Concentrating and Focusing

Swati came to my office recently and spoke about her inability to focus and concentrate when she’s up against a deadline. The harder she tried to concentrate the more it eluded her and her mind kept wandering till the time was up and she did not have much to show for her effort. All of us have been troubled with this inability to get into the zone of productivity and underperformed. Swati asked me if I could suggest some techniques which would enable her to switch on her ability to concentrate when she needed to work.

Understand the reason

Ask yourself some simple questions such as why you are unable to complete the task. Is it because you don’t find the task interesting at all? Or is it that you are scared you can’t do better than your friends? Or is it that the pressure to perform is too high? Conduct this dialogue in the language closest to your heart and see what happens. Once you have an idea as to why you are having trouble you could seek assistance to start addressing the root of the problem.

Remove distractions

Concentration is defined as the ability to focus all of one’s attention on the given task. So naturally we can assume that if our attention is divided then we cannot focus. Those pings on WhatsApp, Facebook and email are subtle but insidious ways that reduce our ability to concentrate.

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