Opinion – Five ways to stay more focused

One step at a time. Picture this. You are a freelancer writer and a part-time academic tutor. You have a ton of things to be done in your to-do list. From your students’ school works and projects, your unanswered e-mails from your clients and editors, your household chores and errands, all demanding are your attention and staying focused is really hard. The tendency for you not be able to finish every thing in your list on time and the list goes on and on.

In the midst of these things, our brains cannot focused so many things at a time. In the recent studies published by Harvard Research, our attention spans are getting worse by the day, some have shorter than a goldfish. Our brains are considered to be the most powerful, but being pulled in many directions at once that our ability to focus on the task at hand becomes limited. Doing multi-tasking sounds cool in our job description or in our abilities, but this means the quality of our work suffers or our relationship suffers. If staying focusing in the task at hand means you can be a better worker, a better partner.

According to the authorities at Harvard, there are ways, which you can do if you are feeling unfocused and the cup of joe cannot help; these can help.

Know Your ABC’s. This trick made by Harvard Business Review, for your brain to have a break pedal of sorts. You need to be Aware of your choices, either give into the distractions or keep going. Breathe deeply. Finally, Choose what choice you will move forward with. Doing these tasks, can help you to continue you in your task.

Set Your Intentions. Whenever we start a task it is the best we set the best intention for our attention before we caught in the moment of distraction. Make two lists: What is the most important for you today, and what information do you have the likelihood of missing? Focus on the most important and set it on positive intentions.

Use Technology to Retaliate. Research found that alerts and notifications send a message to our brains that something else is a top-priority, when in reality that it is not. Filter your e-mail; automate your news and use a simple free tools to help managing your social media presence.

Lessen your Negative Emotions.Psychologists recommend a 3:1 balance of positive and negative emotions for optimal focus. For the reason, the negative emotions are regarded as threats by our brains, prevents our ability to do other cognitive work.

Build Space. According to an article published in Harvard Business Review, recent studies indicate that mediating for just a few minutes a day, spending just one hour a week in nature or writing down in a journal in the evening has a distinct impact on our well-being. Having a “me” time is not being selfish, rather you are focusing to improve your focus.

Being consistent in anything that we do can help us to focus on the task at hand. It can be hard if you are trying it out for the first few days, but as the time goes by it becomes part of you. By having these brain hacks at your hand, you can reduce the results of your distractions. Training your brain to regain your focus in achieving more and transforming the best version of yourself.

Now you are ready to conquer the world and able to focus on anything that you wanted to do.