If you want to lead a successful and fulfilling life, you need the ability to concentrate. It is crucial to know and master the different types of concentration.
Have you ever tried to beat a child at memory? You'll hardly succeed. That's because children have a natural ability to immerse themselves in an activity, while we adults tend to let our minds wander, planning our next tasks or the weekend ahead.
Three forms of concentration
The memory example shows concentration in the sense we are most familiar with. Concentration as the deliberate focusing of our attention on a specific activity. A total of three forms of concentration can be distinguished, depending on the direction in which we direct our attention:
- to the point
- outwardly or onto others
- inward
When reading challenging content, for example, our full attention is focused on this one activity (on one point). When you moderate a meeting or explore a foreign city, our attention is directed toward the environment or our listeners (outward) as a broad perception. This allows us to orient ourselves. During meditation, on the other hand, a monk consciously focuses all his attention on his breathing (inward). We need all three forms of concentration. The trick is to apply them purposefully and consciously.
Improve your concentration: learn from professional athletes!
Our ability to concentrate is something we are born with to varying degrees. The good news is that we can all train our ability to concentrate. The bad news is that this requires continuous discipline.
Concentration is like a muscle that tires depending on how much you use it. Observe professional athletes or musicians and you will have a good idea of how you should manage your concentration: athletes and musicians usually do not train intensively for more than four hours a day and incorporate regular breaks and compensatory activities into their training schedule. What can you learn from this for your daily planning?
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Seven simple tips to boost your concentration
There are many ways to improve your concentration on a specific task. Start with these seven simple but effective tips and observe the change in yourself.
- In your everyday office life, make sure you make important decisions when your concentration is at its peak and schedule important appointments during your most productive times of day.
- Take a short five-minute break every 30 minutes. If you can arrange it, treat yourself to a few minutes of sleep (power naps) in between. Important: Take breaks even if you still feel fit.
- Make a conscious decision to work in a focused manner. Concentration does not happen by chance.
- Always concentrate on one thing at a time. Multitasking is a myth that has now been scientifically disproved. We cannot concentrate on several things at once. Instead, our focus quickly jumps back and forth. You will achieve better results if you do one thing at a time.
- Make sure you eat a healthy diet. If you need to concentrate fully, avoid heavy meals so that your body can supply your brain with energy and is not unnecessarily busy with digestion.
- It is often difficult to concentrate, especially when performing unpleasant or challenging tasks. In such cases, it helps to clarify your own purpose: the more aware you are of this, the easier it will be to concentrate. Be clear about the positive effects you will achieve by making the effort.
- Be aware of the price you pay when you don't concentrate.
Confronting the concentration killer "fear"
Fears can severely disrupt your ability to concentrate. If you are afraid of negative feedback on your work, you will sabotage yourself, for example by delaying the submission of your presentation or report. In such situations, some people regularly start tidying up their desk or sorting through their mailbox. They do things that seem meaningful but are unimportant.
Identify your avoidance behaviors and get to the bottom of your fear. When you catch yourself engaging in avoidance behavior, turn your attention inward and explore what you are actually trying to avoid. The key to concentration lies in dealing with your fear.
Harness the power of habits
Create rituals that help you begin periods of work that require intense concentration. Rituals are automatically performed by our brains and conserve our willpower and concentration. Perhaps you could get yourself a cup of coffee beforehand. Perhaps you can make any outstanding phone calls before retreating for two hours of concentrated work. The more often you start with the same routine, the faster you will be able to concentrate and the deeper your concentration will be.
What is your concentration ritual? Experiment to find out which habit suits you best. You can also learn how to focus better in our management training courses. If you follow the tips for improving your concentration, you should soon notice a significant difference.
Good luck with training your ability to concentrate!
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