Increase Your Focus with This Simple Habit
Your attention is inconsistent.
In a matter of seconds, it can move from one task to another. It can move lead you away from something important to something distracting, to the hundreds of other tasks and thoughts that your mind can attach itself to. And when you mindlessly allow this to happen too often, you lose focus.
Fortunately, the very key to getting it back lies within this fault.
Distraction is inevitable.
You cannot choose to never be distracted.
You can clean your room as much as you want, and put your phone on soundless as often as you want, but as long as your mind is active, it will always find something to distract itself with. All it takes is a noise, a sudden wave of hunger, or an embarrassing memory from the week before, for you to be distracted. These distractors are unavoidable — especially today, when digital and environmental noise is perpetual.
Thus, it is natural and inevitable to be distracted.
And although removing distractors from your environment is a crucial part of becoming more focused, it is not the sturdiest solution to the problem.
Focus is beyond your control.
Similarly, you cannot choose to always be focused.
Being the counterpart of distraction, focus is also at the mercy of internal and external conditions. Distractions, mental or physical, steal your focus, whereas things like quiet, order, and inner peace nourish your focus. Yes, a state of focus is the ultimate goal (as opposed to a state of distraction), but to get there, you cannot rely on means beyond your control.
Instead, it must be attained through means that are within your control.
Therefore, the solution is not focus in itself, but something that trains and increases your mind’s ability and propensity to focus (and remain focused).
Refocusing is within your control.
The key to increased focus is refocusing.
This is the act of noticing a distractor — internal or external — and moving your attention back toward the task at hand. Whereas focus is at the whim of distractions, refocusing is under your command. In psychology, the act is sometimes called selective attention, because while you cannot choose whether or not you will be distracted or where your focus will go naturally, you can selectively choose what thing or task you give your attention to.
You cannot control your circumstances, but you can control your response.
Of course, this is not taking into account certain psychological conditions that make it next to impossible to use refocus all the time. I am aware that some of my fellow neurodivergent individuals struggle immensely with reclaiming their focus once it is lost. Keep in mind, therefore, that refocusing is a tool to be used when it is possible — and I speak for the majority when I say that this is usually the case.
In other words, refocusing requires these responses:
- Step 1: Notice the distraction (ex. noise, notification, stressful thought)
- Step 2: Carefully move your attention back to the task at hand
- Step 3: Let go of any distraction that steals your attention meanwhile. Do not suppress any of the thoughts or feelings that arise (that way, you will just be distracting yourself from your distraction), but let your mind wander as it naturally will, and refocus once that focus is elsewhere.
Just like how you can attain a state of distraction by selectively distracting yourself, you can attain focus by selectively attending to the tasks at hand.
It is simple: Notice how your focus latches onto a distraction, and refocus.
Increase your focus regardless of your situation.
