Keeping Focus

‘My mind is like a racing engine, tearing itself to pieces because it is not connected up with the work for which it was built.’
‘THE ADVENTURE OF WISTERIA LODGE’
As your old school teachers wearied of drumming into you as a child, the best way to avoid making mistakes is to maintain concentration. As
Watson recorded in ‘The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist’, Holmes ‘loved above all things precision and concentration of thought’.
For most of us, our minds are in a state of flux. We keep a lot of stuff in our heads and too easily we can fall into the trap of turning it over to no
real advantage. Without a bit of focus we might find ourselves utterly submerged beneath the chaos going on in our skulls.



Yet somehow most of us maintain a degree of control over our thought processes by concentrating on whatever needs to be concentrated on at
any given moment. Quite how we do this as effectively as we do is something of a mystery which some of the greatest minds alive today are
attempting to solve. What they broadly agree on is that, as a species, we have a remarkable propensity for ‘attentional control’. Here are a few
suggestions as to how to improve your concentration:
As with keeping your brain agile, your ability to concentrate is directly related to how rested, relaxed and well-fuelled you are. If you know that
you need your concentration levels to be at their best, make sure you are eating and drinking well, getting a good night’s sleep and are
incorporating some relaxation time into your schedule.
If you need a burst of concentration, a shot of caffeine might do the trick, though research suggests the more regularly you drink it, the less
effective it becomes.
Keep things fresh. It is easy to slip into dull routine but boredom is a sure-fire way to lose focus. It is far more likely you will slip up at work if
you’re doing the same process for the thousandth time while you stare out of the window, wishing you were somewhere more exciting. If you
feel yourself drifting off, take a moment to do or plan something that actually interests you – afterwards, you will likely find yourself better able to
focus on the immediate job in hand.
Don’t multitask excessively. It is said by some that this is never a problem for the male of the species as he has an innate inability to multitask.
But no-one is really at their best if they are doing seventy-three different things at once. If you really need to focus on an activity, give it your
undivided attention.
Put yourself in a place where there aren’t a multitude of distractions.
Train yourself to consciously concentrate when you need to. Tell yourself ‘I need to concentrate now’ (or something similar) if it helps you to
focus.
Work out when your best concentrating time is. Some of us are early birds, others are night owls and still others find they’re most productive
just after lunch. Work out when your optimum hours are and schedule in tasks that require the highest levels of concentration in these periods.
Another useful tactic is to do activities and play games that promote concentration. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Say the alphabet backwards. When you’ve done it once, do it again but quicker.
Recall all the countries you have ever visited.
List the birthdays of everyone in your family.
Remember everybody from your class at school.
Do your times tables. Not just the easy ones, but the ones that always trip you up.
Choose a subject of particular interest to you and test yourself on it. For instance, if you’re obsessed with The Beatles, try to name all of their
number one hits. Or if you’re fanatical about football, name the champions for each season as far back as you can remember.