“The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is: Wherever you are, be there. ”
Jim Rohn
“Success is not magic. The whole point is in concentration. ”
Mark Hansen
Concentration:
Motivation and concentration
You may ask yourself: How can I concentrate if I have no motivation?
Getting started is often the hardest step. So remember, motivation often sets in only after you actually start on a task. Your mind first needs stimulation before you get motivated and can concentrate. Knowing this helps in many cases. As a rule, it takes only five minutes to become motivated and start to concentrate on a task.
Attention as a limited resource
Think of your attention (or concentration) as a limited resource, like the charge of a battery. Because the charge is limited, you need to divide your attention selectively among different tasks. Let’s assume you have an extremely difficult task in front of you. To complete it, you need a lot of attention. Accordingly, you don’t have much attention left for other things.
What can you do to avoid cognitive overload?
- Allow yourself enough breaks and don’t plan excessively long study periods. This will take the strain off your head. Incidentally, it has been proven that you learn more if you study, say, a language, for ten minutes daily over five days than if you sit down for 50 minutes at one time.
- Focus on what is essential.
- Protect yourself from distractions of all kinds.
Beware of mind-wandering!
Our attention span is limited. While it’s not easy to measure mind-wandering, various studies conclude that our minds wander anywhere from 30 percent to as much as 90 percent of the time. However, the upside of such ‘daydreaming’ is that it gives us creative ideas.
What can you do about mind-wandering?
Try to refocus your attention on the task at hand. Note your digressions on a piece of paper – to file them away and keep them from haunting you.
Overcoming procrastination
Procrastination:
The internet is full of tips on how to fight procrastination. If you – like many other students – find yourself procrastinating, try the following:
1) Analyse how you use your time
Track how you use your time for one to two weeks and identify time robbers.
2) Find out why you procrastinate
Procrastination can be triggered by various factors. Most often it comes about when you’re afraid of something, e.g. of being criticized or of failing. However, other factors also play an important role, such as unclear or unrealistic goals, wrong priorities, or bad time management. The temptation to get distracted and do something easier becomes greater and greater. This creates a kind of vicious circle in which anxiety, listlessness and the need to escape reinforce each other.
Are you prone to procrastination? What factors could be the triggers in your case?
⬜ Mindset toward procrastination (“it’s not that bad”).
⬜ Fear of a task / fear of failing
⬜ Lack of clarity
⬜ Unrealistic goals
⬜ Wrong priorities
⬜ Poor time management
⬜ Distraction
⬜ Attractiveness of the digital world (social media, Netflix, …)
⬜ Need for social contact (especially digital)
⬜ …
3) Develop fixed habits
Work with schedules or an app that protects you against distractions. Try Francesco Cirillo’s Pomodoro technique:
The Pomodoro technique is based on the principle that breaks are important for concentrated work. The system symbolically uses an alarm clock that divides the work into 25-minute sections (the red tomato represents an egg timer). You then take a five-minute break after each of these work units, and a 25-minute break and after four units. This not only makes it easier to get started (shorter work segments cost less to overcome), it also increases efficiency (higher concentration and productivity) and thus minimises distractions.
4) Overcome inhibitions and get into action
Our brain is programmed to avoid big challenges. A difficult or lengthy task, such as writing a 30-page term paper, can be daunting from the start. Procrastination can then be a sign that this task seems too big for you or that you are setting your standards too high. Try to approach the tasks step by step, breaking each one down into small, manageable chunks that are easier to finish. The first step is to overcome inhibitions and to gain momentum. Procrastination is primarily a problem of getting started. Once you have managed to motivate yourself, the next steps will be much easier.
Seven tips for improving your concentration
- Choose a suitable workplace and keep it tidy
Think about where you can do your best work. Your desk at home may not always be the best choice. What might distract you in different places? Also make sure that you can sit or stand well, because the discomfort from an unhealthy posture is also distracting. Finally, work locations should also allow for pleasant breaks.A messy workplace may cause you to lose your concentration because you may have sweets lying around or another pile of work to do. The latter may not only distract you but also stress you – and stress quickly gets in the way of concentration. - Take planned breaks
Breaks are important to be able to work with concentration over longer periods. - Change your body position
Do you sit most of the time at work? Then it’s time to get up and move! - Eat and drink properly and enough
What, when and how much you eat and drink also affects your ability to concentrate. After a very filling meal, it’s often harder to study because the body pumps blood to the stomach for digestion rather than to the brain for thinking.
Drink two to three litres per day. Insufficient fluids in your system will cause your concentration to decrease. To be able to concentrate over longer periods, limit your intake of sweet and caffeinated beverages. That’s why it’s better to drink water or tea instead of cola. - Don’t multitask
Being good at multitasking means being able to switch back and forth quickly among tasks. However, overall you will be less efficient than if you do each tasks separately. Multitasking causes you to make more mistakes. - Switch to offline mode
Distraction-free time is essential for studying. Your smartphone or laptop may be getting in the way: The constant stream of push notifications or the fascinating tabs in your browser make it hard to stay focused. - Try it once with music
Recent studies have shown that listening to music can help us to concentrate at times. Music may not make us more intelligent, but it can put us in a better mood when we are studying. And a good mood, in turn, has a positive effect on concentration and learning.
Try out and discuss:
- Netflix, Instagram, WhatsApp etc. What are the most tempting distractions for you, what are the biggest time robbers? Why?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Pomodoro technique?
Resources:
- Blog entry on mindwandering
- Blog post on multitasking
- Blog Timothy A. Pychyl
- Srna, S., Schrift, R. Y., & Zauberman, G. (2018). The illusion of multitasking and its positive effect on performance. Psychological Science 29(12), 1942-1955.
- Urban, T. (2016). Inside the mind of a master procrastinator. TED Talk.
Cover picture: “concentration” by Eucalyp from the Noun Project