People can use different abilities to focus on important moments and to omit insignificant events.
Here on Yikigai, we present you with some of the tips you can use to increase your attention and not to get distracted by trifles.
Just plan your day
The practice advised by psychologists and personal growth trainers. Ideal for the modern person – use special applications on your smartphone to plan a day, week, month. There are a lot of apps for different tastes and colors.
It is worth highlighting and adding all your important tasks that need to be done in time for the day. It is not necessary to write down every second: just limit yourself to a frame of one or two hours. By the way, it is not necessary to perform all the tasks, the main thing is to pay attention to the most important ones and do not forget to free some time for rest!
Get some mental and physical rest
It is not possible to work 24 hours a day (or even standard eight without a break). Without periodic rest, concentration gets reduced in any case. So you have to make sure you have a proper rest, both: physical and mental.
Drink a cup of coffee or tea, try to relax in a calm atmosphere, go out for some fresh air and enjoy the sun. It is best to take breaks for 10 minutes every hour and a half – then the attention at work will return.
Get your workspace organized correctly.
There are two factors that can distract you from your work responsibilities:
1. Internal. Thoughts, emotions, experiences.
2. External. Mess on the table, noise from colleagues, lack of fresh air.
If you can get rid of internal irritants only by willpower or with the help of a psychologist, with external factors, everything is much easier. Try to organize your workplace as comfortable as possible, put your things in perfect order or turn everything into a functional mess – the main thing is to make you feel comfortable. As for noise, you can always isolate it by wearing headphones and turn on the music suitable for the work.
Avoid social networks
During rest breaks and even more so during the work itself, do not use social networks. First, it is a lot of unnecessary and distracting information. Secondly – you can seriously lose your feeling of time and get yourself stuck on the friends feeds for hours.
For the same reason, it is better not to watch the news feeds or any unnecessary sources of information.
We’re giving up multitasking.
The worst thing you can come up with for concentration is to try to do several things at once. With this approach, there is a risk of losing attention and doing the work poorly (or not at all), and then switching your focusing on something new becomes much more difficult.
Doing multiple things at once takes a lot of physical and mental energy, as a result – insomnia, stress, headaches, anxiety. Think about planning: perform each task completely according to a predetermined list.
Choose the right colors for your surroundings.
The artist Jacques Vienot already at the beginning of the XIX century noticed that “one can expect miracles from color, but they can also cause disaster”. And it’s true: color has different effects on a person – it’s a scientifically proven fact.
For example, yellow helps you activate your creativity, and therefore it is indispensable in brainstorming. Calm blue and green are ideal colors for long term concentration preservation.
Of course, no one will allow you to repaint the walls of the office in funny yellow, so use color in accessories. Pick the right color for your notebook, pen, photos, computer mouse and mouse pad and stickers. Avoid the bright red color – it has an exciting effect on your nervous system, which is seriously bad for your attention.
Sleep at least eight hours.
For normal functioning, the body needs at least eight hours of continuous sleep per day. Physiology – nothing can be done about it!
A few recommendations:
1. Approximately one hour before sleep, turn off your computer and TV, do not check out a smartphone or laptop. It’s best to fall asleep in complete silence.
2. You can read a paper book or drink a cup of green tea an hour before going to bed. This will help you relax and fall asleep quickly.
3. It is best to lie down before midnight: after 00 hours it is much harder to fall asleep.
4. Before bedtime, air the room: fresh air is always good. If the windows do not face a noisy street and the weather allows, you can keep your window open all night.
