It can be hard to stop your mind wandering even when you need it most, and it takes a lot of willpower to stop it.
A wandering mind is common and frustrating, making us unable to focus on the task or project at hand, reducing our productivity and increasing our stress levels.
The human brain is made up of billions of neurons that constantly communicate with each other.
For this reason, it is the mind's habit of thinking, worrying, questioning, answering, planning, and even if you sit down with the intention of calming your mind, the next moment you will find a train of thoughts starting to appear and your mind starts to wander between them.
A 2010 study by researchers from Harvard University revealed that 47% of adults from the study population did not focus on the task they were doing, meaning that half of the people suffer from the phenomenon of mind wandering.
This phenomenon leads to problems in daily life such as failure to carry out the task effectively, poor ability to focus on one task, fatigue and waste of time and energy.
Refocusing a wandering mind
Despite the frustration;
The problem is completely controllable;
Simple lifestyle adjustments and other easy strategies help us refocus a wandering mind.
In an article on Medium, writer Scott Young presents the tools he uses to keep his mind awake.
Get 'smart' breaks
There is nothing wrong with taking a break;
Taking your mind off wandering, at least temporarily, can solve the problem.
However, taking advantage of this break to check email or Facebook can make it difficult to get back to the current task.
And if you need a break, the best strategy is to take “smart” breaks and engage in activities that are unlikely to become a constant distraction, such as meditating for a while or just sitting with your eyes closed, or going for a 10-minute walk. Certain exercises such as stretching or push-ups, or having a glass of water.
The idea here is to make the break comfortable, not a distraction.
Wean yourself off your phone
Your brain has a limited ability to perform tasks that require attention.
Focusing on one thing means ignoring something else;
So it makes sense to have a system that discourages us from falling into unimportant activities.
The problem we face, however, is that when we really need to study, our minds find Tik Tok videos more interesting instead.
So, one way to reduce the effort involved in hard work - studying for example - is to reduce those tempting alternatives.
Such as creating workspaces or times when distractions are inaccessible.
Attractive alternatives, such as following social media over the phone (pixels), should be reduced.
Switch to another task
One of the tricks he personally likes to use when he stumbles on his current task, Young says, is to replace it with another task: figuring out why he stumbled.
Suppose you are writing an article, and for an hour you have been staring at a blank page and not writing a single letter.
Switching here means switching from writing the essay to writing down the reasons you think you stumbled.
This exercise can help you clarify the difficulty you are facing and find a solution.
You may realize, for example, that your problem is worrying that you will write poorly.
But you will realize that you can write anyway and then edit and edit later.
And you may realize that you are stuck looking for a good introduction, and here you can start writing the other parts of the essay instead, and you will find yourself not stuck at the end.
Set specific, short-term, achievable goals
Edwin Locke is an American psychologist who pioneered the study of goal setting.
His research found that specific and difficult goals lead to higher performance, bearing in mind that goals are useful only if they are accepted, and we should not set unrealistic and unattainable goals.
So, before undertaking any work that needs focus, it is best to clearly define what you want to achieve.
Setting a moderately challenging goal that you believe you can achieve will help focus your mind greatly.
Interruption-free environment
How do you stay focused when you're constantly getting emails that you need to look at or when your little one walks into your home office every half hour to ask you a quick question?
The key to improving focus is to prepare your environment before you start working. Co-workers or kids at home can respect the idea of a closed door if they know it means you're doing deep work that needs your full focus.
The key to improving focus is to configure your environment before you start working (pixels)
Resist your urge to give up
A key thing to realize is that almost everyone may want to give up once they get started on serious work that needs focus.
Instead of actually giving up, make a rule for yourself like, "I can take a break whenever I'm done with work."
Perhaps the idea of setting the timer for 20 minutes—and letting yourself take a break afterward—will help keep you at work long enough.
And committing to work for at least 20 minutes is much easier than committing to work for 3 hours in a row.
power nap
Lack of sleep deteriorates our mental performance, and while there's nothing to make up for in a lack of sleep at night, being able to take a daytime nap can help.
With the need to avoid entering into the stages of deep sleep during this nap because it will lead to fatigue later.
About 20 minutes is a good amount of time for a reasonable nap.
Taking daytime naps may improve mental performance throughout the day (Getty Images)
Write your thoughts down on paper
One way to deal with limited working memory is to dump what you're doing on paper.
And writing allows you to get your thoughts outside so you can see new connections.
Getting in the habit of writing down your thoughts regularly can be a great problem-solving tool.
Don't play with yourself the game of concentration
Don't force yourself to focus because that will be counterproductive, and trying to suppress an idea is always counterproductive.
And when we try to do a task, and we notice our mind wandering here and there, we tell ourselves, “I need to stop daydreaming and get to work,” this makes it more difficult to focus.
The solution here lies in the practice of meditation, according to a 2015 study by US researchers.