Improve your attention and avoid distraction.

Four Practical Ways to Improve Attention and Avoid Distraction

What is concentration?

Daniel Gorman, the author of the best-selling book Focus and a doctor of psychology at Harvard University, believes that the primary factor that determines a person's achievement is not IQ or effort, but concentration. As the name implies, concentration is the ability of consciousness to actively focus on something. Here, "concentration" has two meanings: 1. Do one thing at a time. 2. Stay focused for long enough.

Concentration can be regarded as a kind of "selective attention" and "phased locking". The more focused we are, the stronger the locking ability of the neural circuit, which can strengthen our goals and filter out useless information.

Why are we distracted?

Distraction is our innate nature.

The mechanism of human psychological evolution is slower than that of environmental evolution. In order to survive, our ancestors must be alert to the dynamics around them and be interested in new things, which is rooted in our genes.

Your brain is too tired. You need a rest.

The nervous system can only process a certain amount of information in a period of time. When the concentration is overloaded or what we are doing is too difficult, the brain will feel stressed. We are often distracted at this time.

③ Personal wishes are incompatible with the environment.

It is difficult to achieve concentration if you lack internal motivation and just complete the task in a coping way.

How to improve concentration?

① Create a focused and efficient environment.

Starting from the decision to do something, actively shield all interference, so that you have no choice but to crustily skin of head to complete the task.

Tidy up the desktop: put away the things you want to use and create a sense of ceremony: "Everything is ready, I'm going to start work!" " Keep your phone out of sight: completely disconnect from social networks and reply to messages afterwards. Information disconnection: turn off all unnecessary notifications, delete those apps that make you addicted, actively eliminate temptations, and learn to refuse: say "no" to people and things that have nothing to do with the task.

(2) focus on one goal

Why is setting goals important?

It is important to plan ahead. Before you act, ask yourself: What should I do next? What effect do you want to achieve? How long will it take? Properly creating a sense of urgency can help you allocate and strengthen your attention effectively.

Why can only one target be selected?

Most people find it difficult to concentrate, mainly because there are too many goals to concentrate on. In fact, when dealing with multi-threaded work, our brains are just busy back and forth, blindly doing useless work, not only can't get twice the result with half the effort, but also will bring constant interference.

3 release attention space.

In the book Get Things Done, it is mentioned that our brains are used for thinking, not for remembering. The more things we remove from our brains, the more we can think clearly. Our attention is limited and we can't accommodate multiple complex projects at the same time. When the workload is too heavy, the speed will drop.

Attention outsourcing is an effective way to release memories in attention space. You can record new ideas anytime and anywhere through external tools (such as keeping a calendar), arrange actions in advance, and liberate your brain. Don't pretend to be so busy, you can calm down naturally.

4 practice meditation.

Step 1: Sit somewhere and keep calm. Step 2: Close your eyes and breathe in and out silently in your mind. Step 3: When you find yourself absent-minded, pull your thoughts back. Step 4: It may be difficult to practice at first. It doesn't matter. From 5 minutes, keep meditating.

In the experiment, neuroscientists found that after more than two weeks of practice, the stress of the subjects will be relieved, and the quality of self-control and attention will be significantly improved.