Nine Proven Tips on
Staying Focused Every Day

Juggling multiple tasks, managing different personas for different people, switching between numerous browsing tabs — it's incredibly easy to lose our focus one way or another. It is certainly not uncommon to lose focus in a world full of distractions — that's another reason why we might be so tired all the time. Staying focused can be exhausting. Have you been feeling stuck because you don't know how to improve your focus and concentration? If that is why you have been out of focus, then worry no more. This article includes tips for staying focused at work, on your goals, and on daily activities through simple techniques.

To get to the solution to any problem, it is crucial to identify the reason for its cause. Once we get to the root cause, we are already halfway there. Let's look at some of the reasons that make staying focused difficult.

Sleep is the miracle remedy for most problems. Our body is just like any machine — it is designed to work for a certain length of time. And after that time, it needs to be refueled. Without fuel, we can't expect it to work at its full potential. Humans need sleep to recharge themselves for the next day. When we do not get enough sleep, we feel lethargic, which inhibits reaching our prime concentration levels. Sleep deprivation is a major hurdle to staying focused.

Our fast-paced society forces us to multitask amidst countless distractions. That is not only difficult but also borderline unrealistic as every individual has a different attention span. When we work beyond our attention span, it inhibits staying focused at work.

If you are curious about your attention span, you can take this fun Attention Span Test.

Looking for alternatives to poor planning doesn't compensate for it. Thoughts like "I'll work extra hours," "I'll stay up late," "I'll think of something" are absolute focus killers. When we don't plan our day, we get overwhelmed with the sudden decisions we have to make, leaving us exhausted to focus on the actual tasks we need to complete.

We may think that working out is unnecessary for a young adult who is supposedly healthy. According to research, physical activity and sleep duration have significant effects on cognitive function in young adults.

Practicing how to stay focused is like building muscle. The more you practice, the more it gets strengthened. But you have to start small; lift the lightest weights first before moving on to the heavier ones. Be smart about using the following techniques to help strengthen your focus.

The following are some of the best ways to limit distractions when you want to be staying focused at work.

• Disable notifications. The more your phone goes off, the more likely you are to get distracted. Allow notifications only from apps that are absolutely necessary (like email) and disable all the rest (you can scroll through Instagram later). This technique limits a considerable chunk of external distractive triggers.
  
  
• Overwrite your distracting habits. This is just like installing a new program to replace the old one. If your distracting trigger is, let's say, daydreaming, it may cause you to deviate away from your work (distracting you from your work for hours). You can let go of this habit by adopting a healthy solution. For instance, whenever you notice yourself daydreaming, try meditating for 5 minutes to clear your head and save yourself from falling into the abyss of endless distraction.
  
  
• Visual decluttering. Visual clutter serves as a major distraction. When our surroundings are cluttered, our attention is diverted. Decluttering is a therapeutic way to improve focus and concentration. Declutter your place of work (office/room/desk) and witness yourself staying focused for a longer period of time.
  

We may experience a burst of productivity with caffeine intake, but it does more harm than good in the long run. Research concluded that caffeine has long-term adverse effects on cerebral functional activity in the brain and increases resting brain entropy. Another reason to reduce caffeine intake is because of its tendency to disrupt sleep regulation — and we have already established sleep deprivation as one of the major reasons you'll lose focus.

We tend to overlook planning when it comes to our daily lives even though it is one of the most efficient ways to stay focused. Planning is a visual representation of your day. It is unambiguous and saves you from decision fatigue. When you don't plan out your day, you are wastefully using your energy to make careless decisions. The best way to stay focused is to set aside a few minutes and mindfully decide which tasks are urgent, important, or less of a priority, and then you can prioritize accordingly.

The human brain is incapable of focusing for a long stretch of time. Francesco Cirillo realized this dilemma and introduced the Pomodoro technique. It is an interval-based time management technique that recommends people to take a short 5-minute break after 25 minutes of work. It refreshes our mind and stops it from wandering during work time. So, next time you are working, don't forget to treat yourself after every 25 minutes. It enables you to enjoy your work while staying focused.

Maintaining a balanced and healthy diet is an underrated facet of staying focused. There are specific diet plans that help in attention and concentration. According to researchers, the following food items are excellent add-ons for staying focused.

• Avocados
  
• Fish
  
• Blueberries
  
• Glucose
  
• Whole grains
  

Not getting enough sleep can become extremely detrimental overtime. It is one of the reasons for brain fog. A good way to start being mindful about sleep is to start tracking your sleep. Tracking your sleep habits will allow you to realize that days where you have trouble staying focused are mostly days you are sleep-deprived. Learn more about the practical ways to improve sleep and tips on how meditation can help you fall asleep faster and easier.

When we divide our attention between multiple tasks, we use our energy ineffectively. Multitasking leads to poor productivity and lack of focus because we are not prioritizing. Instead, we end up not being able to complete those tasks properly, leading to no outcome. Focus on one thing at a time to stay motivated to work. When we are motivated to work, our focus automatically gets better. Learn more about the tricks to stay constantly motivated and improve your focus and concentration.

Having come to the realization that doing the most difficult things first frees up lots of time, we tend to feel relaxed and composed. On the other hand, doing easy tasks first takes up so much of our time without finishing any significant work. By the end of the day, we have to rush ourselves to complete the piled-up work that was supposed to be done in calm to get the desired results. When we categorize our tasks based on difficulty and intensity, it helps us in staying focused and preventing inconsistencies.

A study done by Sousa et al. that looked at the influence of exercise and physical fitness status on attention concluded that the more physically active people were, the more enhanced concentration they had. Including exercise in your daily routine will prove to be a great way of staying focused on your goals.

Staying focused on a daily basis is a strenuous task. We live in a time full of distractions, making it hard when we're meant to be staying focused on our goals. Some of the most common reasons we lose focus are sleep deprivation, poor planning, lack of physical activity, and succumbing to distractions. This article explained some proven tips for staying focused. We need to be mindful of distractions and limit them accordingly, and maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle also helps with staying focused. Moreover, techniques like the Pomodoro technique, planning your schedule, and doing difficult and intensive tasks first are other great methods to adopt to stay focused at work.