4 Reasons You Can't Concentrate and 6 Practical Ways to Improve Focus

Imagine what you could achieve if you had razor-sharp focus and intense concentration! If you are a student, you would probably get straight As, and if you work, you would be an employee extraordinaire. Success would be guaranteed!

Unfortunately, we've all had to deal with a lack of focus and difficulty concentrating. There is so much stimulation in our internal and external environment that vies for our attention and creates trouble focusing.

When you have a diminished ability to focus on something, you are having difficulty concentrating. This difficulty extends into your daily life because your inability to focus hampers you from learning new things, performing your tasks, and achieving your goals.

It's easy to be frustrated when you can't concentrate. You struggle when you cannot focus because you cannot think well nor plan well. You may even be unable to make good decisions. These are important factors that affect your daily life.

To learn how to improve your concentration and sharpen your focus, you need to identify the reasons why you have difficulty concentrating.

The most common culprit for the inability to focus is the presence of too many distractions. Various physical stimuli compete for your attention and prevent you from focusing on the task at hand. Today's digital platforms constantly bombard your brain with visual and audio stimulation. If your mobile phone is very accessible to you, chances are, even if on silent mode, you will keep checking it. It is also important to remember that some distractions are internal. Your mind can be racing with many different thoughts, creating mental clutter. There's stress, worry, anxiety, and so on.

Another reason why you can't focus is procrastination. Procrastination is the willful and unnecessary postponement of making decisions or doing certain tasks. Even when you are aware that something needs to be done, you choose not to act on it, which then leads to free-floating anxiety knowing that something is yet to be accomplished. This is usually a response to overwhelming tasks or decisions. It may also be due to a poor setup of your surroundings and a lack of discipline where you cannot delay gratification. Check out this link to know more about how to stop procrastinating.

You could also be physically or mentally tired. When you experience fatigue, both physical and mental exhaustion, you can have trouble focusing. It is one thing when you are physically tired – sleepless, hungry, weak, or sick – but it's another thing when you are mentally tired – too much to think about, depressed, anxious, and so on. This kind of tiredness makes it very difficult to concentrate. Studies show that when mental fatigue persists, it can lead to a full-blown burnout, physical ailments, and stress-related illnesses.

The fourth reason could be due to a lack of motivation. When you find yourself disengaged with the things you need to finish, it becomes difficult to concentrate. You cannot focus when you don't value the reward you get from performing the task. This is common when the main motivation is extrinsic. Furthermore, not all people have the same level of achievement motivation. Some people may be inherently more driven and motivated than others, which explains why they focus more on pursuing their goals.