It is not the lack of skill, nor the lack of will that stops you from being wildly successful. More often than not, it’s the lack of focus and concentration that derail you from the goals that you’re pursuing. This is very true for me as each time I messed up with my goals, the culprit is always poor focus power.

How To Increase Focus And Concentration

Of course, when you find yourself easily distracted, it is easy to blame the stress, family commitments, parenting, aging and a horde of other reasons. While it’s true that external factors can greatly affect your focus and concentration, that doesn’t mean you can’t reduce the impact they have on you.

Ultimately, you’ll need to greatly focus on your goals or you’ll end up with regrets of wasted opportunities. Besides, the inability to concentrate often leads to increased stress, as you’re overwhelmed with the piling responsibilities.

After spending a decade trying out multiple businesses, jobs, and gigs (and failing in each of them), I finally found success, and it all boils down to building up focus and concentration. Here are what works for me and they may equally be effective for you.

1. Working Out

There are moments where you’re thinking to sacrifice gym sessions so that you can concentrate on a pet project that you’re working on. Mathematically, you have more time for your project but ironically, you’ll find yourself achieving mediocre results at most.

For some reasons, the lack of exercise weakens your body and health. And that somehow affects your cognitive ability. Often, you’ll be struggling with a foggy mind that lacks the laser-sharp edge as it used to.

You can keep forcing your brain to work, or you could sweat it out to some aerobic routine and hone your brain into laser sharp-focus. If you need further encouragement, here’s a study that proves how 10 minutes of exercise leads to increased concentration.

2. Stop Multitasking

When you have a lengthy to-do list, you tend to take on a few tasks at a time. You may think that it’s efficient to try holding a virtual meeting on Slack with your team, furiously replying dozens of email and figuring the best way to hit the monthly sales goals.

You need to stop doing that at all cost. Multitasking gives you the impression that you’re being efficient because it makes you busy.

The fact is multitasking depletes your mental energy quickly and thus, affects your ability to concentrate and focus. In fact, scientists have claimed that multitasking actually makes you dumber.

So, stop being the multitasker and channel all your focus on the single task that you’re doing. For instance, I wouldn’t be checking any emails or social media feed, until I’m done with this article.

3. Practice Mindfulness Meditation

How To Increase Focus And Concentration

Wait, what does sitting in a Zen-like pose has anything to do with building focus and concentration? If you’ve never tried out meditation, it’s hard to imagine how this ancient practice could help to massively enhance your focus power.

Mindfulness meditation is a form of mental training that involves focusing on your breathing and flexibility nothing the various stray thoughts that disrupts your concentration. The essence of the practice is a great build-up to brush off distractions from daily life.

Multiple studies have also conclusively acknowledged the benefit of mindfulness meditation for focus and concentration. One such study showed how concentration in a group of individuals rose by 9% after practicing meditation for 8 weeks.

Mindfulness practice has helped me to push through multiple challenges in life. It’s hard to notice that your focus is improving when you meditate. But it’s obvious how it crumbles when you stop meditating. With the range of guided meditation apps available, you can pick up meditation right from your home.

4. Hypnosis

I’m convinced that hypnosis is nothing about getting my mind controlled by a stranger after listening to my first self-hypnosis audio. Instead, it enables me to enter a hyper-conscious state that I’ve never thought possible.

When you’re in a hypnosis trance, you’ll be calm, relaxed and focus. It is a state where you have full control of your thoughts and action, contrary to the common misconceptions of hypnosis.

Scientifically, hypnosis is a technique that elevates your subconscious to a state where learning becomes much more effective. Most hypnosis is tailored to achieve specific goals, including improving focus.

I’ve experienced a deep-state of focus after merely watching a stage hypnosis performance. And I’ve turned to hypnosis to tune my mind on specific tasks.

5. Take Chia Seeds

How To Increase Focus And Concentration

Chia seeds are tiny seeds harvested from the Salvia hispanica plant that is native to Central America. You’ll find a mixture of white and dark seeds that contains a high concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, protein, carbohydrate, and other nutrients.

The ancient Aztec warriors were known to consume chia seed to increase their endurance. Today, people take chia seeds for various reasons, including replenishing mental energy.

When you’ve overworked your mind, you could get a mental hangover the next day. It is almost impossible to command any focus power when you’re mentally exhausted.

Chia seeds are my turn-to brain superfood when I need a dose of mental booster that helps in concentration. It is tasteless and can be included in yogurt or smoothies. Or you could take it plain as I did.

 6. Turn Off Distractions

Sometimes, we are sabotaging our own focus and concentration. How many tabs are opened on your browser when you’re working on serious stuff? Did you automatically grab your phone every 5 minutes to check out the latest notifications?

These tiny little attractions often sum up to a great amount of wasted time. It breaks the momentum each time you’re picking up a pace.

If you’re serious about improving focus and concentration, you need to keep unnecessary distractions away. Put your smartphone on silence. Stop replying emails while trying to check out the latest trending videos on Youtube.

Once you stop these distractive habits, you’ll find that you’re able to concentrate just fine. And the main culprit isn’t aging or other sorry excuses after all.

Are you easily disrupted when you’re trying to focus? What did you do to boost your concentration? Share your thoughts in the comment below.

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