6 Strategies To Enhance Focus

Eliminate distractions.
Setting a time in your schedule to do a specific task or activity is a good practice. Go to a place where others are unlikely to disturb you: a library, a coffee shop, your personal space. Silence your devices and put them in another room, or at least keep them in a drawer or your bag. Cognitive capacity is significantly increased when a phone/tablet is out of sight.

Reduce multitasking.
It’s a misnomer to equate multitasking with productivity. Instead multitasking lowers focus, impairs concentration, and decreases productivity. Multitasking is when you have a sports match on the TV while writing an email or listening to a podcast while reading a text book. Multitasking makes it impossible to focus and the quality of your work is greatly compromised.

Try the 25:5 rule
Set a 25 minute timer or pull together a 25 minute playlist of binaural beats, classical music or nature soundscapes. Give yourself up to the 25 minutes of intense focus on just one task. At the end of the music or when the timer goes off, stand up immediately. Stretch, shake out any tension, breathe deeply, drink a glass of water and move around for 5 minutes. Then go back to your workspace refreshed and ready for the next 25 minutes of intensive focus.

Just one thing
With limited hours in the day, it can be overwhelming to face a long list of tasks which need to be accomplished. This can lead to avoidance or taking on small, important tasks just to feel productive. To counter this, write down the six tasks you would like to accomplish today. Of those six, choose three that are the most important. Of the three, identify one task to which you will commit to completing today. Break that down into 25 minute chunks and before you know it, you’ll be tearing through your to-do list with a sense of achievement, not overwhelm.

Switch tasks.
Diving deep into a task with super-concentration can find us getting stuck and frustrated. and our brains needing something fresh just to wake them back up again. It’s the same principle as when you can’t recall a well-known name when it’s on the tip of your tongue and it’s only when you’re thinking about something completely unrelated that the name pops into your head. It’s as if the brain needs space to make those neural connections while we’re thinking of something else. When you get stuck, try switching to another task or take a short break and do something you enjoy. It will help you stay awake and productive.

Put YOU first
While it’s easy to get so engrossed that you forget to look after yourself, it’s imperative for your effectiveness to stay hydrated. To eat well, especially foods which are high in healthy fats and potassium. Taking time out in nature will boost the natural endorphins and wake you up properly, ready for the day’s work ahead. Meditation, breath work, stretching and mindfulness are all helpful for mental agility. Practice being in the now to reduce distractions of past memories or future plans. Get plenty of sleep, turn off devices a good hour before sleep to allow melatonin to secrete and set you up for sleep.