Basically, it takes a simple process to discipline the brain but its effects on the different aspects of our lives are just incalculable. According to Winifred Gallagher, in his book Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life, “If you could just stay focused on the right things, your life would stop feeling like a reaction to stuff that happens to you and become something that you create”.
Feed your mind. Skipping breakfast is a bad habit as it makes you feel stressed. What’s good for the body is good for the brain so give your diet a combination of protein and carbohydrates to stabilise your blood sugars. Drink also plenty of water to avoid concentration depletion caused by dehydration.
Get the rhythm. Aligning your work schedule with you circadian rhythms will maximize your brain’s potential. For most people, peak alertness is at 10:00AM, coordination is best at 2:00PM, reaction times will be fast about 3:00PM and muscle strength peaks at 5:00PM. Most of all having enough sleep will be beneficial so make sure you have hit the bed before 2:00AM when deepest sleep occurs that time.
Have an organized mind. Don’t let time catch up with you, run. Have the habit of organising your tasks or household chores. It will be good if you list down all the things you need to do within the day to make certain you don’t forget a thing. You can put those tasks that need less concentration after lunch.
One thing at a time. While multi-tasking is a good strategy, it also enables your mind to be less focused on the tasks you are doing where it could result to more mistakes. Take a brief mental break whenever possible to relax your mind.
Eliminate distractions. If you attend to your emails and writing your report simultaneously, your brain will accommodate the sudden shift of short to long-term memory process, according to Griffey. You have to focus on your report, or whatever is your priority for the task to be done successfully.
Have a break. When your mind is messed up, try to walk around a natural environment rather than urban areas. Based on the survey done by the University of Michigan, where they have asked two groups to separately walk around an arboretum and around the city showed that the latter scored lower in concentration tests. Take time to stroll around a park.
Five more … Sam Horn, communications consultant and author of ConZentrate: Get Focused and Pay Attention, suggested that if you feel like quitting on a certain task, just do five more pages/minutes/sums/etc. She further added that you can build mental stamina by pushing past the point of mental frustration, just as athletes build physical stamina by pushing past the point of exhaustion.
Learn to meditate. This technique can help you bear with the stresses posed by modern life. Even for just ten minutes a day, it can reduce stress, improve your concentration and brighten your outlook in life. You can try T’chai or yoga if you have hard time connecting to your inner self.
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