Mr. Brain, Why Can’t You Be A Bit More Attentive?
A moment of drifting sometimes has a great cost: the recognition you could have got, glamorous opportunities that don’t appear often, or a good sum of money. Other times, an inconsistent focus decays your efficiency, drags your feet, and slows you down in the long run.
A deficient concentration doesn’t just cost the time you drift, it also costs the time it takes to re-focus, to go back to the optimal mental state. If you drift enough, you may never obtain a high level of concentration, resulting in a disappointing efficiency.
It is simple to drop your focus, as simple as clicking a Youtube video when the notification pops, then wasting time on videoes you don’t even interest in. Spending time happily may not be considered as a waste of time, but diversifying your energy aimlessly definitely is — you don’t get a reward for it, nor you entertained, there is only guilt in your mind.
Mr.Brain, you have been through years of sophisticated evolution, and you can’t even resist a dumb waste of time on Youtube? What is wrong?
How To Ruin Concentration
What ruins our ability to concentrate? Distractions. Distractions of many kinds.
Inconfidence
It may not be very intuitive, but inconfidence is one of the biggest causes of distraction. If we doubt ourselves or feel that we are unable to handle a task, we inevitably drift: we can’t do it anyway, why don’t we spend our time on something fun?
Moreover, inconfidence often comes with the loss of direction, and you can’t concentrate if you don’t know what to do; you can’t concentrate when there is nothing to concentrate on.
My experience on writing is evidence of that: in the earlier times of my writing journey, when I start with a topic that is arduous to elaborate neatly, I lose my focus quickly, and soon start wandering, opening tabs without really thinking; every time this happens, it takes a considerable time for me to recover to the optimal state.
I drifted because I didn’t believe that I can finish the piece, the effort I invested will be meaningless if I could not transform a draft into complete writing; that is a frustrating thought.
I didn’t know what to do with the mere skeleton either, how can I add the flesh and skin? I had no idea. Consciously and unconsciously, I wanted to hide from the challenging task.
If you don’t believe you can win, your brain will help you to lose.
Worries
Inconfidence can be a cause of worries, but there is more — the worries irrelevant to the task. You can’t concentrate in your workplace if you suspect that you didn’t lock the door this morning. Worries are powerful distractions, and they are never in dearth.
A common worry is the suspicion of forgetting something: Did I forget something? Did I forget something to be done? No matter how desperate we try to curb this thought, it doesn't relinquish until we give up on our task and shift the attention to the suspicion.
An equally common worry is related to time: cannot I finish all these on time? You are not sure if the allocation of time needs to be adjusted. Like other distractions, no matter how much force you apply to resist it, it will just keep popping up and driving you crazy.
External Distractions
A notification, a random noise, being in a physically uncomfortable state is detrimental to concentration. The distraction itself may not take a lot of time from you, but it takes time to recover. It is strenuous to concentrate in the middle of the street because there are too many external stimulations, the look from passers-by, the sentence they say, the noise of vehicles and their movement — all are distractions.
If you feel uncomfortable to be looked at, you will fill yourself distracted even more frequently: the sound of footsteps, an unintentional glance, or an irrelevant dialogue — they all pull away your focus.
External distractions are irritating because they are often out of our control, we can’t dodge their existence.
Cures — Fighting The Distractions
We can find the solutions once the problems become clear.
Strengthen Your Confidence With Plans
Uncertainty rips confidence apart, certainty strengthens confidence. We can add certainty to our tasks through planning. A plan includes how things will be done, or how they may be done. Once we know the directions to complete tasks, confidence retrieves.
If we get lost in a place, we panic because you are uncertain about what way to go — and moving anywhere is not a magnificent solution; but if someone comes across and points you the route, there is no longer any need to feel anxious. Even though a simple conversation may not make you familiar with the place, you at least have a direction of what to do.
It’s the same with inconfidence — make a plan and let it guide your way.
Relieve Your Worries By Writing It Down
Worries can be clarified just by being written down, we don’t have to waste our mental energy worrying about something; this frees us the capacity to concentrate on the task on hand.
This article discusses how affects our performance and ways to use the effects to our advantage; you may have a look afterward if worrying bothers you a lot.
Shut The Stimulus To Minimize External Distractions
External distractions are not easy to tackle because, after all, they are external. But there are still things we can do.
First of all, block the unimportant notifications from the phone. It is tempting to drift away when the phone makes noises: What is it? Is it something interesting? It is not wise you can control to let them ruin your focus.
Then it comes to the external distractions which have no control; we can’t force our peers to shut up, nor can we burn the noisy construction site. The best solution here is a strong motivation.
Even if we cannot do much to the distractions physically, we can shut them mentally, or in other words, ignore them. To achieve this, you need a surging motivation, which you can refer to this article afterward.
Final Words
Concentration is not something everyone possesses, even the top achievers in different fields occasionally lose their focus. But once you have practiced enough, the ability to concentrate turns into an incredibly valuable asset.
