How to improve focus and concentration level? Maybe this question would be hitting up your mind. Why I’m not able to concentrate on things? After hearing this from many, even I also experienced the same. So, I decided to point out the answer to this, what I got was really amazing. Our mind is an extraordinary organ of our body, it has very great capabilities, with some practice and exercises one can become a mastermind.
In this article, you’ll find some secrets to improve focus and concentration level of your mind, which I think is very important to be shared with today’s stressful and busy life.
Imagine a fat and lazy man who spends most of his time at home watching T.V., surfing the internet and obviously eating a lot. If this man participates in a marathon, will he win and able to compete those professional runners? No, because running is a skill and to win a race like a marathon lot of practice is required.
The same goes with focus level, it is also a skill and to improve it we have to learn and practice. We are born with a limited amount of focus and concentration level which help us to learn and recognize things as we grew up, but at a certain age when our work load increases it becomes difficult to handle, and an advanced level of concentration is needed to deal with these activities to move smoothly.
To have a high level of focus you need a better concentration level. So, first of all, let us understand what concentration is because it is very important for you to understand the meaning of concentration and should stick it in your mind.
‘Concentration is an act of isolating attention just on a specific task’.
In simple words, you can only pay attention to a single task at a time. But the problem is the distraction which comes up between. For example: Sometimes while checking out emails, one got to know about the latest video song released by Ed Sheeran and he moves towards the YouTube instead of checking the e-mails.
Humans can only focus on one task at a time. Can you read your email while watching a video song?
That is what the basis of concentration tells us, even If your open a lot of program on a PC, it sometimes lags even crashes when overloaded the same goes with the human brain, when a lot of things are moving up in your mind it becomes very difficult to focus on a particular task. Also, it’s a reason for stress and depression. So, how to get rid of these distractions and have a proper control over oneself? Well, it needs some exercises and practice. Even reading this article full without getting distracted is like a mental exercise for you.
So, now let us know what are the 5 secret ways to improve focus and concentration.
Secret ways to improve focus and concentration level
1. Start Small
When any new person joins a gym, the trainer tells him to start with a light weight and slowly increases the weighted intensity over a period of time. So, that the body gets accustomed to that much weight. But many think themselves as superhuman and try to build 6 pack abs in a single day and result in either injuring themselves or may lose interest at last.
The same goes for the mind game. Just watching few videos or reading some article on improving focus and concentration will not work, unless and until you practice for it.
So, how to get started?
Suppose you have to read a book so that you may not lose interest over it or get distracted. It can be done by targeting small time intervals. Like:
- Target to a specific period of time like, I’ll read this book without getting distracted for at least 1 minutes.
- Read with full attention till the targeted period.
- When the targeted time period is achieved increase the time limit for a bit longer period. Like if previous time set was 10 minutes when it’s achieved extent the time period more to 15 minutes.
This exercise will help you to stick to an activity for a longer period of time with more concentration and less distraction. This method can be done on any activity, either for short or long period activity.
But, how to stop that distraction still coming up in between? Isn’t it.
There are many reasons for distraction but the major factor why we get distracted is due to the lack of will power.
2. Will Power
Will power is the ability to control over oneself. Low will power is the reason for lack of concentration. The level of will power and concentration can highly affect our lives, which can be easily understood by the marshmallow test.
The Marshmallow Test
Walter Mischel an American psychologist conducted a test in the Stanford University, America. In the test few children were kept in a room and were presented with a marshmallow and given a choice: Eat this one now, or wait and enjoy two later. It would be a bit difficult for those children’s to wait for their favorite thing. As a result, every 2 out of 3 children ate the marshmallow. The objective of this test was to examine the will power and the behavior of the children’s. This was seen later in their life after 15 years.
The children who ate one marshmallow were examined with low concentration level also were not able to achieve much in their life. Whereas, the children’s who waited for a while and ate two marshmallows were examined with high concentration level also were very much successful in their life
Hence, it is proved that high will-power increases the concentration level by giving the strong order to the brain not to distract and also very much possible to make you a successful person.
Will power is nothing but patience. Even Columbus didn’t find America in one day but he did it with his strong will-power and patience. Just try to include this exercise in your routine to achieve a high will-power.
Looking at the knob
This exercise will very much improve your will power. Just follow the steps:
- Select a free time in your routine.
- At the selected time go to a quiet room, where you can’t be disturbed.
- Sit on a chair or floor facing towards the door of the room with a totally relaxed body.
- Just watch at the door lock for at least 5 to 10 minutes.
- Note all your experience in a notebook.
- Repeat this process for 6 days.
Maybe, this exercise would be looking a bit weird, but it really improves the will power. In the starting, you’ll experience time moving slowly and many thoughts coming up to your mind but you have to stop these thoughts and just focus towards the door lock. As you practice it daily those thoughts will minimize and the time seems to move fast.
By, writing down every small observation in a notebook will help you a lot in knowing the behavior of your brain.
3. The Control
One of the biggest challenges of life is to get control over oneself. We all have some goals in our life, but without a proper self-control, it’s hard to achieve. Self-control actually means a proper control over mind and body and using it accordingly to achieve the goals.
Self-control is one of the major factors affecting the focus and concentration level. If you can’t learn to get proper control over the mind and body, it is not possible to improve focus and concentration.
The Mind
That person can never get control upon himself unless and until he stabilizes his emotions. For example: When a person gets very much angry he loses control over himself and can utter anything comes over his mind also a person too much happy or excited, are not under their control. It is not them but their emotions which control over them.
So, it is very much important to have control over your emotions. But how can we control our emotion? Hang on the answer to this is in the 4th point, keep reading.
The Body
Next, comes the body, well our body is very much capable to face heavy challenges. A healthy body is a key to a healthy mind. The healthier you make your body the more you’ll improve focus and the concentration of your mind.
How to take care of the body? This is the most popular question of all time, I think. You can find much information in context to this question on this site. But anyhow, you should try to include these things:
- Eat healthy food.
- Exercise daily.
- Take proper rest.
- Take regular check-ups.
- Always keep yourself updated with information towards health & fitness.
- Drink lots of water.
4. Meditation
We all live in a stressful life wake up early, then work, work, work! Till getting on to the bed and filling up our brain full of stress and depression. What is the reason for stress? It is the thousands of thoughts just hitting up in our mind. About 70% of them are either have very little chances or will never happen.
But thanks to those early people’s for discovering this incredible thing ‘meditation’. Mediation is an activity of deep rest, in this, the practitioner just sits relaxed and lets the mind to dissolve. It is highly recommended to make it a part of your daily routine.
Some benefits of meditation:
- Helps improve focus and concentration level.
- Gives better control over emotion.
- Reduces stress, depression, and anxiety.
- Improvement in communication.
How to perform meditation?
- Select a free time in your routine.
- At your selected time, go to a silent and quiet room, where you can’t be disturbed.
- Sit on the floor with folding legs and with the palm facing each other and figures locked, also with a totally relaxed body. (Do not hymn or play any music).
- Wipe all thoughts from your mind, not even a single thought should lag there.
- Just focus on your breath, the breathing should be natural. Just the deepness of the breath and nothing else.
- Try to hold this position for at least 10–12 minutes.
Doing practice daily will make you a master in mediation and will reduce your stress and depression and will also improve focus and concentration level of your mind.
5. Supplements to improve focus and concentration
Well, our brain is very much capable to improve focus and concentration level by some practice and exercise, but it takes a bit long time. Just by adding some supplements with these exercises will boost up the process and will achieve your goal much faster.
Brain octane oil
Brain Octane Oil is a ketone generating fat which is directly converted into energy, and is highly consumed by the brain as a fuel source and increases the brain efficiency.
Vanilla
Real vanilla is an anti-inflammatory and stress reducer. Too much stress reduces the efficiency of the brain and inflammation slows down the neuroprocessing. By adding vanilla in your coffee or ice-cream will help you overcome stress and inflammation.
Modafinil
Modafinil is a legitimate nootropic which helps to improve the sleep disorder and it also ramps up your energy, focus, and cognitive power.
Conclusion
As I told earlier focus is an ability you have to develop, which can only be done through practice. The more you practice the more you’ll improve focus and concentration level. This will also be going to help you in achieving the goals of your life.
Try to include the above points daily in your routine as given in this article on ‘secret ways to improve focus and concentration level’.
