Continuing with our recent theme of positive words, this week’s dose of mental sunshine is all about focus
Now obviously with camera in hand I need to keep my lens focused on the talent in front of me as I coax and capture natural expressions.
There are however so many different things that pull on our attention throughout our daily lives, and many of us may find that we can have a very short attention span.
This can make it really hard to get into work (or a good book, or even a TV show) in a meaningful way.
We might manage a few minutes,
But then there’s a phone notification or someone speaks to us or we remember something else we were supposed to have done yesterday…
and it all goes to pot.
So how can we improve our focus?
Here are a couple of things that might help:
Pomodoro Technique
This is where you break your day into 25-minute periods of focus followed by 5 minutes of rest.
It sounds counterintuitive, but having that 25-minute countdown timer means that when you find that you’re distracted or tempted to get up from your desk, you can say to yourself, you’ve only got a few more minutes doing this, and then you can do that.
It works for lots of people.
Eliminate distractions
Easier said than done – but if you can put your phone on silent or even hide it in another room, you’ll find it easier to focus on the task in hand.
Ironically, to avoid distractions, I like to go to a busy cafe where, despite all the hustle and bustle going on around me, I find that I can concentrate, focus and get lots of work done on my laptop.
Practice!
Feeling more focussed doesn’t just happen overnight; we’ve often spent years allowing our attention to be pulled this way and that all the time.
It does take an amount of discipline to be able to focus; to begin with you might find it really hard.
But it’s worth sticking with as over time it will become easier to stay focussed on what you’re doing and that makes life easier to maintain your mental sunshine!
What helps you to stay focused?
