Sharpening Your Focus to Help You Power Through the Day

By Bryan Kittman | February 2, 2019

If you have trouble staying focused on your daily tasks and goals, it can become detrimental to your well-being. Staying focused can sometimes correlate with being a high achiever, resulting in greater success. Whether it be at work, academics, athletic performance, or anything else, here are some tips to help sharpen your focus, helping you power through your day.

Focus on doing one thing at a time

We are in an age of extreme multitasking. It has become perfectly normal to be able to respond to emails while taking a call all the while keep an eye on incoming instant messages. To put it simply, we live extremely distracted lives, which can lead to diminished focus on the important tasks at hand. Try concentrating on one task at a time. If you’re responding to emails, concentrate on doing only that for a select period of time, then move onto your next task.

Set attainable focus goals

Developing your focus is the same as anything else: if you bite off more than you can chew, you’re going to feel overwhelmed. Try breaking up focus sessions into small amounts of time, followed by a short break. Eventually, you’ll be able to focus on a singular task for prolonged periods of time without any distractions.

Limit social media

Thanks to our phones, we are within constant access to social media, which has been proven to negatively affect a number of factors in our lives. Not only is it one of the most addicting distractions, it has also been linked to depression, information overload, and providing an overall negative outlook on our lives. While asking you to give it up may not be entirely realistic, most smartphones have a screen time feature that when set, will only allow you a specific amount of time on social media apps. Use it!

Be attentive during social interaction

Ever meet someone only to immediately forget their name? We often enter into social interactions absentmindedly, which can result in missed information and overall negative representation of yourself. Try maintain eye contact when speaking to someone, and enter into each interaction with the goal of staying mentally present in the moment.

Keep a to-do list

If you’re faced with a busy day, it can be a good strategy to visualize everything you need to get done by making a to-do list. This will help keep your workload all in one space, and will allow you to monitor your progress and keep you on track.

Turn off sound notifications on devices

The digital age has brought along with it a cacophany of bleeps and dings notifying you of just about everything. When it comes time to focus, try sending your devices to avoid the temptation to check them.

Prioritize sleep!

When we get tired, our focus is pretty much thrown out the window. It can be tough to maintain a strong focus when our mental stamina is at dangerously low levels. Whether it be getting more sleep at night, or grabbing a quick mid-afternoon nap, giving your mind a rest will replenish your ability to better focus.