The development of certain abilities often requires months of practice from a person to see any significant improvement. There is not always enough time and will to do that. But to improve concentration, you are going to need only several days. In fact, that is a very ironic skill: to improve it, you’ll need… concentration. Not just it, of course. Motivation, enthusiasm and patience are required as well.
What is Concentration?
Bill Gates said concentration to be the most important quality for every human to develop as a feature. It is impossible to disagree with him, as concentration is tightly connected to attention and memory, intelligence and thinking (including the creative one). So, it can be said, that if you can concentrate, then you are a smart person able to notice and remember many different things.
Concentration is connected to all skills a person going in for self-development might want to improve. Do you want to write a novel, a poem, a song? Creating something without concentration is a difficult quest. Do you want to become a master of communication, to hold public speeches learnt by heart, to forget nothing? Train your memory, be attentive and do not get distracted by anything.
What does it mean for you? Only one thing: concentration can be improved by developing your attention, memory, creative thinking and intelligence. And vice-versa. So, let’s find out how to improve concentration. Here you can read some tips, then find exercises and smartphone apps. If to use them all together, you’ll get excellent results.
How to Develop Concentration
Concentration development is possible in two ways: by excluding external irritators, and by special exercises helping you to train the skill directly.
1. Exclude all Irritators
That is the very first thing to be done. You can practice as long as you want, but if environment interrupts you on purpose, any significant result won’t ever come. Find a calm place or get rid of distractors.
Plus, use earplugs or headphones. Really, they help very much, especially on early stages. When your concentration becomes improved significantly, you are going to be able to stay without them. Yes, it will be possible for you to write an essay or to read a book while being in a public transport of cafe.
2. Notice Things
Make some small 1x2 inches’ cards. Mark on them every time when your mind starts flying in the clouds during a work or reading. It is important to separate them by three colors and day time: morning, afternoon and evening (green, red and yellow), for instance. In a couple days, you’ll notice this easy trick helps you distract less.
Being conscious about the problem is the first step, so this method helps you to pay attention to it. This lets you increase your concentration level without taking a lot of efforts, you just remind yourself about the need to be concentrated. With this method, you’ll be able to see what time of your day is the most or the least productive for you, to notice how a concentration level decreases after a quarrel or eating, and how it increases after a walk and easy lunch.
3. Use Spider Technique
What would a spider do, if you hit the tuning-fork somewhere close to its web? It is going to come out in order to see what happened, you get its curiosity. But if you repeat the same thing several times, spider won’t react to sounds anymore. It knows what to expect, so it ignores them.
What does it mean? Expect distractions to happen and try not to react. A door hit, a bird singing, a noisy neighbor crying hard: whatever the factor is, go on focusing on your task. It may wonder you, but after some time you’ll simply stop being conscious about sounds surrounding you.
4. Use Food which is Useful for Concentration
It may seem to be not the main thing, but you shouldn’t ignore your physiology.
Blueberry. Contains many natural antioxidants which improve blood flow and brain activity.
Green Tea. It contains not only caffeine, but much L-theanine, which is even more important in this case.
Green Vegetables. Chlorophylls contain many carotenoids improving blood flow, and B-group vitamins that strengthen memory.
Fish. Fish, for instance, salmon or cod, are filled with Omega-3 fatty acids which are useful for your brain.
5. Stay Conscious
In any literature on self-development, this tip can be met very often. But there is nothing one can do: this ability solves many problems. Consciousness is the ability to notice things. Things that do not only refer to the outer world, but internal processes as well. This means, you are able to control your attention and concentration if you are conscious.
Practice nearly 20 minutes of meditation daily. That is a required minimum. Additionally, it is better for you to find other possibilities to stay in a conscious state of mind during the whole day. The easiest and most effective way: focus on what you do totally. When you eat, enjoy your food. When you wash the dishes, think only about the process and your washing technique. This is how you can not only get satisfied with routine processes, but increase your consciousness and concentration levels at the same time!
That is incredibly difficult. Sometimes, you are going to be angry about yourself forgetting about reality. But do not panic: now you’ve reminded yourself about that, you are “here and now”. With every week, you’ll increase your consciously lived time.
That is how you can develop your ability to concentrate, to focus your mind on things you need to see, feel, remember and notice at the certain moment of time. Use exercises described above, and you’ll feel the result very soon.
