While mental exercise is important for brain health, that doesn’t mean you never need to break a sweat. Physical exercise helps your brain stay sharp. It increases oxygen to your brain and reduces the risk for disorders that lead to memory loss, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Exercise also enhances the effects of helpful brain chemicals and reduces stress hormones. Perhaps most importantly, exercise plays an important role in neuroplasticity by boosting growth factors and stimulating new neuronal connections. Brain-boosting exercise tips Aerobic exercise is particularly good for the brain, so choose activities that keep your blood pumping. In general, anything that is good for your heart is great for your brain. Does it take you long time to clear out the sleep fog when you wake up? If so, you may find that exercising in the morning before you start your day makes a big difference. In addition to clearing out the cobwebs, it also primes you for learning throughout the day. Physical activities that require hand-eye coordination or complex motor skills are particularly beneficial for brain building. Exercise breaks can help you get past mental fatigue and afternoon slumps. Even a short walk or a few jumping jacks can be enough to reboot your brain. If you are experiencing traumatic stress or find yourself stuck in repetitive, unhealthy behavior... ...Try exercising the muscles connected to fight-or-flight with attention. Exercises that use both your arms and legs—and are done in a focused way with mindful awareness of your physical and emotional experience—are especially good at reducing traumatic stress. Exercises like walking, running, swimming, or rock-climbing, activate your senses and make you more aware of yourself and others when they are done with focused attention. Tip 3: Get your Zs There is a big difference between the amount of sleep you can get by on and the amount you need to function at your best. The truth is that over 95% of adults need between 7.5 to 9 hours of sleep every night in order to avoid sleep deprivation. Even skimping on a few hours makes a difference! Memory, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills are all compromised. Get on a regular sleep schedule. Go to bed at the same time every night and get up at the same time each morning. Try not to break your routine, even on weekends and holidays. Avoid all screens for at least an hour before bed. The blue light emitted by TVs, tablets, phones, and computers trigger wakefulness and suppress hormones such as melatonin that make you sleepy. Cut back on caffeine. Caffeine affects people differently. Some people are highly sensitive, and even morning coffee may interfere with sleep at night. Try reducing your intake or cutting it out entirely if you suspect it’s keeping you up.

The science behind concentration and improved focus Isn’t it sweet when you lose yourself in the work you’re doing? You get the rush of real productivity, not just ‘busy work’. You have a strong feeling of purpose and completely lose track of time. Whether you call it concentration, focus, flow, or even work-induced trance, you have to admit it’s really an exhilarating feeling. But the truth is that for most of us, the majority of time we spend working (just shy of 9 hours every day for the average American) this kind of concentration is out of reach, especially in the office. David Rock, co-founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute and author of Your Brain at Work , has discovered that we are truly focused on our work for a mere 6 hours per week. What’s more, Rock’s studies reveal that 90% of people do their best thinking outside of the office and most people focus best either in the morning or late at night. This is exactly the opposite of what our work schedules dictate us. How we concentrate Focusing on a task is a lot like focusing your vision. It is essentially a top-down process. When you make the decision to focus on something, your brain first takes in all the visual information and starts to process that information to tell you what you should focus on. It’s like looking at a painting or a photograph for the first time. When the image becomes clearer, then your brain will move in on one aspect that you want to pay attention to. When you achieve that blissful kind of concentration where time slips by you, your perception of the world around you changes, allowing you to have a heightened ability to ignore outside stimuli. Unless… How we lose focus Losing focus is actually natural and desirable – it’s an evolutionary system meant to keep us safe. Breaking focus is essentially bottom-down. It’s happens when your brain is noticing things that might need your attention. Evolution requires your concentration to break when something is either dangerous or rewarding. The thing is, once your focus is broken, it can take up to 25 minutes to return to the original task, according to Gloria Mark, professor at the University of California, Irvine. Other studies say that it takes around 5 minutes to refocus, while others say 15. Either way, there are undeniable costs involved with interruptions. Consider this against the backdrop of office work: the average office worker is interrupted anywhere between every 3 to 10 minutes (again, studies conflict on this one). However, there is no definitive research on whether the quality of work after interruption suffers a decline with more interruptions. You might think that these interruptions are often external – from colleagues, phone calls or emails – but actually we interrupt ourselves around 44% of the time, according to Gloria Mark’s research. But the human mind is able to focus on any given task for up to two hours (after which it needs a 20-30 minute break to recharge). So why aren’t we living up to this potential? Blame multitasking In a work culture where “workaholic” is still somewhat of a compliment, multitasking can make us feel that we’re accomplishing more than we actually are. What’s more, a small study suggests that multitasking makes us feel good, even at the cost of our cognitive needs. And here’s one more thing you can blame on multitasking: it makes us stupid. David Rock of the NeuroLeadership institute says that multitasking actually drops our IQ, causing us to make mistakes and miss subtle cues. “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.” Steve Jobs Jobs’ quote refers to how Apple became the success it is by focusing on far fewer products than any of its competitors, but it also applies to focusing on tasks. Concentration actually requires you to say no to multitasking and to all the other stimuli that are competing for your attention, whether it’s your email inbox, your Twitter feed or your colleagues’ chatter.

I often hear my clients complain of difficulty concentrating. Be it on the job, on their creative tasks, or even in their daily routines, I frequently hear them talk about difficulty keeping track of their ever-growing list of to-do’s and their frantic efforts to keep themselves organized and on top of their various roles and demands. I hear them tell me about the lists they make and the apps they use, and then I sense the frustration in their voices when they admit that even with these gadgets, they still feel overrun by unaccomplished tasks and half-finished projects. I hear them say that despite their best efforts, their minds sometime feel as though they are on a “scan” setting, constantly jumping from one station to the next, without staying at one of them long enough to get anything done. So, what do I suggest? Well, first of all, a bit education. Let’s start with a piece of information that many may find surprising: the mind’s normal condition is disorder. Our brains are designed to notice, recognize, and attend to a variety of random sensations, perceptions, and thoughts, all of which are competing for attention, all at the same time. Our brains do this to keep us in touch with internal as well as external needs, and ultimately to keep us alive. As our brains develop, we become better able to manage this chaos and turn it into reasonable order by exerting “attentional control.” In simple terms, this refers to the ability to filter out irrelevant, or less important things, so that we can focus on others. In other words, the ability to concentrate. What you’ve probably noticed is that this ability waxes and wanes on different days and even at different points within the same day. Some days you are able to breeze through your various tasks and demands, and others, even the smalles set of chores seems to get pushed around and shoved in different directions, none of which lead to completion. So, lets first examine some reasons for this variance and what factors may be related to diminished ability to sustain attention and concentration. Once we are better able to diagnose the problem, we will move on to problem-solving approach to target each part. Below is a list of the five most common reasons why our brains may experience difficulty concentrating on any given day: 1. Fatigue. Being tired and fatigued is concentration’s worst energy. Research indicates that staying up just 1 hour later than normal significantly decreases focusing capability. Our brains have developed to work best under very specific conditions and nothing harms it’s ability to stay focused quite like being tired and fatigued. Rack up sleep deficits regularly, and you’ll likely experience routine and pervasive concentration problems. 2. Stress. Pretty simple, the more tasks you need to get through, (generally) the more stress you experience. The more stressed you feel, the more difficult it is to concentrated and get any of them done, thus trapping you in a vicious cycle. Anyone who has approached an oncoming deadline with an increasing lists of things to accomplish between said deadline knows what I’m talking about. 3. Multitasking. Contrary to (relatively recent) popular belief, multitasking is NOT a good thing. In our fast paced, time-is-money world, we are continuously pushed to do more things at once and do them faster. However, scientific research has repeatedly proven that not only is this approach detrimental to the task at hand (careless errors, for example), it is also bad for your brain! It becomes accustomed to jumping from topic to topic, making it even harder for your to harness your ability to stay focused on any one thing for any prolonged period of time. In other words, too much multitasking and you are in essence teaching your brain to have a shorter and less efficient attention span!

Attention Game: Stroop This game is a variation on the famous Stroop effect. It's a fun way to test your ability to focus while processing information. It will train you to focus, improve your concentration, and pay attention. Attention and Age As we get older the challenges associated with inattentiveness grow. Deteriorating visual attention can affect behavior, such our ability to read or drive. "As people age, they experience changes in how they perceive the information that their eyes and ears gather from the environment. Specifically, older adults combine information from the different senses more readily than do younger adults. This tendency, known as sensory integration, can lead to difficulties in blocking out distracting sights and sounds while still maintaining focus on important information." - Paul Laurienti, M.D., Ph.D How Attention Works Reading comprehension involves significant attention, focus, and concentration. Practice can increase our alertness and awareness. Attention is related to emotion and their intensity of those emotions. The more a person feels interested in what someone is saying and the less she feels interested in other conversations in a room, the more intensively attention is concentrated on the conversation at hand. The more one is interested in what one happens to see on the street and the less in what someone is telling us from the passenger’s seat, the less it induces failures of visual attention during simulated driving. Although it may seem hard to maintain attention research has shown that the inability to pay attention sometimes leads to boredom, rather than the other way around. “Our early data suggest that attention training is indeed a way to reduce older adults’ susceptibility to distracting stimuli and improve concentration.” - Jennifer Mozolic How can I improve my attention? Being disorganized, and unable to perform well because of a lack of attention is frustrating. Keep your brain performing at its best helps us cope with everyday live and make us happier people. Findings from the Improvement in Memory Plasticity-Based Adaptive Cognitive Training (IMPACT) study show that 77% of participants who completed the 8-week Brain Fitness Program (Posit Science, San Francisco, California) reported benefits in everyday life activities such as remembering shopping lists. (February 18, 2009) Try and do tasks that require your full attention. For example try writing out the entire times table as fast as you can. Or if you are more creatively inclined like me go to the park with a pencil and paper and draw the people walking by as fast as you can. It's really hard work but I enjoy the results and I am getting better all the time.

Funny things happen when I snap my fingers. On a stage in Syracuse, a grown man fell instantly and deeply into a state of total relaxation and collapsed onto the floor. At a training event in Philadelphia, a woman became convinced she was communicating with extraterrestrials and started shouting in beeps and whistles. During a conference in Cleveland, an executive forgot his own name. You may not actually feel “hypnotized.” In fact, if you’re doing it correctly, you’ll simply feel relaxed yet focused. Each of these occurrences was a result of the power of hypnosis. In my motivational speeches, I like to show audiences what’s possible when they tap into their subconscious minds. The results are as dramatic as they are hilarious. More importantly, they hint at possibilities most adults don’t often stop to consider. Inevitably, there are a lot of questions afterward. Some of the most common include, “Is there a way you could hypnotize me to stay focused during a long day at work when I’d rather be somewhere else?” and, “Could you help me feel more alert when I’m tired and distracted?” The short answer is that I can’t do that without being in the room, but there are still a few things you can do all by yourself to stay focused and work toward the goals that really matter to you most. Here’s how. Audience members who watch me perform hypnosis onstage tend to assume something amazing or almost mystical is happening. It’s not. I’m actually just taking advantage of a trance state humans fall into quite easily and naturally every day. You can approximate that mental state with a simple exercise you can do on your own, and it doesn’t require self-hypnosis. Start by taking a deep breath, placing your hands flat on a chair or desk, and concentrating tightly on an image. That image can be anything, but it’s probably most useful to you if you pick something that represents a goal you have–maybe it’s a finished report, a completed sale, or a successful presentation. Whatever a breakthrough would look like for you, hold on to it so completely in your imagination that you actually feel like you’re experiencing it. Take in the sights, sounds, and smells that might be around you. Think of the emotions you would be feeling. Concentrate on inhabiting this imagined experience–and stay in this state for awhile. It will force your mind to start making subconscious associations, helping you to move from where you are in your day to the point you need to reach in the future. Our subconscious minds thrive on very exact suggestions. Note that at this point you may not actually feel “hypnotized.” In fact, if you’re doing it correctly, you’ll simply feel relaxed yet focused. Believe it or not, that’s sufficient to change your subconscious patterns. You simply push your conscious thoughts to the side and leave room to create new connections in your mind. A similar thing can happen when you’re meditating or practicing some other type of mindfulness exercise. The difference here is that we’re using this state, which is associated with slower brain wave patterns, to change thinking and behavior rather than simply to unwind. By breathing deeply, clearing your mind of extraneous thoughts, and zeroing in on your most emotionally charged goals, you can give yourself more mental firepower for achieving them. Did you know that fewer than 10% of us ever reach our New Year’s resolutions? Or that sales performance and income in most industries follow a bell curve, with a few high achievers at the top and the majority trying to catch them? It’s easy to dismiss their success as luck, talent, or circumstances, and that’s surely part of it. But years of practice with hypnosis have shown me that it’s possible to get ahead of the curve. We just need a mental game plan that alters the way we view ourselves first. The actual changes in behavior come second. We just need a mental game plan that alters the way we view ourselves first. The actual changes in behavior come second. Our subconscious minds thrive on very exact suggestions. As a hypnotist, I once told a volunteer to “take a seat.” When I heard the audience laughing, I turned back to discover my subject had lifted his chair off the ground. He wasn’t being intentionally funny; it was just that his inner mind took the instruction in the most literal way possible. This matters to you because you have to give your deeper mind a very tight set of instructions to follow. As you visualize yourself reaching a goal, make sure you know exactly what that goal is. Don’t just imagine a finished report–picture a five-page document that’s perfectly formatted and proofread. Instead of picturing yourself with a new client, think about what it would be like to sign the final papers and shake hands at the end. This can take practice, but honing your imagination this way can come in handy. Failing to, on the other hand, can undercut your efforts; if you leave your subconscious mind too much wiggle room, it might respond in a way you don’t expect. But don’t underestimate its potential. Your subconscious is ready to do some serious work if you’ll only point it in the right direction.

Concentration methods include learning about how to concentrate, the things that are considering distracting, and what other kinds of activities you can get involved in while learning to focus. In today's world, you have the option of focusing your attention to a variety of things. With technology being so advanced, you can use your computer, cell phone, television, and the internet to keep you up to date with the latest happenings. You have many different types of media on which you can stay up to date on, but all of these are usually distraction in and of themselves...

A wandering mind is common for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Whether you’re talking to your boss or best friend, you might easily lose track of conversations. Or get easily distracted and forget what you were working on. Or miss details and make careless mistakes. But this isn’t an oversight on your part. An inability to focus is a prominent symptom of ADHD. While you can’t fully control your capability to pay attention, you can find strategies that help you sustain it. Here are 15 tips to try. 1. Focus your energy on problem solving. It’s common for people with ADHD to get frustrated with their focus troubles and blame themselves. But gently remind yourself that this is a symptom of ADHD. Instead of being self-critical or judgmental, use diminishing attention as a reminder that it’s time to try one of your focus-fueling tools, said Lucy Jo Palladino, Ph.D, clinical psychologist and author of Find Your Focus Zone: An Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction and Overload. Having background noise helps drive out distractions, according to Stephanie Sarkis, Ph.D, a psychotherapist and author of 10 Simple Solutions to Adult ADD: How to Overcome Chronic Distraction & Accomplish Your Goals. When you’re studying or working, she suggested turning on your ceiling fan, a white noise machine or music on low volume. 3. Clear your workspace. “Visual clutter can impair focus, ” Sarkis said. So to pay better attention, clear the disarray from your desk before sitting down to work, she said. 4. Dissect tasks and projects. It’s hard to focus when you’re overwhelmed by a big project and iffy on everything it entails. “Chunk your goal into manageable sub-goals, ” Palladino said. She gave the following example: “Divide ‘Start writing this paper’ into ‘Outline 3 main points, ’ ‘Plan intro, ’ ‘Write first page of rough draft.’” 5. Get support from loved ones. According to Palladino, relying on people who are rooting for you can help. She suggested remembering your cheerleaders — who might be your parent, partner, child or coach — and keeping their photo close by. A 2003 University of Wisconsin study found that flashing the names of certain friends and family helped students work longer on concentration-heavy tasks. 6. Use an accountability partner. Another way to ask for support is by having an accountability partner. This could be your friend or an ADHD coach. “Make a deal with them that you will text or email them with your tasks that day, and then text or email that person as soon as you finish each task, ” Sarkis said. 7. Paraphrase conversations. Paraphrasing what a person said helps you digest the conversation, ensure you understand them and formulate a response, according to Sarkis. 8. Use a “concentrated distraction.” For instance, when you’re sitting in a meeting or lecture, fiddle with a mini-Koosh ball under your desk, Sarkis said. 9. Have visual reminders of your goals. For both short-term and long-term goals, have a tangible touchstone that connects you to your objectives, Palladino said. For instance, you might keep a piece of paper with your graduation date, a photo of the car you’re saving for or the amount of money you’ll earn after finishing a project, she said. 10. Move while you work. Constantly moving can help you focus better on the task at hand, Sarkis said. One way to incorporate movement is to sit on a large exercise ball by your desk. 11. Encourage yourself along the way. Use positive self-talk to help you pay attention, Palladino said. For instance, you might remind yourself of your past successes, such as “Last term, I finished my 20-page history paper on time, ” she said. Positive self-talk is helpful when it’s simple and direct, such as “I can do this, ” she added. 12. Concentrate on certain words. According to Palladino, repeating anchor words like “focus” can block distractions. Another option is to create a mantra based on your task, such as “Expense report; expense report; expense report, ” she said. 13. Write down everything. “If someone tells you they need you to complete some tasks, either ask for it in an email or in writing, or tell them to hold on while you get paper and a pen, or your digital device, ” Sarkis said. 14. Practice healthy habits. As Palladino noted, engaging in healthy habits helps improve attention long-term. This includes: “regular sleep, physical exercise, good nutrition, limited caffeine intake, reasonable planning and — to the extent possible in today’s world — a distraction-free work environment, ” she said. 15. Get a proper diagnosis. If you haven’t been diagnosed with ADHD, but you’re noticing difficulty with paying attention and these other symptoms, see an ADHD specialist for an accurate assessment. If you have ADHD, medication is a huge help. “ADHD is a neurobiological disorder, and medication can help your brain work more effectively, ” Sarkis said.

In case you haven’t noticed, I write about all the stuff I suck at. And here’s my worst struggle yet: staying focused. But this discipline is a non-negotiable for a writer. It’s essential for anyone who is serious about doing great work. I don’t care if you have to trick yourself into it. If you’re going to do stuff that matters, you will need to find a way to stop chasing shiny objects, sit down, and get something done. That’s all there is to it. Half-finished paintings don’t make it into museums. Half-drawn blueprints don’t make for well-constructed buildings (or any building at all). And half-finished manuscripts don’t make for much of a story. Truth is: you can’t create compelling art if you don’t stay on track. Getting your work done is essential to making an impact. You have to finish. Staying focused is how you do it. In any type of creative work (especially writing) you’re going to need discipline to get you to the finish line. Here are a few tricks that work for me: Block out time to be creative. Most professionals agree that writing in spurts longer than four to six hours is unhealthy and unproductive. Instead, write less, but more frequently. Reward yourself with breaks. I recommend writing for an hour or two. Then give yourself a 15-minute break away from computer, notebook, whatever, and just have fun. Go watch TV, eat lunch, or take the dog for a walk. Just do something to switch your brain off. Make sure you make it it as restful an activity as you can. (Sorry, checking email and reading Twitter doesn’t constitute as a “break.”) Turn off all “noise” while you write (including social media and other techno gadgets). Write without distractions — as much as you can. Don’t edit as you go. (Don’t edit on your breaks, either.) Schedule blocks of time to edit at later. You need to just get some words down on paper (or screen). Be spontaneous. Don’t write what you think you should write. Write what inspires you, what you feel. This may fly in the face of what you think it means to “stay focused, ” but give yourself some room to be creative. Brainstorm, free-write, fail. It’s okay to have fun. Set a goal and meet it. John Grisham used to get up every morning and write one page per day. That was his goal. Some days, he exceeded it. Other days, he just scraped by. But the point was he set a realistic, attainable goal. If done every day, he knew he would eventually have a book. And he did. Setting and meeting small goals will build your confidence and do more for your writing career than you realize. These are just a few ways to stay focused. I’m sure there are more. If you’re like me, you may have to bribe and cajole yourself into doing it, which is fine. Do whatever it takes. Just get your butt in the chair and do something.

They say the key to success is to simply show up every day and do what needs to be done. But showing up is the easy part. How to focus and stay on-task is the real challenge. Like an old lawn mower, it probably takes a few tries to get going. However, when you do, you enter a state of focus where you forget the world and are able to get lost in your work. It’s in this state that we do our best, most efficient work without even thinking about it. We call it being “in the zone”: a magical productive place you probably wish you could visit whenever you wanted to. So why can’t you? Why Is It So Hard to Focus? You’ve probably heard of “writer’s block” wherein writers struggle to fill a blank page with words despite their best efforts. But it’s not really specific to certain professions. Everyone from designers to entrepreneurs has encountered the proverbial block that's stood between them and getting something done. The cause isn’t so much a lack of an idea or the will to start, but the inability to dedicate your attention to the task at hand in a noisy world. There’s always so much to do and so little time attention. One study found that when making meaningful decisions—which requires a fair bit of brainpower—the human brain processes information at about 60 bits per second. Dial-up internet moves information at 56 kilobits per second, just to give you a sense at just how much faster we’re able to receive information relative to our ability to actually process it. This reality reveals an unfortunate truth: Attention is a finite resource. Information isn’t. Improving your concentration comes down to two things: How you allocate your attention How you block out excess information or “noise”. But it’s easier said than done. Even as I write this I’m nowhere near being in my zone. My attention gets pulled to other items on my week’s to-do list, my social media feeds, a Shopify store I’m building on the side, and my personal life. As someone who can get sidetracked at times, I’ve done a lot digging into the topic of focus to figure out how to improve my concentration. The most impactful perspective I’ve found has to do with a concept called “flow”. How to Focus Better By Harnessing “Flow” No life hack will ever replace old fashioned discipline (trust me, I've looked). Both your body and your mind need to show up ready to work or your attention will wander no matter what you do. This is something I find especially important to keep in mind when working on side projects that require intrinsic motivation (because no one's paying you). However, there are a number of strategies I've tried that have helped me cultivate a better work ethic: Cut down on multitasking : Splintering your focus gives you less attention to work with for each task. We’re just not made for multitasking—just try listening to two conversations at the same time. "Eat the frog first": Do the hardest task when you have the most energy, which for many people is earlier in the day. : Invest in your sleeping hours to reap a sharper mind during your waking hours. : Even if you can never fully squash your tendency to procrastinate, never give up the fight. Every battle you win means a less stressful to-do list. Master Your Attention, Master Your Success There’s an undeniable relationship between focus and success. You need to commit to your goals in order to be successful, but you need to focus in order to commit. For many of us, that doesn’t come easy. But it all starts with appreciating how limited a resource our attention is, and that chasing after our goals means being smarter about how we invest it every day.