The Full Guide How To Unlock Your Focus & Concentration (at work & school)
Everyone loses their concentration at work right?
We've all had it happen to us, someone's speaking to you, and you're just in the clouds, you haven't a clue what they are saying, then they stop speaking and you're like 'Yeah, yeah' hoping that they didn't notice you payed as much attention to them as the secondary school geography teacher.
But I can be embarrassing when it happens, it's like telling the person 'You're not important' straight to their face when that's not what you were trying to do, it's just that your monkey brain let you down.
Well it won't anymore because I'll teach you how to unlock your focus and improve concentration temporarily and permanently.
Some time ago I had my end of school exams, I was 14 and I was growing up, so naturally you'll need less help from your parents, and I remember it was the first set of exams that I was 'alone' in, that I was gonna prepare for them completely on my own.
(I aced them BTW),
I remember sitting down to start studying biology but I couldn't, I just couldn't. I could hear my phone receive notifications right next to me, my desk was a mess, I was thinking about football and a mosquito was buzzing in my ear (it almost Summer).
And that's when I realized that whatever I do, I have to do it right, that I don't have to study 6 hours a day to get good grades, I'd rather do 20 good minutes than 6 bad hours. And that's what I did, I got grades that put me in the top 20% in the country studying no more than 40 minutes a day, something unheard of.
Considering I know people that were studying like 5 hours in a day and I got better marks than them is quite the achievement,
And I could only do that because I changed a couple of things here and there and stopped things from robbing me of my focus.
This is what I did;
What is Focus & Concentration?
What does it mean when people say 'just concentrate' or 'you're unfocused'?
When they're referring to is your attention, where you are putting your attention and how much of it you're putting in.
Have you ever heard of the saying 'Where focus goes, energy flows'?
That's real, things can only grow depending on how much focus you give them cause when you give them focus you give them energy, just like people.
The more energy (calories) you give someone the more they grow, they're not going to get fat from out of nowhere.
And the more energy you put into a project or studying the more it grows i.e.; the more benefits you'll get from it.
''So why don't I remember what I study even though I focus?''
Great question, you see when we are surrounded by distractions, they rob us of our attention, meaning that they are robbing us of the energy we could be putting into the task in front of us. It's like being fully focused but only being able to give the task 50% of your energy, because your environment is zapping it away.
That's a big one when it comes to unlocking your focus, your environment
Your Environment
Most people don't know how to focus at work or school because their space is a mess, think about it,
What's the first thing you think if you see someone's desk and it looks like a bomb went off? Papers everywhere, files stacked barely hanging onto each other, computer covered in sticky notes and you cant even see the table, it gives me anxiety just thinking about it.
Nobody feels comfortable on a messy desk, and it's not a good look either, it gives the impression that you are unprofessional, not serious and disorganized.
Your mind is just like your desk, the more things it has in front of it the less attention it can give to what's important,
Now the thing is.. they are connected. A messy desk means a messy mind.
So start off by clearing and organizing your environment and you'll notice how you'll already be able to concentrate better on your studies/work.
Bonus points if the workspace is empty, the less you have in front of you the better.
Speaking of less, that's the next step to improving your focus.
Why Less Is More (Focus)
This goes hand in hand with the section above.
The more I learned about focus and concentration the more I noticed that you don't need more, you need less.
Less distractions, less things on your desk, less tasks to do, less less less.
Alex Hormozi says that his best work gets done when he wears earplugs, closes the windows and removes everything in the room so that he literally has nothing else to do but work, that's his only option.
Do the same, remove everything that is not helping, make it easy for you to focus.
- Phone, on silent, airplane mode and in the drawer. Extreme I know, but how highly do you value your focus? And besides, nothing is going to happen if you respond to messages later, and it's not like anyone is going to call you with an emergency in the hour you put it away.
- What can you see? Reduce as much of it as you can. Papers? Put away. Pens and stationary? In their place.
- Chair, I remember I had a chair that had a cloth on it's arms and on this cloth there was a string that got loose and every time I'd move my leg it would tickle me, disturbing me from what I was doing. Cut off the string. Or just remove the cloth. Whatever it takes.
It's not complicated, just optimize your environment so that the easiest thing to do is focus.
Tell your family members to not talk to you for this time, tell them respectfully;
''Hey, for the next 30 minutes I'm gonna be studying so can you guys not talk to me or come in my room during that time please?''
That's all it takes, like that you're direct but respectful so they know not to disturb you.
If you have pets lock them out of the room, unfortunate I know but we can't have Fido distracting you and potentially ruining your chances of getting the grades you want or not presenting your best work.
It'll mess with you head, and speaking of head that is the next section.
Your Mental State
The environment inside your head is ultimately the most important, and it is aided by external factors (the organizing and the removal of distractions)
This is the single greatest way to improve your focus and concentration, as it's literally the practice for it, you're literally practicing focusing.
And that's meditation.
Boring? Yeah, I know, you expected some magic spell you could do over a cauldron that will permanently improve your focus by 37%, but we live in real life, that's not how it works.
''Literally just sit in a chair, close your eyes, and notice what you start thinking about, when something comes to mind, when a thought appears refocus on the void blackness you see, do this regularly and this will literally improve your skill of focus, you're literally getting better at concentrating''
Deep Work Techniques
These were some deep work techniques that helped me improve my concentration and focus, they taught me how to focus during work, how to focus during my studies and ultimately how to focus better.
Sometimes even I'm blown away by how good my concentration is.
These have no joke probably have increased my productivity by 500%.
These are well worth the effort implementing as their return on investment is crazy high.
Concentration at Work : Quick Summary
- Everyone loses their concentration at work and school, it's not a good thing, but you can help prevent it
- Using 3 deep work techniques I got top 20% grades in the country studying no more than 40 minutes per day The Environment, The 'Less' Technique and The Mental State
- The Environment : Your environment and your mind are directly connected, a cluttered environment will feel claustrophobic in your mind
- The Less Technique : You don't need more things to focus, you need less. Remove what isn't helping you focus and concentrate (it's a lot of stuff)
- The Mental State : How do you improve focus and concentration? How do you focus at school? How do you keep your concentration at work? MEDITATION. It is literally upgrading your mental.
