It takes half a second to distract the mind from the task at hand and about 20 minutes to get back into a “flow” state.

Here are 10 more simple tips that you can try to sharpen your ability to focus in just 3 days:

11. Empty your mind. Mental chatter is one of the main factors that impede our focus. Worries, strong emotions or tasks that you do not want to forget take up a lot of your working memory and tire your mind. This is why before getting to an important task that requires your full attention, take a piece of paper or open a text file on your computer and write down any task repeated thought, worry, or interesting idea that is running through your mind. This 5-minute “thought dumping” exercise will calm down your mental chatter and noticeably improve your concentration and productivity.

12. Conquer procrastination. Sometimes all the outside distractions and interruptions make it impossible to stay focused on the task at hand. But sometimes we just do not feel like concentrating and deliberately postpone an unpleasant task for later. Whenever you catch yourself procrastinating ask yourself, “Do I want to be done with this task so I will not have to worry about it in the future?” It is easy to tell yourself stories about how much more motivated you will feel tomorrow. But the truth is that delaying something that needs to be done does not make it go away. If anything it tires your mind and provokes a sense of guilt.

13. Make it anti-boring. It is amazing how long it takes to complete a task that you do not want to do in the first place. Motivating yourself into working on something that you consider boring or tiresome for an hour is easy. Motivating yourself to work on a boring task the whole day makes you qualify for the leading role in the new “Mission impossible” sequel.

Whenever, you have to work on something that you already do not enjoy doing, make sure that you introduce some fun into your schedule. Vary different activities. Do not work on the same task for more than two hours. Reward yourself by doing something that you enjoy in between your focus sessions (make yourself a yummy sandwich, order a big Caramel Frappuccino, listen to your favorite song three times in a row, dance in the corridor or plan your friend’s Birthday Party).

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When we watch our favorite Football team play, read a thrilling book, listen to an interesting person talk or do something that we enjoy, we do not have to force ourselves to pay attention to the task. We can effortlessly maintain 100% focus over a long period of time. But there are other times when no matter how hard we try, we just cannot seem to keep it together.

I, for instance, regularly forget my cell phone at home (which really upsets my friends and family members). But I am sure I am not the only one guilty of day-dreaming and mind-wandering.

I am going to take a guess that you too have been in a situation when a person was talking to you while your thoughts were wandering somewhere else. Or when you really needed to learn new material, and yet you were reading the words without really understanding the main idea. Or when you planned on starting a new workout routine, but could not make yourself stay committed to your goal.

All these experiences have one thing in common – lack of focus.

Many people believe that poor concentration is an almost irresolvable problem. I can tell you from my own experience that it isn’t. In fact, there are many great little tips and exercises that you can do to noticeably improve your focus and expand your attention span in just 3 days.

Here are the first 10 (10 more are coming in the next post. I did not write them all together for one simple reason – it would be really hard to read and memorize all 20 suggestions at once):

1. Identify your objective. The concept of focus put simply is about not losing the thread of what you are trying to do. Usually if you do not have a clear objective before you start working on a certain task, half of  your time and effort will be simply wasted. Therefore, before beginning anything, ask yourself “What is my objective for doing it?” It does not matter if you are working on a project, making pancakes, talking to a friend or trimming the lawn. Some of your actions should be directed to achieve a concrete goal. When you define clearly what it is that you want to accomplish, you cut your chances of getting distracted by half.

2. Concentrate on one task at a time. When we have ten + tasks on our to-do list, multitasking seems like the only logical solution to get them all done. We multitask, because we believe that it boosts our efficiency and productivity. However, true productivity is not about how many things you can do at once. It is about how many tasks you complete. If you want to get more done a lot faster and with fewer errors, focus your attention on just one task at a time.

3. Choose important over urgent. Not all of the important tasks are urgent. Quite the opposite, all long-term goals that have the biggest positive impact on our life are way ahead in the future. Similar, most tasks that seem highly urgent will not matter in a month. Make sure that you do not let yourself be distracted by apparent priorities and keep your focus on tasks that are truly important for your career, personal life, health and spiritual growth. Everything else can wait!

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Script: 5 minutes of your life.

You are sitting at your desk trying to concentrate on your project.

“I really need to get it done by the end of the day… Let’s see… What are the numbers for the last month?… Hold on. Is that a new email? It might be from Terry.”

You open the email box…
“No that’s just spam. Why would I want to buy a Rolex watch?! … Where was I? Numbers for the last month… God, who is writing to me on Facebook? I’ll just say I’m busy… Finally!… Numbers for the last month should be right here… Great!”

Janice from her desk: “Oh my God! Look at that! Hold on! I’ll send it to you!”

You accepting an image file… waiting for it to download… opening it. It is a picture of a KITTEN!

You to Janice, “It’s cute!” while thinking, “Why in the world would she send me a picture of a cat?! I really don’t have time for this! Where was I? Right… Numbers for the past month…”

Distractions can be very annoying, especially when you are trying to get some work done. They are like thousands of midges swarming around you and following you everywhere you go, making it impossible for you to focus on important tasks.

Just by eliminating those daily distractions alone you will instantly improve your focus, double your productivity and avoid unnecessary stress.

Here is how to do it:

1. Block out the noise. Our brain actually starts to deal with distractions the day we are born. A large portion of the incoming information is blocked to prevent us from feeling overwhelmed. The two main senses that we rely on the most are vision and hearing.

The results of much psychological research show us that we mainly get distracted by visual stimuli as well as unwanted acoustic information. The solution to the distraction problem is genial, because it is so simple – get ear plugs or put on a pair of headphones without listening to any music. When you block one of the senses, the other senses become heightened. But it also helps to improve your focus.

2. Avoid visual stimulation. It has been shown that we only block out about 20% of what comes in through our eyes. This is why we need to keep all visual distractions to a minimum. Most of us do not even notice that our eyes are repeatedly turning to email pop-ups, flashing banners, clutter around our desk, tens of icons on our desktop or the person sitting in front of us.

Therefore, turn off your IM, Twitter, Facebook, email notifications. Remove all the clutter from your desk and your desktop. If you work in an open-plan office, find a spot where you will not be directly facing someone. At home just close the door (lock it if you can) and inform your family members that you will be busy working for about an hour.

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