How to Stay focus while learning
Keeping up with the daily challenges of life is an uphill task. Not all days are the same. We all need that healthy boost of energy to revive things up. Staying focused is a big challenge, but it has the power to gently nudge us toward perseverance. It enhances our creativity, powers, and imagination.
Focus is our ability to concentrate on the task at the head. It could be something as small as threading a needle or completing a project or as big as preparing for a marathon. Our focus works like a lens-filtering all outside distractions and diversions that cause us to deviate from our path. If you intend to finish a task with the best results, you need to have your full focus on it.
The chief culprits for lack of focus in our daily lives are the many distractions we keep ourselves surrounded with. Starting from the time that we get up, till the time we get back to sleep, our life is one big struggle to try to keep up with the many distractions. Let us explore the chief distractions that take the energy that we need to stay focused and how to Stay focus while learning.
4 Distractions that make us lose Focus while learning
Our Thoughts-
Our thoughts are the biggest distractions. Imagination keeps flooding our mind every minute of the day and keeps coming and going. Thoughts about work, friends, family, the new kid on the block, the latest app–all overwhelm our brains with a huge amount of information that not all of us can process. The thought itself is not a problem. It is what we do with the thoughts and how that becomes an issue. Once we start acknowledging all kinds of thoughts, our focus shifts from the task at hand to the thoughts and we get deviated.
People-
Human distraction in the form of people is also a big cause of losing focus. We stay surrounded by all kinds of people throughout the day. Our family members at home, colleagues at the office or friends at college. There is always a lot of exchange of information between two humans whenever they meet. We get influenced by their thoughts, moods, talks, and interactions. If we are not careful, it takes a little time before we lose focus on the task at hand and get on an entirely different track.
Extensive use of technology-
The digital world offers seamless distractions throughout the day. We may have different life goals like learning a new skill or spending more time at a task. But social media, emails and all the apps on the most up-to-date gadgets leave no room for maintaining our focus over the task at hand. Social media provides an extensive and continuous engagement. Every click, every post, every comment compels us to read more and click more. It all starts with a few clicks and in no time, we spend hours doing nothing.
Procrastination-
This is the age-old human tendency to put off work until the last. It is the avoidance of work that needs to be finished by a certain deadline. The reasons can be anything, but we put off difficult tasks and look for ways to divert our minds to something else. Procrastination is the biggest distraction of modern times, and a dangerous one too.
All these reasons are sufficient for us to lose focus at work. We start at a task, get distracted easily and lose focus. If we can achieve something in quick time should not take ages. It not only wastes time but consumes our energy. We can put all this into place by self-regulation and self-control.let us explore how we can take back our attention from all these distractions at work.
Strategies to Stay focus while learning
Create a distraction-free environment-
If you know you are getting distracted at work by your thoughts, people, technology or various other reasons, make it your prime objective to create a work environment free from distraction. To keep a check on the people visiting you, keep your office door closed or put a “Do not disturb sign”. If that is not possible, or if you do not work in a cabin, try to keep your interactions at a minimum. For this, train yourself to stay focused instead of answering every person moving around.
Create a to-do-list and stick to it-
You can create a list highlighting your primary tasks for the day with a tentative schedule. Make sure you stick to this list and the time scheduled for finishing each task as mentioned in that list. This will always act as a reminder when you may spend extra time on social media or having a chit-chat with a friend. Stick the list at your desk or on your computer or set reminders. This may take time but once you settle into a routine, it will come handy.
Monitor your thoughts-
As soon as you feel you feel you are getting distracted by a string of thoughts, quickly make a mental note of why that is happening. Try to identify your distraction triggers. Is the task boring or too difficult? Are you getting distracted by your phone? Whatever is the distraction, try to eliminate it till the time you don’t get the task done. Again this will require a certain amount of resilience from your side.
Use Mind Hacks to Stay focus while learning-
With a little bit of training, you can always force your brain to work like a muscle. Divide your given task into manageable chunks. Try to spend, say 25 minutes on each chunk, if you feel you get distracted after that. Try to give your best shot to your work in that time-frame. You can award yourself with a small 5-10 minute break after that. But make sure you don’t get back to the same distractions in that break that you are trying to eliminate. Stick to the allotted time and gradually increase the time interval.
Find more engaging work-
Sometimes, we get prone to a loss of focus because our work fails to motivate or challenge us. We get trapped in a monotonous routine and start procrastinating that quickly becomes a habit. If this is the case, try to find more engaging work. If that is not possible, use alternative but interesting ways to do the same task that keep you engaged.
Tips to Stay focus while learning:
Identifying your distractions is the first thing that you need to do. Once done, you can devise any of the above-listed strategies to keep yourself focused. However, daily, you may skip your strategy. So here are some tips to help you stay focused at work.
- Keep your desk de-cluttered, so that unnecessary stuff does not divert your attention. Keep your papers neatly filed and books and notebooks at the right place. Misplaced and scattered items on your desk not only create clutter but also lead to stress.
- Keep your computer workspace organized, so that unwanted icons don’t disturb you.
- If possible, and if you do not get distracted, you can play soothing music on your computer in the background. This will help you block out the office chatter.
- Try to stay away from your phone while at work. There is no need to answer every call or reply to every message or status update.
- Stay away from the internet.
- Put up a Do not disturb sign to let people know you are at work and don’t want to get interrupted.
- Practice Time-management. You can set reminders for specific tasks but stick to the schedule. Do not make it a habit to snooze the alarm and prolong the task.
- Make work your priority. When at work, try to leave all other thoughts at home until you don’t accomplish your task.
Conclusion Stay focus while learning:
The human brain is a good servant but a bad master. Make sure to train your brain to stay focused. We do not achieve this overnight as this takes time. You can take help from the above suggestions and make your strategy to Stay focus while learning. Once done, these tips will immensely boost your productivity at work.
Now, let’s get started: Write Content with AI-Based ToolsStay focus while learning