It doesn’t matter whatever you’re doing. The thing does really matter is how do you perform. If you’re performing best in your field you will be one of the most respected people in the field. And to perform better the most important factor is the focus. As you’re focused as you perform better. Isn’t it so?
Now the question arises, how to be focused at work to perform better? Especially, when you’re not working on your life goals. Because when you’re working for your life goals you automatically work better. So in this case how to keep the mind focused?
What did I learn when I was distracted?
Not everyone is focused every time. It’s true. But, as I said earlier there is 1 solution to every problem that is self-education.
A couple of days ago, when I lost my focus. My thoughts were scattered and I was dispersed for which I suffered a lot. I felt a huge pain because I was unable to do whatever I was passionate about. It’s really a painful situation. Isn’t it?
Well, I was lucky enough that I never forgot my goals and passion. I was always thinking about how can I take back control of my focus and how can I focus even better than before?
It was a difficult task to get back control on focus and work on my life goals with the passion that I had before. I believe that everything is possible to achieve when you’re committed for it and as I was committed, I sooner found the reasons that were causing distractions. I worked on the reasons and got rid of distractions and finally, I was back to work on passion.
Here I’m calling my work as a passion because this is an extra effort that I’m making to change my life and others. Otherwise, I’m involved in some other kind of businesses to make a livelihood. That’s why I required a bit more effort to remember my goals and not to get distracted.
How to keep the mind focused to perform better?
With my own personal exposure and with some research, I learned a couple of things that helped me stay focused. I found tons of distractions and some tools to avoid them. So here are some suggestions that can help people stay focused and perform better.
Don’t let social media and mobile phone distract you:
Once I read on Gates Notes that Bill Gates doesn’t even watch movies and TV so that to keep the mind the focused on work. He said it distracts his mind and don’t let him work properly. So he doesn’t watch such things.
I stopped listening to music and watching TV in my 20s. It sounds extreme, but I did it because I thought they would just distract me from thinking about software.
– Bill Gates
You can imagine a movie or a serial which will end in an hour and a half or two and a half can affect the mind so badly that Bill Gates started avoiding it, but the mobile phone you have in your hands, ringing many times in each hour for notifications of social media accounts or calls or messages what impact do they have on your life?
According to University of California Irvin study, it was found that while working on something if you’re distracted once it will take 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get the focus back into your control.
Stop for a while and look into your routine, how often do you use social media? How often do you check your screen to check notifications? Do you put the phone on flight mode?
Please don’t scroll down and look into this matter – answer these questions to yourself. Because to improve things you have to measure them.
If your phone and social media are the biggest distractions in your life then today set a time for using it. Until you don’t set time for social media, you can’t control your focus.
Plan and prioritise the important things:
Brain Tracy in the book “Eat That Frog” has said that if you spend your first 12 minutes on planning your day, it can save 120 minutes on work.
When you plan and prioritise the tasks, you don’t get distracted and perform better.
Let’s say you have to complete 5 tasks on a day, and you don’t prioritise or make a plan for the tasks. What will happen?
Your mind will be scattered, you won’t be satisfied with any of the tasks and your thoughts will be engaged in this and that work. You will be feeling like, OMG, I had to do this before that. It had saved my time and efforts.
It’s clear that to work with better focus your mind should be clear about what you’re gonna do and anything should be done later.
Learn to say ‘No’:
In my case, I lost my focus due to two main reasons, I didn’t say ‘No’ and I didn’t take proper rest.
It’s not easy to say no to everyone. Especially to whom you spend most of the time. Your life partner, your family and a couple of your friends.
I was engaged in some tasks that were essential to do to keep my relationships stronger but were not of my taste that much. You can say it was any other track on which I had to run and perform efficiently.
As I was focusing on something else I found it a bit difficult to work on my own goals, and after completing the tasks it took me a few days to take control back on my focus to work on my own life goals with my previous routine.
Here, if I had realised that nothing is perfect so I shouldn’t be. I had not accepted the tasks and was not going to leave my own routine. I was able to give a little time to my fellows but had not wasted my time. Well, I don’t regret because I have learnt from it and I know I won’t compromise on my time once again – easily.
Take care of your mental health:
Napoleon hill has categorised mental health and physical health the two most important success factors to become rich.
The reason is until you don’t have a strong mind, you can’t work efficiently. Qasim Ali Shah has said that our mind is like a monkey, it loves to go from this thought to that. And it finds difficult to stay focused on something. But successful people work on the thoughts process to slow down it and improve the focus.
Successful people like Bill Gates meditate regularly because meditation will help you practice to focus on a single thing for long.
It doesn’t take a lot of time to meditate but if you meditate even 5 minutes at the beginning of the day, you will feel more efficient and focused your whole day.
Take care of your physical health:
It’s said that a person is rich if he has a physically fit body. Because someone who has a strong body and muscles has always ability and energy to do anything. The only thing is to start working on it.
It has great importance to keep the mind focused. You can imagine that whenever you’re more distracted most of the time your body will not be fit and strong. Maybe, you were feeling some pain, and with pain how can a mind concentrate on work when the focus is already in pain? You should see what you can do keep yourself physically fit. The two main factors are as follows.
- Exercise
- Food (Nutrients)
#1. Exercise
Exercises make all the muscles active and strong. You can imagine a man with strong and active muscles can perform more efficiently than a person with a lazy mind and body.
It’s true that most of the people don’t have much time to go to the gym and exercise. Maybe, you’re one of them. What you should do when you can’t go to the gym?
You don’t need to go to the gym to keep yourself physically fit. You can spend only 30 minutes to walk and running and it’s enough to keep yourself physically fit.
#2. Food
You can’t keep yourself healthy until you don’t consume all the nutrients required for a healthy body.
Jim Kwik who is teach to learn faster emphasis on healthy food. If your brain is not healthy it means you can’t improve your concentration. Look up ghk-cu review to learn more.
Work on mindfulness throughout the day:
It’s always good to meditate 20 minutes a day to keep your focus alive. But is it enough?
No, it’s not.
In the book “The Compound Effect” it’s said that tiny things have a great impact on our lives. So when you will try mindfulness on all the things you do, even tiny things it will improve your concentration and help you do better.
For example, while drinking water to talking to any fellow, if you attention is on everything you do, your mind will automatically become habitual of focusing on all the things properly.
Do one thing at a time:
Our brain’s operating system is not made for multitasking. And you don’t need to try it. You must remember that different parts of brain control different things, but your whole body is in control of your brain. When a mind will order different instructions at a time, then the body won’t work efficiently. Right?
So is the case with everything. If you have different things to think on, your mind will work in zigzag. Your mind won’t focus on one thing.
And when you practice doing one thing at a time, your mind will become habitual of focusing on a single thing. Your mind will exert all the efforts and work efficiently.
Take short brakes and sleep properly:
When you work hard and don’t take rest, you feel restlessness and hence you can’t work efficiently. Maybe, it’s your case. And it can be if you don’t care about it.
To regain your energy and focus, it’s essential to take short breaks of 15 minutes each after 2 hours of work. And if you don’t you will feel overburdened and lose your focus easily.
Rest has a great impact on your performance. Dr Michael Bruce has said that on average American sleep for near about 6 hours but extraordinary performers sleep 7 to 8 hours. So it’s essential to take short breaks and proper sleep to improve your focus and performance.
All of these are the techniques that I use in my life to keep my mind focused, what do you do to improve your focus or keep the focus alive?