Do you spend the whole afternoon staring blankly at the computer screen? Time passes and you realise you haven’t finished your tasks for the day? We’ve all been there.
Whether it’s scrolling through videos of cute pets, or subconsciously jamming to background noise music, distractions are all around us. And it’s hard to learn to avoid them. But there’s good news. Psychology offers a few tricks that can help you improve mental focus and clarity.
This article will provide 5 tips on how to get through any task for as little time as possible and to avoid any distractions.
Limit Your Focus
Multitasking might seem like an effective way to get a lot of things done. However, one study has found that only 2.5% of ALL people can multitask effectively.
In fact, the neuroscientist Cynthia Kubu, PhD, says, “When we believe we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t doing two things simultaneously. Instead, we’re doing individual actions in quick succession, or we’re task-switching.”
You may think you’re good at it, but what you do is just shifting your focus too quickly between tasks and not really investing your time in any of them. This lowers the quality of the work. What’s more, it can even take more time than you initially thought it’d take.
How to fix it? Try focusing on one task at a time. By doing so, you’ll be able to stay clear about your goal and will be able to finish it faster. Single-tasking reduces stress and therefore increases the efficiency with which you perform.
Eliminate Distractions
This seems like an obvious one, right? But you’re often surrounded by distractions you don’t even realise are there. This affects your mental focus and the ability to fix your attention span for a longer time on the task at hand.
Assess your surroundings:
- Is the TV working in the next room?
- Are there people around you who disturb you
- What is that one thing you keep shifting your attention to without intending to?
Often, getting rid of those distractions isn’t as easy as it sounds.
So, start by limiting all those that are within your control. For example, put your phone in airplane mode to avoid getting lost in hours of pointless scrolling. Or find a distraction-free workspace where there aren’t people passing around and making too much noise.
Another way to make sure you lessen the chance of distractions? Be well-rested and positive. In this way, you avoid stressing over the task and finding reasons to not do it.
Find Your Peak Productivity Time
Every individual has different daily habit patterns. Some of us are morning birds. Others are night owls. So, it’s completely normal that you’re not active at all times of the day.
Ask yourself at what time of the day you feel the most productive. Start by noticing your patterns of inactivity and peak performance times. Write them down in a journal and assess your behaviour until you’ve created a schedule that works best for you.
After identifying whether you’re most active in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening, dedicate up to three hours of that time for uninterrupted work. Five-minute breaks every hour are a good idea to keep the creative juices flowing.
Be Mindful
Research has shown that meditation affects your brain structures in the areas of awareness, attention, and focus. It has been proven that after eight weeks of practice, the area of the brain involved in learning and memory develops greater grey matter density.
In other words, it’s good to be mindful. Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more present in the moment and sharpening your sense of awareness. It can involve meditation, deep breathing, or yoga.
And don’t worry. It doesn’t need to be hours of sitting on the yoga mat. Even as little as 10-15 minutes a day of quick deep breathing exercises can sharpen your senses and help your brain stay alert.
Take a Short Break
Pushing yourself to stay focused until the task is done often leads to quite the opposite of productive results. After a while, your brain just gets tired and loses focus. Therefore, your performance takes the blow.
A study from the University of Illinois found that even brief breaks vastly improve your focus. A short walk, a quick stretching, or preparing a cup of tea help your brain generate new ideas. In fact, taking a break in between periods of productivity helps you better retain information and make connections.
Research has proven that while daydreaming (i.e. taking a break), your mind is capable of solving even the hardest problems. To improve mental focus and clarity, you need to take short, regular breaks.
Bottom Line
Building brain focus and clarity is not easy. But it isn’t incredibly hard either.
It takes a few simple steps that we need to keep practicing every day. Consistency is key to achieving any type of success. Even the most disciplined people in the world need to not get off track to keep achieving great things.
Once you realise the impact these simple practices have on your life, you might find yourself doing them subconsciously on a daily basis.
These 5 tips to improve mental focus and clarity will help you feel the joy and fulfilment of being able to concentrate on the things that matter in life.
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