How to Improve Your Concentration

Improving your concentration will help you to accomplish more in a shorter period of time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Electronic Personal Organizers
• Wall Clocks
• Calendars
• Personal Organizers
• Stopwatches

1. Create a space designated solely for work. If that space is your desk in a work office, for example, use it only for work ' step away from it when taking breaks or eating.

2. Form a strong association between working and your desk to make concentrating easier.

3. Remove surrounding distractions. Turn off the ringer on your phone and, if possible, shut down your computer if you will be tempted to surf the Web.

4. Assemble all the materials you will need (books, paper, charts). You want to avoid getting up to retrieve materials and distracting yourself.

5. Set a specific production goal and give yourself a manageable chunk of time (perhaps 1 to 2 hours) in which to achieve this goal.

6. Create pressure by scheduling meetings or other interruptions to force yourself to work more effectively during a shorter period of time.

7. Reward yourself after each period of intense concentration with a small break.

Tips & Warnings

• Work at a time of day when you know you are alert.
• Work with another person nearby ' someone whose work habits you respect and who will not distract you ' to encourage yourself to concentrate more fully.
• Try to stop work at a natural breaking point or after some sort of accomplishment, which will make returning to work easier. Write notes to quickly jog your memory when you resume.
• Try jotting down ideas as you think or notes as you read. The act of writing can force you to devote attention to the task at hand and discourage your mind from wandering. Writing also helps you process and clarify information.
• Develop an interest in your work, from which concentration naturally follows.
• Avoid expecting to work with maximal effectiveness for long, unbroken stretches of time, as there are limits to anyone's powers of concentration.

[mudro]

on 1/29/2009 try setting an egg timmer...keeps you focused.

[lotusresearch]

on 10/12/2006 All the above inputs are like gems.What I think it is self discipline and the two words that can summarize the article are- Focus & Concentration.

on 6/11/2007 Try to get a good selection of soft (non-vocal based) music to listen to at a very low volume while studying. There are plenty of free sources out there. Check out your local public library which might have some free music to check out.

on 7/25/2006 Here they are. Try to do them in a row. Do not get disappointed if you can't make it by your first time. You may need more that a week to complete this.

1. Count from 100 to 0, 3 by 3 (100,97,94,91...) without any help from your hands (e.g.moving them in a pace) or telling them loudly.
2. Count the words from a newspaper or magazine article without pointing with your finger or telling them loudly.
3. Read a newspaper or magazine article without letting your mind think of anything or anyone else until you end reading it. If you have any suspicion that you have, start it over again.

Do not push yourself to complete these within a period of time. Do not move on to the next exercise until you are sure that you can do the exercise successfully more that two times. Go on slowly and steadily.

on 7/2/2006 I usually have about 10 things to do at once, and if I'm settling down to do a boring task, I tend to distract myself by saying, "Oh, I must go do this or that before I forget." I find it helps to have a piece of paper next to me, and each time I think of something else I should do, I write it on my to-do list, no matter if it's paying my bills or looking up feng shui on the web. It helps to keep me in my chair, rather than bouncing around doing other things.