3 Methods to Improve Your Concentration

When someone in their life has achieved something that is extraordinary that was because they had a 100 % concentration, 100 % focus, and 0 % distraction.

For example IIT topper Sarvesh Mehtani "All India Rank 1" IIT - JEE Advance 2017 had a full-time 2 years focus and concentration and never used any of the social media sites.

In this article, we see what are such methods are used to increase 100 % Concentration, 100 % focus, and 0% distraction.

1. FIRST MOMENTUM THEN PRODUCTIVITY

We read lots of books, see videos, ask about others' experiences to know how to do more work in less time.

In short, we want to be more productive, more efficient but this concept says that we need to only think about efficiency when we have momentum.

For Example:

There are two situations. Situation no 1: You are sitting and you are unable to do work or study thinking to watch one more YouTube or a Facebook video lasting 5 minutes. These 5 minutes turn out to be hours and we start to waste our time.

Situation no 2: This situation comes when we are sitting all day working and at the end of the day we realize all our day is over. Also, a thought comes to my mind what I had planned for today was not achieved.

The PRINCIPAL says in a situation no 1 when we are not in a mood to do work or study then we need to construct momentum first. In situation no 2 we need to increase our efficiency.

What if many of us stay in a situation no 1 so how to construct momentum?

There is a Japanese technique known as Kaizen which says to cut down your work into a very small piece of particles that you would blush.

For example, if you are not interested in studying for now you need to divide this into small parts.

Step No 1: I would at least walk to my study table and only sit on that chair. 

Step No 2: Now I need to clean my study table. 

Step No 3: Now I should only open the book that wanted to read. 

Step No 4: Now I would only read one line, a paragraph, or only a single topic for today. 

Step No 5: I should only read for 5 to 10 minutes and I am done for the day.

Some would say in this way how would be one able to become a topper or get good score in exams. But remember before this you were about to waste that entire time doing nothing. With the help of the above technique, we came to an active mode. 

If in this situation if we would think "Today I would like to complete the entire syllabus" then we won't even be able to come in an active mode as our mind also know that this thing won't happen as it looked impossible.

 

2. RELEASE TENSION, ATTRACT TENSION AND ENTER THE STATE OF "FLOW"

In many educational videos, we have always thought to decide a goal, decide how much work you need to do at what time. If you won't decide it then it would be hard to achieve anything.

While some say to do work and not to worry about success, which means to decide the time to which you would work, not to worry or take tension.

It's hard to believe or choose any one advice from the above two pieces of advice, but both pieces of advice are correct.

To understand both the right advice one needs to understand the "FLOW STATE".

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book "flow" says to achieve a perfect 100 % concentration we need to enter a flow state.

Flow state consists of Challenges on Y-axis (difficulty level), and on X-axis there are skills that represent our capability.

The top first state on Y-axis is hard as compared to our skills which are a tough task to do and we go in a state of anxiety, depression and we are not able to enter the flow state.

At X-axis right bottom corner such situations come when we have a lot of skills and comparatively we are working on easy work. This is a situation called Boredom and also in this situation, we are not able to go in the flow state.

But when we allow ourselves more difficult tasks as compared to our skills, then we enter into the flow state. This is the only state when we can achieve 100 % concentration.

The Bottom line is: When we have to enter the flow state we need to release the tension and need to attract the tension.

For Example: If our exams are near and we are not able to focus because our stress level is more than to come in an action mode we need to do some self-talking.

We need to talk about things like "things that will happen, will happen", "what have others achieved even after being toppers".

Some other situations can be we have a lot of time for our exams and still; we are not in action mode. In this situation, we need to think in this way if I don't study my dreams will remain dreams. There would come such time when I would be an unsuccessful person and I would be aged and I would have to regret then. This is how we need to talk to ourselves to make us happen in action mode.

 

3. DEEP WORK - The only solution of getting things done

This strategy says that we can be stable in a "flow state" only when we are able to do deep work i.e. 100 % away from distraction. 

Cal Newport says that we need to completely stay away from social media and also he knew after his saying people won't listen to him. So he has given 4 methods in his book "DEEP WORK"

METHOD 1: Monastic approach

In this method, one needs to stay like a monk until you stay away from the desire till then when you do not receive your goal. This desire can be social media or friends and using this technique many people have achieved their goals.

The author of the book "J.K. Rowling" in the year 2017 was writing her final book on Harry Potter, she went to a hotel away from her family and friends. She says barking dogs, children's noise, television, indoor and outdoor noise was disturbing her a lot.

METHOD 2: Bimodal approach

In any approach when we are trying to do some high productive work, then we go to an isolated place, and we get away from the distractions for the time. On that work, after spending time we come back to our normal life.

Robert Kiyosaki when wrote his famous book "Rich dad, Poor dad" used this technique which made him Billionaire.

We too can advantage of this technique by visiting a library or at such a place where no one visits, no noise, and our phone is off.

METHOD 3: Rhythmic approach

This method creates time blocks for example in this duration we would only focus and deep work, no cell phone, no friends, etc.

Then immediately after 1 hour will spend time enjoying and again repeat the cycle for 1 hour of deep work.

We can adjust these time slots as per our comfort zones to make them more effective.

METHOD 4: Journalistic approach

Such people who do jobs and won't have time to get into deep work can use this technique. Such people when getting the free time should turn off their all distractions and get into a highly intense focus mode and can create more such time slots in a day.