Work | Productivity | Self

How to Focus on One Important Task

Your focus is the blinking cursor of your life experience

Getting tasks done efficiently does not depend on how much time you spend doing the work. Fewer work hours may result in more creative approaches and ultimately better results. It depends more on how your mind perceives and analyzes a particular task.

Trey Hedden and John Gabrieli, two neuroscientists from MIT, have suggested that when your thoughts wander away from the job at hand, your brain processes details of your current task less efficiently. Wandering thoughts are typical in people with a low mood and can be controlled using brain’s braking system. If you are, for some reason, not cheerful in the morning, try to cheer yourself up.

Mind wandering is ubiquitous, it’s common, there’s no reason to fight against it — It’s just the nature of the mind. ~Neuroscientist Amishi Jha

Cheering yourself up and becoming more willing to work is important because your ability to remain focused on a particular task, for hours at a stretch, helps you to develop comprehension and analytical capacity required to reach excellence.

Your focus is the blinking cursor of your life experience. Wherever this cursor goes, the rest of your consciousness follows.

“Steve Jobs would set priorities, aim his laser attention on them, and filter out distractions.” — Walter Isaacson

Ultimately, it is your conscious decision to stay focused that matters the most. Without bringing your wandering attention back to the task, you might not be able to achieve your desired outcomes. Here are some practical tips to get a laser-like focus:

1. Get ready to focus

Early in the morning, go for a walk, take deep breaths, and practice mindfulness meditation for five minutes. Select a place of work away from possible distractions. Mute all notifications. These preparation rituals tell your mind that you are willing to be focused on the task.

Try to divide your task into smaller parts during this getting ready phase. It is easier to focus on bite-size chunks rather than the whole task.

Our thoughts wander 34 percent of our waking hours, and it is normal. Just try to regain your focus.

2. Get an overview of what you are supposed to accomplish

It should be like a quick recap. Notice what you had done yesterday and what you have to do today. Make a priority list of the steps for the task. This overview gives your mind an idea of what is needed. All deep thinking about the task should be done as early in the morning as possible, as suggested by University of California Neuroscientist Matthew D. Lieberman in a paper about a brain region that is common to different forms of self-control, called right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC).

If something important pops up, write it down immediately and ignore it. You can have a look at this list later.

3. Enjoy the task at hand

If you don’t like your job in general, you may not be able to focus on your assigned tasks. But if you are enjoying what you are doing, the span of your focus will improve. Boring thoughts stimulate the defualt network of brain which triggers mind-wandering.

You can easily maintain your focus during the entire length of an entertaining movie. You may have noticed that after watching a good movie, your capacity to focus on a complex task improves as well. A movie is a break, as well as an enjoyable concentration exercise.

4. Take frequent breaks

Kids can focus on a topic for five minutes, while adults may stay focused for around twenty minutes. After losing your focus, you can restore it by deliberately choosing to gently re-focus your attention back on the topic, as suggested by Neuroscientist Amishi Jha.

You have to pause after every fifty minutes. If you take a ten-minute break, you can sustain focus during the remaining hours of the day. As David Rock suggests in his book Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, it usually takes twenty five minutes to regain your focus, which makes a ten-minute break an actual time-saver.

5. Seriousness matters

Act as if your life depends on what you are trying to do, your ability to focus will improve. Otherwise, you are more likely to let your thoughts wander.

You can have all the fun once you have completed your task. If you push all other worries aside for a few hours, you can reach the single-minded focus that can double the speed at which you normally do your work. You might have felt this kind of seriousness when you were preparing for one of your exams.

6. Record your daily performance

When you pay more attention, you can accomplish more. If your performance is somehow measured daily, or you record it in a spreadsheet, you have an implied measurement of your focus.

For example, if you make youtube videos, the number of videos you upload or the view count can be an indirect measure of quantity and quality of your work and depends on your ability to focus.

7. Drugs reduce your ability to focus

If you smoke or abuse drugs, your ability to focus will diminish over time.

Your focus is the blinking cursor of your life experience. Keep an eye on your cursor and try to move it back to the present moment whenever it jumps into the past or the future.

Conclusion

1. Perform the rituals for getting ready to focus.
2. Get an overview of what you are going to accomplish today.
3. If you enjoy your work, you can be more focused.
4. Take a break after every 50 or so minutes.
5. Try to complete your task as if your life depends on it.
6. Record your performance regularly.
7. Drug abuse reduces your ability to focus.

Imagine that your mind is a kind of muscle. The more you use your ability to focus on a task, the more your brain will develop this ability. Like all muscle-building activities, you’ll need periods of relaxation to allow the muscle to heal itself. Sleeping well is a pre-condition for focus improvement to take root.

In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman says that our span of focus diminishes due to mindless internet surfing.