HOW TO IMPROVE CONCENTRATION AND AVOID DISTRACTIONS.

You must have heard people saying that if we practice a game, or for that matter any skill, for 7-8 hours a day, we will get far better at it in just 6 months. Now Imagine how much we practice distractions. We almost distract for 12-14 hours a day (Apart from sleeping and scrolling through social media probably), 7 days a week, every week for years.

Where we can be good at a skill (here distraction) in mere 6 months, we have been doing “distraction” for all our lives, for 5-10-20 years, and then we say why do we get distracted so easily?

Of course, we will. We have mastered the skill of distraction by diligently practicing it for so long.

I am not condemning you, it had been the same for me. In fact, getting distracted is in human nature by default.

If we try to look into its evolutionary basis, researchers suggest that Human beings started with nomadic life. They roamed around and had a life full of adventures for millions of years. Then the agricultural and industrial revolutions happened and the lifestyle changed as per requirements. But there wasn’t much change in DNA. Inherently, a human likes to move around, and indulged in various activities, instead of sitting and focusing on one thing.

We all must have been told, countless times, that our concentration was bad, but not once were taught or made to practice how to better our concentration.

How do you do things you are not taught about and how can you be good at them if you never practiced them? That’s the problem. People tell us to concentrate, but they don’t tell us how to.

Here, let’s delve a bit into the basics of distraction-concentration stuff, and let’s try to find our way through it.

What are distractions? Is it wandering of our mind as we call it?

Actually, Our mind is constant, it’s the deed of our awareness. Distraction psychology says that- Distraction happens when we let our awareness wander to different areas of our mind.

So, to stay concentrated or focused, we have to let our awareness stay in one area of our mind for an extended period of time. But how?

Sprinkle the focusing practices in everyday life. Nothing changes if you keep waiting for the right time and place to start.

The first step is to notice!

When you notice, how easily you get distracted, you might think it is a failure, but in fact, it is a huge success. that means your mind is capable of taking a grasp of the situation and can shift the balance towards awareness. The next step is shifting your awareness and actually concentrating.

The easiest way out of this is to do one thing at a time throughout the day. And one means just one. Let us try to understand with some day-to-day examples and how to practically approach them:-

1. When you eat, focus on just eating. (Be mindful of what you’re eating. Let the color, smell, and taste of food occupy every ounce of your thoughts at that moment.)
2. When you read, focus just on reading it. (Putting a finger to follow the text helps some people, reading it aloud helps others. Try your way out.)
3. When you are speaking to someone, keep your complete focus on that person. (Don’t let your head voice start another conversation inside your mind, while you’re listening to someone else.)
4. When you brush, don’t think about your day in your mind, focus on brushing your teeth. (Being mindful of each tooth as you brush through it helps in this.)

Now if we have to talk about specific tasks in our life, moving ahead from habitual chores, studies suggest that these things can help out-

1. Avoid/ stop situations that can cause distraction in beginning itself. (Opening a book, laptop, and phone with the internet at the same time while sitting to study increases your possibility to get distracted.)
2. DO NOT MULTITASK. It’s a myth that multitasking makes you efficient. In fact, it reduces our productivity by many folds and also creates the false belief of having worked a lot. (No multiple tabs on the computer should be opened, and no multiple applications on the screen.)
3. This one is especially for students. Don’t let social media feed FOMO into you. Trust me there is nothing going on social media that you’ll miss out on in the few hours you’re studying if you don’t check them out at once.
4. Don’t generalize wasted hours as a wasted day. (How will you concentrate with the mythical story created inside your head, about what a waste you are, when in reality you may have been late for just a few hours.)
5. Last and most crucial point. As soon as you realize, your awareness is being dragged away. Snap out of it and start doing what you are supposed to do. (Advised to begin within 5 seconds.) This is what we are taught even in meditations.

I hope this will help some of you to some extent at least. These are the actual practical tips that I used on myself, and they have helped me every now and then.

(Written by DOCTOR MENTIS (WORTHYWORDS). Based on research studies and various interviews.)