything. Whether it's your job, some problems, finances, your children and so on. There is always something good in what you have and what you are working on. So try everything. It's not only good way be more grateful. But it will make you feel a significant change in relation to yourself. And if something bad happens in your life, try to look at it differently. After all, it is the perception of the situation that upsets us, and not the situation itself.
9. Write down everything you are grateful for.
Robert Emmons is professor of psychology at the University of California. I found that people who wrote down five things they were grateful for weekly reported an increase in optimism and. Try and do the same. When you focus on what you have, you set yourself up to be positive and work on yourself.
10. Find happiness in your own success
For me personally, achieving success in some area brings
The ability to focus on one goal allows you to achieve maximum results. If concentration skills are absent at the right moment, sounds, people, extraneous thoughts distract. Learn to quickly concentrate and you will be surprised at your own efficiency.
Find a job you fall in love with and never have to work another day in your life Confucius
“Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, focus and make sure you know exactly what you want. No one can hit a target with their eyes closed."
When there is a lot of work, and besides it there is a whole bunch of other duties, the ability to correctly focus on the most important thing in this moment- a rather valuable quality, the possession of which will help you achieve tremendous results in any area of a diverse life.
Sometimes it can be really difficult to focus on something, even if you put maximum effort into it. That is why the ability to focus on a specific task is not only useful, but in some cases simply necessary (see "").
How to learn to quickly and fully focus on work
1. Realize your purpose
This is really extremely necessary so that your attention does not get distracted by the mass of various, but truly useless information that continuously and from everywhere enters the brain. The goal must be absolutely specific, tangible and visible (see ""). In addition, it should be in your brain all the time, sharply denoting in case you suddenly forget about it for a while. This constant sense of purpose is a powerful motivator that can motivate you to make the most of your own efforts to achieve it in reality.
And in order for all actions aimed at achieving it to be really effective, and no extraneous factors could distract you from the most important thing, you need to periodically imagine everything that will happen after achieving it.
2. The goal should be as realistic as possible
This is very significant, because the inability to concentrate is due precisely to the unreality and vagueness of the task. In addition, it is almost impossible to concentrate on a difficult and non-specific goal, which means that it will be almost impossible to achieve it. A real goal is able to constantly keep you on your toes, because at any time, if you wish, you can determine at what stage on the way to it you are now. And this feeling is the strongest motive for directing all efforts to bring its achievement as close as possible.
3. Set certain commitments
To begin with, it can be a specific time frame, but if you suddenly really realize that for some fairly objective reasons you cannot meet the deadline, then you must definitely “agree with yourself” that the task should still be solved. It is quite difficult to achieve a positive result if you develop a bad habit of quitting work halfway through.
4. Learn to set the right pace for the working day
The rapid start in the morning turns the work in the right business direction. To do this, you need to start performing work tasks as soon as you come to the office. Do not be distracted by unnecessary trifles. Remember one important rule: a quick effective start will lead to a really productive day.
5. Know how to take breaks
It has long been proven that the real productivity of labor manifests itself in certain cycles:
- infusion into the workflow - 10-15 minutes;
- 30 minutes of the most effective work;
- stage of gradual exhaustion - 45 minutes after the start of work.
That is why it is advisable to take small ten-minute breaks between cycles of the labor process. Such a change of work and rest allows you to maintain your own working capacity during the day for really high level(cm. " ").
Mindlessly immersing yourself in work without rest is exhausting and just as unproductive as a constant relaxed state. Shift into an efficient work schedule that alternates between an hour of intensive work and a ten-minute break, and you will see how much more productive you become.
6. Train your own sharpness of feelings
This can be achieved by steady exercises on the improvement of certain senses, and as a result, you will realize that this is a very useful skill that helps you focus at the right time. Practice hearing, seeing, touching, smelling, and tasting in a variety of ways and means, and you will soon find that you can accurately identify different scents or sensations.
Exercises that you can perform for these purposes absolutely everywhere, wherever you are at the moment, will help you learn to concentrate on elementary details, and then move on to a sustainable skill.
What can make it hard to focus
1. Various extraneous sounds
Ambient noise is a really annoying external factor that can negate all efforts to concentrate. It can be the sound of a working TV and loud music, and sounds from the street. To significantly reduce the impact of this irritant, you need to close the window or just move to another, quieter room.
If other people who are in the same room with you are the reason for the inability to concentrate, then do not hesitate to ask them to speak more quietly or even to keep quiet. Simply explain that you are engaged in a serious matter, the execution of which requires special attention from you. And if you learn to concentrate in a similar place with an increased noise background, then you will become the owner of an extremely rare, but very important ability that many dream of.
2. Own stream of consciousness
Constant internal dialogue during work that requires full concentration is quite annoying and distracting thing. Unnecessary at the moment disturbing thoughts interfere with concentrating on the work being done, and in order to get rid of this process, you just need to “scroll” in your head, and then think exclusively about the goal for some time. This will help you tune in to the desired result and complete your task quickly and correctly. Try to constantly keep the goal in front of your eyes - this will help you focus and not be distracted by other extraneous problems.
3. Internet irritant
As often before the start of work or directly during its execution, one wants to be distracted by the news of the World Wide Web and thereby significantly delay the moment when you still have to return to your usual routine. Sometimes a seemingly minute check of personal mail or news in social networks drags on to half an hour, or even more lost time.
An excellent way out in such a situation for you will be a clear planning of your working time. Try to set priorities that fully reflect your goals, as well as sequentially describe all the stages of a specific job.
Agree with yourself to limit the time of visiting Internet sites that are not related to your work, it is best to do this before starting work or directly during a break. Understand one thing: periodically being distracted by social networks, you delay the achievement of the desired result, because each subsequent injection into the desired business pace will require up to fifteen minutes of working time. Do not grab onto a lot of things at the same time, be able to correctly identify and prioritize - this will help you best focus on your work.
4. Negative mood
How often, to justify their own inaction, people begin to talk about poor health or lack of a working mood. Most often, these are ordinary excuses that justify your laziness in own eyes. Drive away such thoughts, constantly think about the result and the deadlines for your work. These thoughts will help you to really work actively and be in a positive mood.
5. Workplace lighting
It should be bright enough to stimulate your work activity. If the lighting is excessively dim, then your eyes will quickly get tired in the process of work, and this will eventually lead to distraction of attention to a general malaise. Try to choose a lamp with a fairly soft non-aggressive light, one that is right for you. Keep in mind that good lighting is the key to quality work.
6. Reasonable and thoughtful organization of the workplace
You should not choose an overly large and soft chair or sofa, as such furniture contributes to relaxation in the workplace. An office chair is much better - it will provide a comfortable fit and a positive working mood. Try to organize your place of work in such a way that the conditions are quite convenient, and the necessary items are located at an accessible distance.
In fact, in reality, focusing on the most important thing is not just an effort of will. Many internal and external factors can help in this, and some of them, on the contrary, can permanently and permanently distract from the process. But you can learn to concentrate and focus, these important skills will help you achieve your goals really effectively and in a fairly short time. And the desire to learn something depends solely on you.
The variety of worries and plans often force a person to rush to perform all tasks at the same time. Such behavior can exhaust a person so much that in the end there will be no strength left for anything. In reality, almost no one can be Julius Caesar. In order not to reach a nervous breakdown or physical exhaustion, you need to learn how to competently plan your near future, and, as they say, solve problems as they arise. Make a detailed list of all your responsibilities and plans. For each item, consider the required deadlines for its implementation.
