You might wonder how to focus in this extremely distracting world.
Everything screams for your attention.
Phone messages and notifications. The flow of constant and urgent requests at work. Advertisements that are no longer only on billboards, but also on your favorite social media channels.
Only to name a few examples…
The world has become incredibly noisy. And your ability to focus has never become more valuable.
In this guide, you will learn:
- 5 Steps to get focused
- 4 Strategies to stay focused
- 4 Tips to focus better and longer
- 5 Long-term strategies to improve focus
So let’s dive in!
What is Focus
Focusing is the process of directing your attention to one single task or activity, without losing that attention. You could lose attention by the number of distractions that are around you.
In other words: to stay focused is quite a challenge.
You may have noticed how it becomes more difficult to focus as the day progresses. That’s because concentration is a finite resource, like fuel in a car. The more you use it, the emptier it gets. Especially if you try to focus for many hours in a row.
Once empty, you will need to refill it. This is where sleep plays a major part. Though there are many other strategies to stay focused for extended periods throughout your day.
For example, taking a walk between long tasks allows you to refill your tank a bit. And there are more strategies to be more efficient with your fuel, which we will get to in a moment.
First, it’s useful to understand why you struggle with focus right now.
Why You Can’t Focus
There are many different reasons why you may lack focus. An obvious one is having too many distractions or a lack of sleep. But there are a couple of other common causes.
We discussed the 7 most common reasons in the article: Why can’t I focus?
Here is a summary:
- Trying to multitask
- Distractions
- Stress
- Poor sleep
- Poor nutrition
- Vague objectives
- The busyness trap
As mentioned, there are many different reasons why you may lack focus. And identifying which ones affect you the most, will help you to solve the real issue. This is often much more effective than using any other focusing technique.
That said, let’s get into a systematic approach for getting focused.
5 Steps to Get Focused
You may have heard this saying before: preparation is the key to success. But not only is it the key to success, but it’s also the key to getting focused.
In other words: preparation is crucial to improve focus.
Step 1: Get Organized
Physically clearing up your working environment has a massive mental benefit. Decluttering your environment also declutters your mind.
Organizing reduces stress, a common reason why people lose focus. Simply organizing your space can already increase productivity.
At first, organizing may take some time. But once you are somewhat organized, you’ll get through the process a lot quicker.
- Collect everything that you got around you and compile it into one place. Empty the shelves if you have any in your environment.
- Remove anything that you don’t need. Consider everything you didn’t know you have as unnecessary. Also, throw out or give away everything that you haven’t used in the past 6 months. This doesn’t come easy for some people. So if you struggle to get rid of something, put these into a box to review again at a later moment.
- Clean the whole place, including shelves, drawers, and of course, your desk.
- Sort the stuff that is still leftover. If you have a lot of paperwork, you can sort it by date or project for example.
For the people that have everything digital, organizing might not seem necessary. Though it can still help you a lot to clean up your digital environment too.
The more frequent you do it, the shorter it will take you.
Step 2: Making a To-Do List
A to-do list is an effective tool to reduce task overload in your brain. Writing down your tasks means you no longer have to remember everything, which frees up your mind to get focused.
There are no limits to what you should write on your to-do list. If you’re at work and you think about buying a gift for a friend this weekend, write it down.
Guess what you should do when something pops up when you try to focus?
You add it to your to-do list.
Some of the best productivity planners on the market are also great for to-do lists, like the Panda Planner Pro.
Step 3: Define the Most Important Task
Working on unimportant tasks doesn’t help you to get focused. But knowing that you work on an important activity, and understanding why, does get you laser-focused.
After all, it makes you feel accomplished when you achieve that task. Thus, the anticipated joy of finishing the task will overshadow the short-term discomfort to get focused.
But defining the most important task isn’t easy.
Most of the time, people look at their to-do lists to define what’s most important. And too often, what’s on the to-do list is urgent – but not always important.
For example, important tasks are building relationships or setting up systems. But these are seldom urgent tasks that end up on your to-do list.
So think about it:
What’s the most important thing you should do to achieve your goals?
Defining this doesn’t just help you focus, it’s also the key to improve productivity and become more effective in life.
Step 4: Rid Yourself of Distractions
You organized your desk, freed up your mind from all the to-do’s, and you started working on the most important task. Ten minutes in, you receive a notification on your phone…
How often does this happen to you?
You set the right intention and start well, only to get interrupted a little later. And once you lose concentration, it often takes a long time to get focused again.
So what can you do about it?
Get rid of as many distractions as possible. Turn your phone on silent or better yet, turn it on airplane mode for the time being. Put your email on autoresponder and let people know that you are unavailable for a couple of hours.
I hear you say: “But I (can) get important messages!”
It’s very likely that you feel that way. But are the messages important or just urgent? And if they are urgent, how urgent are they really?
Too often we feel like we have to respond immediately.
But trust me, if you answer these messages a couple of hours later, the world isn’t coming to an end.
The biggest change you will notice when doing this?
You only have to get focused once – not every couple of minutes.
In the beginning, some people might have to get used to this approach. But soon enough, they might consider this approach themselves when they see how productive you’ve become.
Step 5: Start Working on ONE Task
You already prepared yourself for success. You have defined the most important task and removed many of the possible distractions.
The key now is to work on only one task for a set amount of time.
So with the right preparation to get focused, you’re now ready to learn the strategies to stay focused.
4 Simple Strategies to Stay Focused
The longer you work on a task, the harder you might find it to stay focused. So what do you do when concentration starts to disappear?
Fortunately, there are many strategies to stay focused. Below I list the 4 strategies that helped me the most.
Strategy 1: The Pomodoro Technique
You might have heard of the Pomodoro technique because it’s the most famous time management strategy. But it’s also a very effective one for focus.
The idea is to work on a task for a short duration, followed by a 5-minute break. It works like this:
- Set a timer for 25 minutes.
- Work on your task without taking any breaks for its duration.
- When the 25 minutes is up, take a 5-minute break (away from the computer).
- Repeat this cycle 3 times, followed by a 30-minute break.
This strategy is simple but it works. The reason is that most people tend to lose focus after 30-45 minutes. The small breaks help you to reset your focus.
Also, knowing you only have 25 minutes to work on a task, creates a sense of urgency. And urgency is a great ingredient to improve your focus.
There are many ways to personalize this strategy too.
For example, the copywriter Gene Schwartz used 33 minutes and 33 seconds, instead of 25 minutes. And this is the duration that I prefer as well.
Experiment with it yourself.
A good start is to figure out how long you can stay focused until your concentration tends to fade. Then, work a little less than that duration.
Strategy 2: The Deep Work Method
Cal Newport talks about this method in his book: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
The idea is that you block time out of your day to do focused work. For example, block a moment of 2 hours in your agenda to work on one specific task.
In those 2 hours, the idea is to get rid of all distractions. If you’re at work, look for a place where you can sit without being interrupted. And the same goes for working from home.
Getting rid of all distractions also means email and your phone. Close your mail and put your phone on flight mode.
Do you worry about not being reachable?
If you explain what you do and why you do it, people will understand you. And if you engage in deep work consistently, they will get used to it too.
Deep work is a great strategy to use if you want to get more done. So if you want to learn everything about it, I recommend you get the book.
Strategy 3: The Ivy Lee Method
Ivy Lee was a very successful business consultant who consulted for the famous Charles Schwab. During a consultation, he recommended what later became known as the Ivy Lee Method.
Here are the steps on how to focus better with this method:
- At the end of your day, write down the 6 most important tasks for tomorrow.
- Prioritize the items on your list.
- The following day, start working on the most important item.
- After finishing the first item, move to the second item.
- Keep going until all items are done. If you have any unfinished items, move them to your list for the next day.
- Repeat this process.
Though this process is only one part of concentration, it achieves some important things. The first is that it helps you to prepare your day in advance. And secondly, it clarifies exactly what you will be doing in your day.
Start using this technique to see how it improves your focus.
Strategy 4: The Early Bird Technique
The idea is to wake up early – before the rest wakes up – to do your most meaningful task. This way, you already achieved a big win while most people haven’t even woken up yet.
I’ve used this strategy quite often and combined the best ideas from a couple of places:
- The 3 strategies that we just discussed.
- 5 AM club: take care of your morning to set yourself up for the rest of your day.
- Eat that frog: do the most important and daunting task first thing in the morning.
To use the Early Bird Technique, you should plan your day the night before. That way, you don’t have to spend your morning energy on planning and preparation.
After waking up, you have two choices:
- If you are a morning person and you feel focused already, jump straight into the task.
- Create a morning routine that helps you to wake up. For example, I like to read for 30 minutes, followed by a short exercise routine. Then I take a shower and jump into my task.
When using this approach, I sit at my desk at around 6 o’clock. That’s well before anyone else has woken up. And I find it quite easy to do 2 hours of deep work at that time.
The final piece is to work on the most important and challenging task first.
Doing so achieves multiple things.
First, you spend your most productive energy on the most important task, without interruptions. And once you finish it, you also feel great for the rest of your day.
You may have to get used to waking up early. But if you do this consistently, it can have a very positive impact on the quality of your life.
4 Tips to Focus Better and Longer
Even when you use some of the strategies we just discussed, you can still lose focus on a full day of work. Especially later in the day.
So how can you enjoy high levels of focus for a longer time?
Here are 4 tips that might help.
Tip 1: Take A Break
If you’ve read the strategies we just discussed, this tip isn’t new to you. But taking breaks between work is the best way to extend the duration that you can focus.
Why?
Because a break resets your focus.
Especially when you get away from your desk and do something completely different. Drink a cup of tea, for example. Or better yet, go for a short walk outside.
Taking breaks is an effective technique to manage your energy. And when you do this habitually, you’ll notice that you get more stuff done than when you don’t take breaks.
Tip 2: The 20-20-20 Rule
The blue light of your screen can tire your eyes and even cause eye strain. Some ways to reduce this are by blinking more often, limiting blue-light exposure, and increasing the text size.
But the most effective strategy is the 20-20-20 rule:
- After every 20 minutes;
- Look away for 20 seconds;
- At an object that is 20 feet (7 meters) away from you.
Using this approach reduces strain on the eye and also helps you to stay focused for much longer. This tip works especially well at the end of your day.
Tip 3: Listen to Music
According to Healthline, music does help you to increase concentration on one specific task. Classic music especially, though other kinds of music work great too.
Also, music rids you from other distractions, like environmental noises. Of course, this only counts if the music doesn’t become a distraction itself.
You probably know what type of music works best for you. It’s the kind of music that makes you lose track of time and also fully engages you in the activity.
Try different types of music to see what works. What works well for me is deep house, low-fi hip hop, or some indie rock.
Tip 4: Take Some Caffeine
Too much caffeine can have harmful effects. But the right amount of caffeine at the right times can improve your focus for a brief period.
Coffee works especially great if you’re not drinking too much of it. Because if you do, then your receptors won’t fire up as much from coffee anymore.
So if you need that little boost to finish your task, try some coffee.
5 Long-Term Strategies to Improve Your Focus
So far, we have gone over many tips and strategies to improve your focus. But we have not fully gone into some solutions for common reasons why you may lack focus:
- Stress
- Poor sleep
- Poor nutrition
Health is often not easily fixed in one day. But if you prioritize and build habits around it, improving health can be your best strategy to improve your focus and concentration.
So if you want to know how to focus better daily, these strategies are for you.
Strategy 1: Sleep More
It’s one of the simplest yet also one of the most effective strategies to execute. Then why is it so hard for most people to get enough sleep?
Some of the most common reasons are:
- Not sleeping enough hours
- Checking your phone before bed
- Going to bed at different times
- Drinking coffee or alcohol before bed
- Having a poor quality mattress
So what can you do about it?
Try to go to bed at the same time each night. Sleep for at least 7 but preferably 8 or even 9 hours. Of course, the exact duration depends on your specific needs.
But I can tell you one thing:
People rarely focus at their best with only 4 hours of sleep – especially if this happens consistently.
Using your phone or computer before going to bed also doesn’t help. I understand that this may be a habit that’s hard to get rid of. So if you still want to watch some Netflix, at least dim your screen and use a blue-light filter.
If you have a poor mattress, consider investing in a good one. You don’t have to buy the most expensive ones. There are many mattresses on Amazon that have a good price/quality ratio.
Fortunately, sleep is mentioned more often as an important quality for success and happiness.
So if you want more success and happiness too, make sure you prioritize your sleep.
Strategy 2: Eat Better
There is truth in the saying: you are what you eat.
If you eat shitty foods that don’t contain any nutritious value, you will feel shitty too. If you eat more unprocessed and whole foods on the flip side, you will feel better.
It’s not rocket science.
But did you know some specific foods can improve focus as well?
Here they are:
- Blueberries
- Avocados
- Leafy greens
And the foods you should stay away from are muffins, cured meats, and fruit juices. These foods can cause many cognitive issues, including a loss of concentration.
Strategy 3: Drink More Water
Water has a very important function in the body and brain. And you have probably experienced a situation when all you wanted was to drink some water.
Water allows every other thing in your body to function properly. Like the oil in a machine.
Without it, nothing works smoothly any longer.
Memory and focus are highly impacted when dehydrated. In other words: if you wonder how to focus better, get yourself a glass of water.
Strategy 4: Exercise
There are many health benefits of exercise. And according to this study, some of these benefits include cognitive abilities like focus and attention.
You don’t have to exercise for long hours to enjoy these benefits either.
According to Harvard, working out 5 times a week for about 20 to 30 minutes already stimulates cognitive functions.
Some suggestions you could perform at home or outside:
- Basic bodyweight exercises for strength
- Running or jogging for cardio
- Yoga or dynamic stretching for mobility
Rotate between the types of exercises to enjoy all the benefits. And implement them in your morning routine to build a new healthy habit.
Strategy 5: Meditate
Meditation has become quite popular in the Western world in the recent decade. And the main reason is that science now proves that there are many benefits to it.
Though most people already give up at the thought of sitting still for 20 minutes, you can ease into it. Start with only 5 minutes. Then work your way up if you enjoy it.
How to start?
- Find a place where you can sit without interruptions or distractions
- Sit upright in a chair or upright on the floor. If both feel uncomfortable, you can lay down on the floor too
- Set a timer for the duration you feel comfortable with
- Close your eyes and focus on following your breath
- When you notice that your mind wanders off, gently bring it back to your breath
- Keep repeating this until the time is up
In essence, meditation is very simple.
But in practice, it’s difficult – especially at the beginning.
You may feel frustrated the first time. You get angry because you can’t focus on your breath. Or you may notice that you daydream during most of the session.
Don’t worry though.
With a little bit of consistent practice and patience, you’ll get the hang of it. And it will teach you how to focus better too.
Conclusion: How to Focus Better?
By now you’re equipped with all the tips, tricks, and strategies to focus better. You may even feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information.
Don’t worry though – you don’t have to try everything at once.
Instead, try one strategy first. Then move on to the next. Keep doing what works well and get rid of everything else.
Everyone is different after all. What works for me doesn’t necessarily work for you. And vice versa. The only way for you to figure out what’s best for you is to try stuff yourself.
That’s it.
Related article: how to be more productive?
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