StressedMum
Concentration is your ability to control the attention you put on something, to focus your mind on one subject or objective. Concentration is essential when we need to complete our work or accomplish tasks. But sometimes you may find yourself struggling to maintain your focus, even if you know that the object of your attention is important. This is because our ability to concentrate can be affected by different factors. Which is why we are sharing 8 Mindful Habits That Improves Concentration.
Factors like a lack of sleep and a noisy environment can have a negative impact on your concentration. Fortunately, keeping certain practices can help you hone attentiveness and resist distractions. Read the seven habits below and make them a part of your daily routine to help improve your concentration.
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ToggleMeditation or prayer can help improve concentration because both activities require you to focus and calm your mind. In doing so, you practice and improve your ability to control your thoughtsAMP or what your mind pays attention to.
If you’ve never meditated before, some applications and websites can provide you with a brief guide on how to get started. Meditation is commonly associated with yoga and breathing exercises, but other activities such as daily affirmations can also be a form of meditation. You find you can learn how to meditate with Headway, who offer a beginners guide to meditation.
For the religious, prayer time may already be part of your daily routine but you may want to follow a set schedule or try new prayers. You can use aids like the Muslim Pro app to remind you of prayer times. You can also turn to religious texts like the Bible or Quran for daily inspiration to meditate on.
Before starting your day, list down goals and tasks you might want to accomplish. Ideally, this is done the night before, but it can also be used to start your day. By listing down your tasks, you can do a mental rundown of everything you need to do and identify which tasks you need to finish first.
If you don’t have time-sensitive tasks, prioritise doing ones that require more energy or effort to accomplish. To help you complete them, break them down into smaller goals that are easier to finish. By doing this, you lessen the dread that you associate with the task, and you will find yourself procrastinating less.
Technology’s vast improvements also mean more distractions. From social media to streaming services, we often find ourselves easily interrupted from doing our tasks. Notifications can be particularly distracting because they are designed to draw your attention. Unfortunately, they can also pull you away from what you’re doing and lead you to a rabbit hole of scrolling through your social media account. Eliminate this diversion by turning off your notifications, hiding your phone, or putting your devices on silent.
If your work or school doesn’t require you to use the internet, consider turning off your connection while doing your tasks. Otherwise, you can use applications to limit your online access, so you can only use programs for work or school during certain hours. This helps limit your distractions and allow you to focus on what matters.
Train your brain to focus by playing brain games such as sudoku, chess, crossword puzzles, and more. Because of the level of focus required to play these games, they also improve concentration. Studies show that playing these games for even just 15 minutes a day shows positive results on focus and attention.
Concentrating for a long time is difficult and it can be very taxing. The best way to fully focus on a task is to work on it for some time and then take a break. Using productivity techniques can help you build the habit of taking breaks so you don’t wear yourself out.
One popular example is the Pomodoro Technique, which is working without distractions for 25 minutes and then taking a break for 5 minutes. This technique is perfect if you have a somewhat short attention span, as it gives you some time to indulge in your distractions before going back to a fully-focused work mode.
Exercise has multiple health benefits, including the improvement of your concentration. Exercising daily, even with just simple aerobic exercises, shows positive effects on your ability to focus after just 4 weeks. Aside from benefiting your concentration, exercise can also help you stop or reverse memory loss and provide other mental health benefitsAMP.
Lack of nutrients in the body or starving yourself can impede your concentration. Correct this by eating food that moderate blood sugar, maintain energy, and fuel the brain. Foods like nuts, berries, avocados, and coconut oil contain fats that can help your brain run smoothly. Increase fruit and vegetable intake as well to help you maintain blood sugar levels and help your brain be more responsive.
Avoid processed food, food with too much sugar, greasy food, as well as sugary drinks that can spike your energy but leave you feeling dizzy or drowsy soon after.
One of the best ways to improve your concentration is to improve your sleep schedule. Distractions and loss of focus are often related to grogginess or fatigue caused by lack of sleep. Aside from this, lack of sleep also lowers your alert level and slows down your thought processes.
Get better sleep quality by exercising, eating well, and lessening device usage at night. If you can’t avoid using your phone before bed, turn on the blue light filter to minimize its effect on your wakefulness.
Concentrating or paying attention to the work you need to do can be difficult sometimes, but having these habits can help you improve your ability to concentrate. Like any skill, you’ll need constant practice to get better. Trying them just once or doing them only when you need to concentrate may not be enough to make a difference. Apply these habits into your routine to help you focus in the long run.
At times I razor sharp
After having covid for the third time this year I’m really struggling remembering easy things
I know it will improve but I get so frustrated
As Long Covid is similar to ME/CFS brain fog is a thing
I think my concentration is far worse now then when I was younger
Mine definitely is