Focus is a lot like using a mental muscle. The more you work on building it up, the stronger it will get. The best ways to help you focus are often down to a number of things. Improving your mental focus is totally achievable but it may not be as easy as you think at first. You’ll need to make a real effort and change some of your daily habits to make your focus razor-sharp.
So, if you feel like the time has come to improve your focus and need some help in making it happen, read on…
Improve mental focus
First things first. Before worrying about staying focused, you might want to assess how strong your mental focus is right now.
If you are someone with good mental focus you will;
- Find it easy to stay alert
- Be able to set goals and stick to them
- Take breaks and go straight back to work
If you are someone whose focus needs improving you will;
- Find yourself zoning out and/or daydreaming
- Be easily distracted by your surroundings
- Lose track of what you’re doing.
- Think of how to stay focused at work
If you relate more to the first set of statements, your focus is already fairly good and may just need a little more practice to make it great. If you relate more to the second set of statements then you need to work on your mental focus that bit more. It may take some time but adopting good habits and being more mindful of your distraction ‘triggers’ will help.
Another way to improve mental focus is to learn how to eliminate distractions. Distractions often prevent us from focusing on the task at hand. These distractions could come in the form of background noise, online, or interruptions by peers and colleagues, and while sometimes it’s as simple as turning off the radio, it’s far more challenging when it comes from people.