Do you sometimes have a hard time focusing? Regardless of whether it’s work you need to do, a conversation you’re trying to have, or a hobby you like to engage in – you keep getting distracted. You are multitasking, are checking social media, or your mind is buzzing with random thoughts and ideas. In such moments, how do you refocus on what’s at hand? Well, this is a good time to improve your focus!
Here are 3 Tips on How to Focus
Digital-Detox
Your phone beeps and flashes, a red number steals all your attention, and your social media feeds are too tempting to resist. For most of us, our digital tools have become our greatest source of distraction. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of quick gratifications and FOMO. It simply feels too good to be up-to-date and too scary not to be.
However, our online addiction is ruining our ability to focus. All those notifications and all that noise are shortening our attention span and empowering our monkey mind.
So what to do about it?
👉 Digital detox! 👈 but not necessarily in the sense that you go in full-on offline modus, delete all your apps, throw away your phone and go live in the woods (but if that’s what you need, go for it). A digital detox can come in many shapes and forms. Here are a few suggestions on how you can detox a bit every day:
- Turn off banners or even all notifications if you’re bold to avoid being pulled away from what you’re doing whenever someone sends you a silly emoji. You can always keep them turned off or at least during the periods when you want to focus.
- Schedule a daily period of offline time, for example from 9 PM to 9 AM. How we begin and end our day has a huge impact on how the rest of our day looks and how well we sleep. Treat yourself to a few hours of peace every day and you’ll boost your ability to focus immensely.
- Install plugins that block your access to social media feeds, for example like this one, which substitutes your social media feed with an inspirational quote. No scrolling, but instead an inspirational kick in the ass.
These are just a few ways to reduce your online addiction. Try different stuff out and find a solution that works for you.
Meditation
Another great way to rekindle your focus is through meditation. No matter if it’s five, ten, or twenty minutes, the benefits of a regular meditation practice are enormous. You will:
🧐 find it easier to focus
😌 feel less stressed
😤 calm your mind and your nervous system
🤩 boost your energy level
🤒 improve your mental and physical health
☺️ etc. etc. etc.
There are many ways to meditate. Some prefer to sit in silence, other use apps such as Headspace or Insight Timer for a guided meditation. Doing this every morning or every evening (or both) will also improve your mental clarity throughout the day and the quality of your sleep at night.
Create a Life You Don’t Want to Escape
The last tip takes a broader perspective on the matter and asks: What if your life was so exciting that you didn’t feel any need to distract yourself?
The most common reason why we distract ourselves with our phones and with our bad habits is because we feel bored. Every day looks the same, we’re stuck in our comfort zone, and we just do what we’re asked to do. That’s no fun nor very inspiring.
But imagine if you created a life for yourself where you were challenging yourself every day, constantly learning new things, went on crazy adventures, had amazing experiences with amazing people, and worked on things that really mattered to you? Do you still think you would spend hours and hours distracting yourself? Probably not.
So how do you create a life you don’t want to escape from? Ask yourself:
- What do you want to experience?
- To be the person who lives life with these amazing experiences, how do you need to grow?
- If you had the life with these amazing experiences and had grown to this level, how will you contribute?
And then find ways to turn those answers into reality. What can you do today to make your life more fulfilling and exciting? What people can you reach out to? Which books can you read? What experiences can you have? If you do things you enjoy, you’ll naturally be able to focus and thus strengthen your ability to focus in general.
The successful [pirate] is the average man with laser-like focus.
– Bruce Lee
