We often have a hard time staying focused on what we are doing. Whether studying, working or doing any type of task, our mind starts to wander or thinking about problems and it is almost impossible for us to concentrate on what we are doing. If this happens to us, we must not despair or resign ourselves to the fact that it is always the case, since concentration, like many other faculties, can be exercised. Here we present a series of exercises that help you increase and maintain your concentration.
Index
- How to overcome a lack of concentration at work
- Improve concentration level
- Focus on success
- Easy exercises to improve concentration
How to overcome lack of concentration at work.
Sometimes it is impossible or very difficult for us to concentrate when we are working. If we finally manage to focus our attention on what we are doing, it is also difficult for us to maintain it, and soon our mind wanders away from the task that we are carrying out which, in the long run, means delays at work that may force us to spend more time in the office, make mistakes that we did not commit before, which diminishes the quality of our work and we end up mentally exhausted from the effort of concentrating on what we are doing.
The causes of this are many and varied, and to avoid it we must analyze what is the factor that is influencing our lack of concentration in order to solve the problem.
- Excess of technology: be continuously looking at the mail, the mobile phone, consulting the Internet or seeing what has been written on social networks makes us aware of many stimuli without concentrating on none. When you work, put your phone aside and check your email from time to time to focus on what you're doing.
- Lack of motivation: It is not easy to focus on what we find boring or what you are not interested in, either because you perform monotonous tasks or because your work does not appeal to you at all. If you can't change jobs, you can talk to your boss or human resources to guide your duties towards an area that interests you the most.
- Concerns: It is very difficult to stop thinking about an issue that worries us, be it family or work. In this case, relaxation exercises or trying to stop the spiral of thought can help us.
- Lack of sleep: It is usually the most common cause and the only solution is to rest enough hours at night or nap for a few minutes in the afternoon.
Improve the level of concentration.
Living with a high level of concentration in daily life helps you enjoy the present. And it is that, although by a habitual context, many people associate the term concentration with studies and knowledge, the reality is that, you can be concentrated in anything. For example, when you meet for a coffee with a friend, it is excellent that you focus on him and the conversation, instead of distracting yourself internally and thinking about your things.
Similarly, at work, you must think about what you are doing but not in problems of the future or in worries of the past. Concentration, in essence, allows you to live in the present, therefore, in the face of this power, fear of the future, stress and anxiety are also reduced. As you focus all your attention on the power of now, all the fears of yesterday and tomorrow disappear as if by magic.
On the other hand, in the society of haste and anxiety, it is also frequent that we make the mistake of wanting to do several things at the same time. You may be talking with your partner, while writing down something important in a notebook and at the same time, answering a phone call. It is simply better to slow down, and do not accumulate things because in that case, the attention is dispersed in many different aspects.
In addition, concentration is also improved by learning to be silent, thinking and internalizing aspects of each day. The time of night, before going to bed, can be the perfect occasion to write in a journal what is the good thing that you take from that day. This way you will feed your happiness and your dose of well-being every day with great strength and enthusiasm. Concentration is your own work that only depends on you.
Focus on success.
Imagine that you are playing golf and you have to take the next shot to get the ball into the hole. You have before you the entire expanse of grass and at the end you can see your goal, the flag. On your right you can see a sandbar and on the left a small lake. You look left and right contemplating the obstacles you have to overcome and prepare to strike.
Without warning your head starts to spin about what will happen if the ball falls in the sand, and if once in it you cannot hit it, yes that it will mean making a fool of yourself in front of the spectators, if this will put into question your ability as a golfer and little by little you get more and more highly strung.
When you get ready to hit again, your head travels towards the small lake and you cannot think of anything other than the fact of what will happen If your ball falls into the lake, if that will make others stop appreciating you, it will make you a failure, you will not be able to bear it and you will become depressed, etc.
Finally, you stand in front of the ball to hit it and put it in the hole, but all you really think about is not putting the ball on the sandbar and not throwing it into the lake. All your mental energy is focused on it, so much so that you have forgotten your objective. When you hit, your ball will end up in the sand or in the water.
This is what happens to us many times when we have to face a challenge. We stop again and again to think about everything that can go wrong, about all the obstacles that we find and forget to focus on what really matters, on the goal for which we are fighting. Concentrate.
Easy exercises to improve concentration.
- Think of a simple geometric figure, such as a square, circle, or triangle, and try to imagine it from the as accurately as possible and try to keep it in your mind for a while while you perform other tasks everyday. Once you can do it easily, you can try combining two shapes with each other (a circle within a square, for example) and keep that image for a while.
- Pick up a book and start counting all the words in a paragraph if it is long or in a set of paragraphs if it is short. When you finish write down the number of words and then recount them to see if you have done it correctly. Repeat this exercise every day and you will notice how little by little your concentration improves, even in the most tedious tasks.
- Visualize a point of the color you want and hold the image of it in your mind for at least thirty seconds. With practice, try increasing the time until you reach, say, five minutes.
- Take an everyday object that you don't pay much attention to, such as a fork, and focus on it, observing it from all sides. points of view, turning it, noticing its touch, its temperature, its smell, its taste... focus all your attention on it while you do this homework.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Exercises to improve your concentration, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.
