How to Sharpen Your Focus

How to Sharpen Your Focus It is so easy to go through your daily life constantly distracted by something. Most of the time it isnt even really important, we just deem it to be a little bit more important than what we are doing. You might be in the office, at your desk about to get started but you hear your workmates chatting in the coffee room. Or, you are mid-conversation with a friend and hear your emails go off, pop them open and nod while not really listening to your friend. One that is increasingly common is sitting at the lights, grab your mobile phone for a moment, next thing you know the driver behind is honking their horn and you hit the gas a touch too fast (now you’re getting sued for driver negligence too). Good performance is about the capacity to focus and concentrate Betty Buckley So it is time to get to work on your focus. Getting distracted is something no one should really be proud of. Avoiding distractions is just that start, getting yourself into the habit of concentrating for longer than 5 minute periods is what you’re going to start with. Every day, you need to get intentional. Name your goals, or write them down. What do you want to get done by the end of the day? What projects in your working life do you need to clear? Don’t do this while brushing your teeth, set a space out to dedicate to it. Think of it as the first step to getting that focus in order. Next, only pick three things to complete every day. If you do more, then great, but, in general, we stretch ourselves too thinly and that is when we make mistakes, get burned out or stress headaches. Control the external factors where you can. For example, the chances are you check your phone multiple times an hour, you hear your email notification and pick it up to read. Whatsapp, texting and scrolling Facebook. You might’ve even got a bit of a shock with the new iPhone notification about just how much screen time you’re using. You can download an application that will lock your phone for certain periods of the day that you set. If you aren’t comfortable with that, put it on silent and leave it somewhere else for a little while. Let people know what you are doing, and they are less likely to get in touch with you unless it is vital. Tame your wandering mind. Get in the zone by dedicating one space to work, and your brain will start to naturally focus when you’re in that area. You could also employ some great focusing techniques. Pomodoro is one of the most popular, it helps combat the Parkinson’s Law (that we all suffer from). Upping your focus doesn’t have an overnight fix, but with a few tweaks, you can be a lean, mean, laser focused machine.