HOW TO TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO FOCUS
Happy I saw this question.
This is something that I ALWAYS struggled with (severely).
As a professional daydreamer, it doesn’t take much for me to get distracted.
So, a couple of years ago I attempted to get this ‘handled.’
Here is how I did it:
First off…it’s important to see the birds-eye view of the situation.
Zoom out for a moment.
Let me ask you this…
a) Is it hard for you to start work that is important?
b) Is it hard for you to continue doing this work?
c) Is it easy for you to procrastinate?
d) Do you get distracted easily?
It is my conviction that we all face an inner enemy.
Steven
Pressfield calls it ‘Resistance’ in his famous book the War of Art.
Others have called it the Devil (Napoleon Hill), Lower self and Part X
(Phil Stutz).
For the sake of this answer, let’s just say that every human face some type of resistance.
This ‘force’ will do anything to get YOU to stop doing your work.
Now, how do we face this resistance and defeat it?
Let’s zoom back in.
So, you face resistance and it shows up by being distracted, procrastinating and not being able to focus.
This can be broken down into two parts.
- Distraction
- Focus
A HUGE part of learning to focus is getting rid of distractions.
Here are some examples of distraction:
- Delete all Google Chrome tabs besides the one you are working on. I fall for this one all the time, keep two tabs maximum.
- Clean your room so it’s spotless. It is unbelievable of how much better it feels to be in a clear spotless room.
- Clear your desk. There should be nothing on there to distract you from the work at hand.
- Turn off wifi. If you are writing, there is no need for wifi. Get rid of possible distractions before they attack you.
- Put your phone on airplane mode and hide it.
- Turn off notifications.
These are some ways to eliminate distractions.
Imagine yourself as a robot with feelings.
You want to program the best system inside this machine.
If you wanted the machine to run in the morning, maybe putting the gym clothes and shoes bedside would help.
That’s how I want you to be thinking.
Eliminate distractions and focus will naturally appear.
The second part of this is the focus.
If you eliminate all distractions, your focus will become 100x better.
But, let’s say you want it 1000x better. There are practical & powerful ways to build this muscle.
Here are some examples of focus:
- Tratak. A very powerful process of placing a small dot two yards away. Now stare at the dot with a relaxed vision for 5 minutes. Increase the time as you become better. When you become distracted, bring your attention back to the dot.
- Focus mantra. Having a mantra such as “It’s easy for me to stay focused” to repeat during your work session is powerful.
- Sweat every day. When you workout, it becomes a billion times easier to remain focused.
- Set time limits on work blocks. Set a time limit for your work sessions. For example, if you have low levels of focus, tell yourself that for the next 30 minutes I will only do my work. After the 30 minutes are up, take a break.
- Work on your new self-image. After each work block, tell yourself some type of identity level affirmation. For example “I’m just the type of guy that can focus for long periods of time.” We can only go as far as our self-image takes us. Don’t ignore this step.
That’s a brief overlay on how to learn to focus.