We live in a noisy world and constant distractions can make focus difficult. Mental focus, concentration, and determination all mean the same thing but the ability to totally put mind at a task is what one needs to accomplish. Even though it is true that it requires an amount of concentration ability, but perseverance also matters. Never giving up, requires a lot of mental commitment for the long term, or at least the ability to see the bigger picture.

A focused mind is required to complete task at hand without getting distracted. Vivekananda once said, “The difference between an ordinary person and legendary person lies in the degree of concentration”. Surely, most people want to learn how to improve focus and boost concentration but very few of us actually manage to reach the point.

So, what exactly is this focus? Experts define focus as an act of concentrating interest or activity on to something. That is somewhat a boring definition, but there is an important insight hiding inside that definition.

Focus can only occur when we have said ‘yes’ to one option and ‘no’ to all other options. In other words, elimination is a prerequisite for focus.

But Dandapani a former monk of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami school, now a Hindu priest, speaker on self-development and an entrepreneur defines the action of focus in a very interesting experiment. He demonstrated how focus is like a ball of light which illuminates the specified area of our brain. For example, he says when we watch a film, if the director is good, he plays with varied human emotions in just two to three hours. What he does is that he illuminates the specified corner of the human brain which caters that specific emotion. So basically, he simplifies it by summarising focus to be a ball of light which radiates the area of mind which we choose to prioritise at the specific moment. Focus being the key to productivity, by saying no to every other option unlocks one’s ability to accomplish the only thing which is left.

Most people face trouble with focusing is because they have trouble with prioritising the task. What I mean is that a healthy human brain is capable of focusing if we get the distractions out of the way. When ever we have a task that has absolutely had to be done, did you ever noticed that it gets done. Maybe it is the very same task which have been procrastinated a couple of times beforehand. What have happened? It got done because the deadline made the decision of prioritising the task and put in an absolute focus towards it. Once things became urgent and were forced to make a decision, hence we focus, and the action gets done.

Instead of doing the difficult work of choosing one thing to focus on, we often convince ourselves that multitasking to be a better option. This is ineffective.  Here’s why.

Research conducted at the Stanford University, found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers have also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another in comparison to those who complete one task at a time. Now with time I have somewhat learned to fix my focus with few of the hacks. Through out the process I realised that multitasking is actually a myth.

Technically, we are capable of doing two things at the same time. It is possible, for example, watching TV while cooking dinner or to answer an email while talking on the phone. However, is concentrating on two tasks at once is possible? During the first instance, even though it is possible to pull off the job somehow, but with the second instance emailing while talking over phone one tends to concentrate on one task over the other. Often, I have noticed while talking over phone and doing some other task simultaneously, I either actually miss on things that I was doing or loose the link of my communication. It takes me a while to get back to where I was.

Multitasking forces our brain to switch our focus back and forth very quickly from one task to another. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if the human brains could seamlessly transit from one job to the next, but unfortunately it can’t.

Distraction is a common difficulty that we all face. Something similar happens when we multitask. Multitasking forces one to pay a mental price each time we interrupt one task and jump to another. In psychology terms, this mental price is called the switching cost.

However, this switching cost is the disruption in performance that we experience when we switch our focus from one area to another. A study, which was published in the International Journal of Information Management in 2003, found that the typical person checks email once every five minutes and that, on average, it takes 64 seconds to resume the previous task after checking your email. In other words, because of email alone, we typically waste one out of every six minute.

So, what is the possible fix to this problem?

Let’s talk about how to overcome our tendency to multitask and focus on one thing at a time, improving our focus.

My Focus Hacks

Focus is about eliminating distractions. Email can be one of the biggest distractions of all. If I don’t check email at the beginning of the day, then I am able to spend the morning pursuing my own agenda rather than reacting to everybody else’s agenda. The point is to carve out time during morning hours when one can focus on what is most important without letting the rest of the world to dictate mental state. It is recommended never to check emails before noon. 

If a task requires full attention, it is best to schedule it during a time of day when we have the optimum energy needed to focus. It could be early in the morning when the creative energy is optimum. That’s when the mind is fresh and performs the best. Best strategic decisions could be made during this hour. All other tasks are taken care of in the afternoon. The trick lies in managing the energy and not the time.

It is important to learn to leave phone for few hours in a day. It is suggested not to see phone for the first few hours of the day. It is much easier to do focused work when we don’t have any text messages, phone calls or alerts interrupting the focus.

Working on full screen mode helps. Whenever use an application, use it on a full screen mode. While reading an article on the web, read on a whole screen.  When working, there is no time related distraction, the icons of other applications, or any other distractions on the screen. It’s funny how big of a difference this makes for my focus and concentration. If we constantly see an icon on screen, then we are reminded to click on it occasionally. However, if removed the visual cue, then the urge to be distracted subsides within few minutes.

Regardless of what strategy is used, at anytime we find the world distracting, all is needed is to commit to one thing. In the beginning, one might not even succeed, but it is needed to get started.

Focus is developed by thinking about what we want to do and what it will take to do it. It is essential to watch how the lift is to be done, then we get on to doing it by ourselves. So, we have an idea of what it feels like. We then work on certain aspects of the lift and practice and practice. It’s important to be thinking about what we are doing while we are doing it.  However, I must warn you to not think too much, because you will develop “paralysis due to analysis” thinking too much and not moving fast enough. As it is aptly said that grey matter makes the red matter work. 

That means that our brain makes our muscles work, so it is important to think, concentrate, focus, and then do it, fast!  It all comes down to blocking out all other thoughts and only thinking about how we can lift the weight.   

As John Milton says, “The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven”. So, it is all within the access of our mind, it matters the way we use it.